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A Rose for Emily
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"A Rose for Emily"
Author
William Faulkner
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre(s)
Southern gothic
Published in
1930
"A Rose for Emily" is a short story by American author William Faulkner, first published in the April 30, 1930, issue of The Forum. The story takes place in Faulkner's fictional city, Jefferson, Mississippi, in the fictional southern county of Yoknapatawpha. It was Faulkner's first short story published in a national magazine.[1]
Contents
1 Title
2 Plot summary
3 Characters
4 Structure
5 Themes
6 Critical response
7 Adaptations
8 References
9 Bibliography
Title[edit]
Faulkner described the title "A Rose For Emily" as an allegorical title; this woman had undergone a great tragedy, and for this Faulkner pitied her. And as a salute, he handed her a rose.[2] The word rose in the title has multiple meanings to it. The rose may be seen as Homer, interpreting the rose as a dried rose. Homer's body could be the dried rose, such as one that is pressed between the pages of a book, kept in perfect condition as Emily did with Homer's body.[3] The "Rose" also represents secrecy. Roses have been portrayed in Greek legends as a gift of secrecy and of confidentiality, known as sub rosa, introducing that the "Rose" is a symbol of silence between the narrator and Miss Emily, the narrator keeps Emily's secrets until her death.
Plot summary[edit]
The story opens with a brief first-person account of the funeral of Emily Grierson, an elderly Southern woman whose funeral is the obligation of their small town. It then proceeds in a non-linear fashion to the narrator's recollections of Emily's archaic and increasingly strange behavior throughout the years. Emily is a member of a family of the antebellum Southern aristocracy. After the Civil War, the family falls into hard times. She and her father, the last two of the clan, continue to live as if in the past; Emily’s father refuses for her to marry. Her father dies when Emily is about the age of 30, which takes her by surprise. She refuses to give up his corpse, and the townspeople write it off as her grieving process. The townspeople pity Emily not only after her father's death but also during his life when he wouldn't let Emily marry.
After her father's death, the only person seen moving about Emily's home is Tobe- a black man, serving as Emily's butler, going in and out with a market basket. Although Emily did not have a strong relationship with her community, she did give art lessons to young children within her town. The townspeople even referred to her as Miss Emily as a sign of the respect that they had for her. With the acceptance of her father's death, Emily somewhat revives, even changing the style of her hair and becomes friendly with Homer Barron. He is a Northern laborer who comes to town shortly after Mr. Grierson’s death. The connection surprises some of the community while others are glad she is taking an interest; However, Homer claims that he is not a marrying man. Emily shortly buys arsenic from a druggist in town, presumably to kill rats, however, the townspeople are convinced that she will use it to poison herself. Emily’s distant cousins are called into town by the minister’s wife to supervise Miss Emily and Homer Barron. Homer leaves town for some time, reputedly to give Emily a chance to get rid of her cousins, and returns three days later after the cousins have left. After he is observed entering Miss Emily's home one evening, Homer is never seen again.
Despite these turnabouts in her social status, Emily continues to behave haughtily, as she had before her father died. Her reputation is such that the city council finds itself unable to confront her about a strong smell that has begun to emanate from the house. Instead, they decide to send men to her house under the cover of darkness to sprinkle lime around the house, after which the smell dissipates. The mayor of the town, Colonel Sartoris, made a gentleman's agreement to overlook her taxes as an act of charity, though it was done under a pretense of repayment towards her father to assuage Emily's pride after her father had died. Years later, when the next generation has come to power, Emily insists on this informal arrangement, flatly refusing that she owes any taxes; the council declines to press the issue. Emily has become a recluse: she is never seen outside of the house, and only rarely accepts people into it. The community comes to view her as a "hereditary obligation" on the town, who must be humored and tolerated.
The funeral is a large affair; Emily had become an institution, so her death sparks a great deal of curiosity about her reclusive nature and what remains of her house. After she is buried, a group of townsfolk enters her house to see what remains of her life there. The door to her upstairs bedroom is locked; some of the townsfolk break down the door to see what has been hidden for so long. Inside, among the possessions that Emily had bought for Homer, lies the decomposed corpse of Homer Barron on the bed; on the pillow beside him is the indentation of a head and a single strand of gray hair, indicating that Emily had slept with Homer's corpse.
Characters[edit]
Emily Grierson - The main character of the story. Emily's father kept her from seeing suitors and controlled her social life, essentially keeping her in isolation until his death, when she is 30 years old. Her struggle with loss and attachment is the impetus for the plot, driving her to kill Homer Barron, the man that is assumed to have married her. Because no man has ever been able to stay with her before, Emily poisons and kills Homer. She sees murder as the only way to keep Homer with her permanently, and she treats him as if he is her husband even after she kills him. This is shown by her keeping his clothes in the room, keeping his engraved wedding items on the dresser, and even sleeping with him, all acts that normal married couples do. Her act of murdering Homer also displays her obstinate nature. Emily deals in absolutes throughout the story. She refuses to pay her taxes because she didn’t have to pay them when her father was alive. She has her servant Tobe follow the same patterns, such as his grocery errands. She kills Homer to ensure that he will never leave her. By the end of the story, Emily’s story is seen as a tragedy rather than an atrocity because of what her character has gone through.
Homer Barron - Emily's romantic interest. He is later found dead and decomposed in Emily's bedroom after her funeral. He initially enters the story as a foreman for a road construction project occurring in the town. He is soon seen to be with Emily in her Sunday carriage rides, and it is soon expected for them to be married. Homer differs from the rest of the town because he is a Northerner. The story takes place in the South shortly after the Civil War, and while Homer is not necessarily unwelcome to the town, he does stand out. This, along with the fact that he is seemingly courting Emily, sets him apart from all of the other characters in the story. It is because he is an outlier that Emily becomes attracted to him. It is generally unknown if Homer reciprocates the romantic feelings Emily has for him. Recently the topic of whether or not Homer is homosexual has been discussed and whether or not it factors into the story.
The Narrator - An unnamed member(s) of the town who watched the events of Emily's life unfold in its entirety. The story is presented to the reader in a non-chronological order; this suggests that the story is being patched together by multiple people. Some parts of the story are repeated, such as Homer’s disappearance, the idea that Emily and Homer will get married, and Emily’s refusal to pay taxes, also indicating that the narrator is a voice for the town. Though the townspeople disapprove of most of Emily’s actions, such as refusing to pay her taxes and purchasing poison, nobody intervenes.
Colonel Sartoris - The former mayor who remitted Emily's taxes. While he is in the story very little, his decision to remit Emily’s taxes leads to her refusal to pay them ever again, contributing to her stubborn personality. The reason for Sartoris remitting her taxes is never given, only that he told Emily it was because her father loaned the money to the town.
Mr. Grierson - Emily's father, the patriarchal head of the Grierson family. His control over Emily's personal life prohibited her from romantic involvement. The reason for his refusal to let Emily court men is not explained in the story. It could be that he is overprotective because he loves Emily too much. It could be because he believes that there is not a man good enough to marry his daughter. It could be that he is set in his ways and does not want Emily to become distracted from her societal duties. Whatever the reason, Mr. Grierson shapes the person that Emily becomes. His decision to ban all men from her life drives her to kill the first man she is attracted to and can be with, Homer Barron, in order to keep him with her permanently.
The cousins - Emily's extended relatives from Alabama. They come to town during Emily's courting of Homer Barron to check on Emily's well-being. They are thought of as even more uptight and stuffy than Emily by the townspeople. They are called in to prevent Emily and Homer from marrying; however, they are later sent back home so that the two can be wed. There seems to be some type of dispute between Emily and the cousins, indicated by them living far away from Emily and the fact that they did not go to Emily’s father’s funeral.
Tobe - Emily's cook/gardener, who is also very likely her secret keeper. During the years of Emily's isolation, he provides no details of her life to the townspeople and promptly disappears directly following her death. He became old and stooped from all of his work while Emily grew large and immobile. This could suggest that he resented Emily, or at the very least disliked working for her, as he does not mourn her or stay for her funeral.
Structure[edit]
Faulkner tells this story in a series of flashbacks and stretches the story out over decades. It starts with the announcement of Emily’s death, an event that has the entire town talking. This leads the reader to assume that she was an important figure in the town. As Fassler says in his article “The Key,” “Clearly, this lady who died unmarried was of importance to everyone. And yet the town itself is eventually divided,”[4] and we see that division with the events depicted in between the announcement at the beginning and the revelation at the end are told out of order, making the reader analyze the story more closely than if it was told chronologically. Based on the townspeople’s thoughts of Emily displayed in this section, the reader discovers that the town was not dreading Emily’s death; on the other hand, it was somewhat welcomed. Emily stuck out from the rest of the town as a figure stuck in the past, desperately trying to cling to old traditions and ways of life. With her passing on, the town can finally be free of this remnant, being wholly set in the present. Had the story been told in a linear fashion, this understanding would have been lost, something Faulkner knew and incorporated into the story. By presenting the story in terms of present and past events, he could examine how they influence each other. In terms of mathematical precision, time moves on and what exists is only the present. In terms of the more subjective time, time moves on but memories can exist no matter how much time changes. Those memories stay unhindered. Through this Faulkner could analyze the depth at which Miss Emily could change as a character. If Faulkner presented the story in a linear fashion, the chances of the reader sympathizing with Emily would be far less. By telling the story out of order, the reader sees Emily as a tragic product of her environment rather than a twisted necrophiliac.
Themes[edit]
"A Rose for Emily" discusses many dark themes that characterized the Old South and Southern Gothic fiction.
The story explores themes of death and resistance to change; they reflect the decaying of the societal tenets of the South in the 1930s. Emily Grierson had been oppressed by her father for most of her life and hadn’t questioned it because that was her way of living. Likewise, the antiquated traditions of the south (often harmful, such as in the treatment of black people) had remained acceptable, as that was their way of living. Once her father had passed, Emily, in denial, refused to give his corpse up for burial—this shows her inability to functionally adapt to change. When the present mayor and aldermen insist Miss Emily pay the taxes which she had been exempted from, she refuses and continues to live in her house.[5] Miss Emily's stubborn insistence that she "pays no taxes in Jefferson" and her mistaking the new mayor for Colonel Sartoris brings into question whether her acts of resistance are a conscious act of defiance or a result of a decayed mental stability. The reader is only shown Emily from an external perspective, we can not ascertain whether she acts in a rational manner or not. The death of Homer, if interpreted as having been a murder, can be seen in the context of the North-South clash. Homer, notably a northerner, is not one for the tradition of marriage. In the framework that his death was not an accident, but a murder on the part of Emily, Homer's rejection of the marriage can be seen as the North's rejection of Southern tradition. The South ends its relations with the North in retaliation. Emily continuing to sleep next to Homer's body can be seen as the south holding on to an ideal that is no longer feasible.
Control and its repercussions is a persistent theme throughout the story. Emily's father was an intimidating and manipulative figure, keeping her from experiencing life in her own terms. She was never able to grow, learn, live her life, start a family, and marry the one she truly loved. Even after Emily's father died, his presence and impact on his daughter were still apparent. Discussing Emily and her father, the townspeople said "We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.".[6] Emily is portrayed as small and powerless, placed behind the overbearing frame of her father. She wears white, a symbol of innocence and purity. Emily falls victim to the ruling hand of her father and to her place in the society: she has to uphold the noblesse oblige to which she was born into.[5] In this way, her father's influence remains after he has passed. This control leads to Emily's isolation, both externally and internally imposed. Emily is alone, yet always being watched by the townspeople; she is both apart from and a part of the community.[7] Her position prevents her from ever finding happiness.
The power of death is a consistent theme throughout the story. Emily herself is portrayed as a "skeleton" that is both "small and spare" which is representative of the fact that she emanates death. When it comes to death itself, Emily is in denial and most of that feeling has to do with her loneliness. After her father dies, she keeps his corpse for three days and refuses to admit that he is dead. The reader also sees this with the corpse of Homer Barron, except she is the one who inflicts death upon him. She poisons him and keeps him locked away in her room; she did not want to lose the only other person she had ever loved, so she made his stay permanent. These examples show that the power of death triumphs over everything, including "poor Emily", herself.[8]
Due to this inevitability in the portrayal of death, A Rose for Emily is seen as a tale based on determinism, making the short story part of the naturalism literary movement. Here, a character's fate is already determined no matter how much the individual struggles to change it. There are impersonal forces of nature that prevent him or her from taking control. As the very universe itself appear indifferent, this character descends into an inevitable death and decay. The case of Emily is the same. She had a mental illness, an unavoidable fate, which her father must have sought to finally end by refusing to let Emily marry, which would have continued his line. No matter what she did, there was the implication that she would ultimately go mad. There was also the depiction of a cursed land due to slavery and the class structure based upon it and that no matter how the people clung to the glorious past and soldier on, there was a tarnished way of life that leads to an impending ruin. [9]
Critical response[edit]
Floyd C. Watkins wrote about the structure of "A Rose for Emily" in "Modern Language Notes". Watkins claims that this is Faulkner's best story and is among the best American writers of this time period. Faulkner had to carefully dissect his sections, bringing importance to every aspect of Miss Emily's life, but Watkins sees this as a "structural problem" but later goes on to rave about the symmetry of this short story. Watkins enjoys this story in its entirety, and is impressed by Faulkner's ordering, as building suspense was an important aspect in the response.[10]
This critical response by John Skinner explores the interpretations of Faulkner’s short story in detail while reviewing the importance of over-analyzing a piece of literary work. William Faulkner published this story in the 1930s, Skinner had published his critical response in 1985. More than 40 years have passed and people are still ignoring his claim; “A Rose for Emily” should not be interpreted any further. The characters and theme of this tale have been scrutinized by many. There have been numerous interpretations of what Miss Emily stands for; Skinner gives examples of scholars including S.W. M. Johnson “Emily represented a refusal to submit to, or even concede, to the inevitability of change”. Whereas William Going pictures Emily as a rose, “the treasured memory of the Confederate veterans”. The point of view according to Skinner is of immediate relevance to the story as the chief character, the narrator tells the chronology of the story. This narrator gives approximately “round figures” for the important events of the accounts. Yet the exact chronology is of little relevance to the overall importance of the story itself. John Skinner states that Faulkner should be taken literally, appreciate his formal subtlety in his works.[11]
Alice Petry introduces a different type of critical response that is not focused on the usual subjects. Rather, she focuses on the complex and provocative language. For example, Hall discusses how the sentence, "Thus she passed from generation to generation-dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil and perverse" has been considered misleading, but is in fact strategically placed to provide foreshadowing and unification of plot. The five descriptive words used in the sentence each correspond to one of the five parts in the order they are seen. For example, the adjective "inescapable" corresponds to Part II, to the incident of the strange smell coming from Miss Emily's home. Faulkner's placement of these adjectives at the end of Part IV serves as an important unifying sentence that connects all five parts to each other.[12]
Jim Barloon of the University of St. Thomas wrote about an idea introduced to him by his students, that Homer was homosexual, possibly providing another reason for his murder. He proposes that Emily did not kill Homer because of her own insecurities, but also because he did not reciprocate her romantic feelings. Thus, she could have murdered him out of affection as well as spite. Whether or not this theory is correct, it proves that the story is still being closely analyzed decades after it was written. As Barloon states in his article, “Positing that Homer Barron is gay not only raises a new set of questions but transforms [the story], or at least our perspective of it.”[13]
The psychology of Emily Grierson has been analyzed countless times, with many people reaching the conclusion that she was mentally ill, and from that point, the reasons why. Though many different diagnoses have been made, the most common can be summarized as follows by Nicole Smith in her psychological analysis of the character: “It is reasonable to propose that Miss Emily developed [schizophrenia] as a response to the demanding conditions in which she was living as a Southern woman from an aristocratic family.”[14] This has been thought to represent just how unbearable life in the old South could be, not only for a person similar to Emily but to the people around them as well. A contributing factor to this point would change. The story is an allegory for the change that the South dealt with after the Civil War, with Emily representing the resistance of that change. This is shown in the story through Emily’s conflicts with the town and her refusal of cooperation. Tuncay Tezcan in his analysis of the story states: “It represents the numerous conflicts in the main character's life, illustrating the effect of social change on the individual.”[15]
There has been much discussion over the title of the story. Why have a rose for Emily? At that time, giving a rose to a woman was common if they had been through a great tragedy. Emily’s tragedy is her environment, changing quickly and with volatility, causing her to cling to the past in hopes of stopping the change from occurring. This has a deep impact on her mental state, driving her to extreme acts such as murdering Homer and then sleeping with his corpse for years. The town does nothing to stop these events, merely entertain the idea. Terry Heller writes in his analysis of the story that the town, “[chose] to deal with an idea of Emily, rather than with Emily herself; they are different in that they have different ideas of her and, therefore, approach her… differently.”[16] With nobody willing to help her, Emily died a broken person, and for that Faulkner gave her a rose, in sympathy of her ending.
Adaptations[edit]
A Rose for Emily—PBS adaptation with Anjelica Huston.
My Chemical Romance's song "To The End" from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2005) loosely retells the story of Homer and Miss Emily.
The Zombies' song "A Rose for Emily" retells the story, and is about a strong theme present in the story: Miss Emily living and dying alone, unloved.[17]
Andrea Camilleri has a similar theme in his novel The Scent of the Night influencing his character Detective Salvo Montalbano.
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "WFotW ~ "A Rose for Emily": COMMENTARY & RESOURCES". www.mcsr.olemiss.edu. Archived from the original on 2017-04-20. Retrieved 2017-04-19.
Jump up ^ Outón, Cristina Blanco (1999). Introducción a la narrative breve de William Faulkner (in Spanish). ISBN 9788481217469.
Jump up ^ Getty, Laura (Summer 2005). "Faulkner's A ROSE FOR EMILY" (PDF). The Explicator. 63: 230–234.
Jump up ^ https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/the-key-to-writing-a-mystery-is-asking-the-perfect-question/515799/
^ Jump up to: a b "Crytical Analysis Essay on "A Rose for Emily"". AnalysisEssay.org. 2012-12-22. Retrieved 2017-04-19.
Jump up ^ Kennedy, X.J. (2016). Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. p. 32.
Jump up ^ "A Rose for Emily Themes - eNotes.com". eNotes. Retrieved 2016-10-28.
Jump up ^ Kim, Ji-won (2011). "Narrator as Collective 'We':The Narrative Structure of "A Rose for Emily"". English Language and Literature Teaching.
Jump up ^ Wilder, Laura (2012). Rhetorical Strategies and Genre Conventions in Literary Studies: Teaching and Writing in the Disciplines. SIU Press. p. 146. ISBN 9780809330942.
Jump up ^ Watkins, Floyd C. "Structure of "A Rose for Emily"." Modern Language Notes 7th ser. 69 (1954): 508-10. JSTOR. Web. 5 Apr. 2017.
Jump up ^ Skinner, John (Winter 1985). ""A Rose for Emily": Against Interpretation."". The Journal of Narrative Technique. 15.1: 42–51.
Jump up ^ Petry, Alice (Spring 1986). "Faulkner's A ROSE FOR EMILY". Explicator. 44: 52–54.
Jump up ^ http://www.semo.edu/cfs/teaching/10186.html
Jump up ^ http://www.articlemyriad.com/psychological-character-analysis-rose-emily/[full citation needed]
Jump up ^ Tezcan, Tuncay (2014). "A Stylistic Analysis of a Rose for Emily by William Faulkner and its Turkish Translation". Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 158: 364–9. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.101.
Jump up ^ http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/essays/rose.html[full citation needed]
Jump up ^ Petridis, Alexis (17 April 2017). "The story behind A Rose for Emily – and why it's perfect for S-Town". The Guardian.
Bibliography[edit]
Morton, Clay (2005). "'A Rose for Emily': Oral Plot, Typographic Story", Storytelling: A Critical Journal of Popular Narrative 5.1.
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Sartoris / Flags in the Dust (1929 / 1973)
The Sound and the Fury (1929)
As I Lay Dying (1930)
Sanctuary (1931)
Light in August (1932)
Pylon (1935)
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"Mountain Victory" (1932)
"Barn Burning" (1939)
"The Tall Men" (1941)
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Today We Live (1933)
Submarine Patrol (1938)
To Have and Have Not (1944)
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Ocean's Twelve
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Ocean's Twelve
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Steven Soderbergh
Produced by
Jerry Weintraub
Written by
George Nolfi
Starring
George Clooney
Brad Pitt
Matt Damon
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Andy García
Don Cheadle
Bernie Mac
Julia Roberts
Music by
David Holmes
Cinematography
Peter Andrews
Edited by
Stephen Mirrione
Production
company
Village Roadshow Pictures
Jerry Weintraub Productions
Section Eight Productions
Distributed by
Warner Bros.
Release date
December 10, 2004 (2004-12-10)
Running time
125 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$110 million[1]
Box office
$363 million[1]
Ocean's Twelve is a 2004 American comedy heist film, the first sequel to 2001's Ocean's Eleven. Like its predecessor, which was a remake of the 1960 heist film Ocean's 11, the film was directed by Steven Soderbergh and used an ensemble cast. The film stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andy García, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, and Bernie Mac. It was released in the United States on December 10, 2004. The film received mixed reviews from critics but was a financial success, grossing $363 million and becoming the tenth highest-grossing film of 2004. A third film, Ocean's Thirteen, was released on June 8, 2007, in the United States—thus forming The Ocean's Trilogy.
Contents
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception
5 Soundtrack
6 References
7 External links
Plot[edit]
Terry Benedict locates all eleven members of Danny Ocean's gang, demanding they return the $160 million they stole from his casinos plus $38 million interest. Short by half, the group schemes to stage another heist in Europe to avoid problems with United States authorities. They are tipped off by an informant named Matsui about the location of the first stock certificate ever. After a complex series of schemes they find the document has already been stolen by "The Night Fox", another master thief. Europol Detective Isabel Lahiri is called in to investigate the theft and realizes that she gave Rusty the idea of how to solve a complication of the heist with a description of a similar burglary earlier during their relationship. Surprising the group at their accommodation, she warns them they cannot beat the Night Fox or his mentor, the mysterious master-thief "LeMarc",[2] both of whom excel in practicing the "long-con". She has been hunting both for years.
Danny and his gang discover the Night Fox is François Toulour, a wealthy baron who has a mansion on Lake Como. Toulour invites Danny to his mansion and reveals that he had hired Matsui to inform the gang about the certificate in order to arrange the meeting with Danny. Toulour is upset that LeMarc did not describe him as the best thief in the world, and challenges Danny to steal the Fabergé Imperial Coronation Egg. If Danny and his gang win, Toulour will pay off the debt to Benedict.
Danny and his gang begin to plan an elaborate heist to swap the egg for a holographic recreation, but the engineer hired by the group accidentally tips off Lahiri to their presence, and she captures most of the gang on their first attempt. Linus comes up with a second plan involving Danny's wife, Tess, posing as a pregnant Julia Roberts in order to get close to the Egg and swap it. They are foiled by Lahiri and a coincidentally present Bruce Willis, and the rest of the group are captured. Lahiri is told that they are to be extradited to the United States. Linus is chosen first to be interrogated by the FBI agent assigned to collect them. It turns out that she is his mother, who organizes the release of the whole gang. She points out to Lahiri that Lahiri will face only retribution for forging a signature on a Europol form to obtain the necessary arrest warrants for Ocean's gang.
Some time later, Danny and Tess return to Toulour's estate where he reveals his glee at their failure. Toulour claims to have stolen the egg at night using his agility and dancing skills to evade the heavy security. Toulour's celebration is short-lived when Danny reveals that his group stole the egg while it was in transit to the museum and Toulour realizes they were tipped off by LeMarc. A flashback reveals that Danny and Rusty had met LeMarc earlier when he revealed his confidence trick intended to humiliate Toulour, and at the same time, to restore to himself the Fabergé egg that he had stolen years ago and had returned following his wife's wishes. Toulour is forced to admit Danny won the bet and gives him the money for the debt. They pay back Benedict and promise not to perform any more heists in his casinos—even as Toulour himself is in the background spying on Benedict. Rusty takes Lahiri to a safe house that he claims has been lent to him by LeMarc. She is reunited with her father, who is revealed to be the man she has been pursuing for years: LeMarc.
Cast[edit]
George Clooney as Danny Ocean
Bernie Mac as Frank Catton
Brad Pitt as Rusty Ryan
Matt Damon as Linus Caldwell
Elliott Gould as Reuben Tishkoff
Casey Affleck as Virgil Malloy
Scott Caan as Turk Malloy
Eddie Jemison as Livingston Dell
Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr
Shaobo Qin as "The Amazing" Yen
Carl Reiner as Saul Bloom
Julia Roberts as Tess Ocean
Catherine Zeta-Jones as Isabel Lahiri
Vincent Cassel as Baron François Toulour/The Night Fox
Andy García as Terry Benedict
Eddie Izzard as Roman Nagel
Jeroen Krabbé as Van der Woude
Cherry Jones as Molly Star/Mrs. Caldwell
Robbie Coltrane as Matsui
Production[edit]
The script was reworked when Julia Roberts learned she was pregnant with twins.[3]
The film was shot in 2004 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, St. Petersburg, Florida and in Las Vegas at the Bellagio Hotel. Filming also took place in Chicago, Amsterdam, Paris, Monte Carlo, Lake Como (at George Clooney's Villa in Laglio), Rome and Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily. The production spent three weeks in the Netherlands; scenes were filmed in the KattenKabinet, the Hotel Pulitzer, Haarlem railway station, and The Hague City Hall. In Paris, scenes were shot at the Sorbonne, the Australian Embassy, and the Gare du Nord. Afterwards, filming moved to Italy. The Casino Monte Carlo and the Villa Erba also served as filming locations.[4]
Reception[edit]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 55% based on 181 reviews, and an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "While some have found the latest star-studded heist flick to be a fun, glossy star vehicle, others declare it's lazy, self-satisfied and illogical."[5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[6] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.
The film was criticized for its slow start, its complex plot and a final twist that negated much of the preceding action. The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter said that "it all ends on one of those infuriatingly sloppy notes where, having dramatized narrative events WXYZ for us, which we have taken on good faith, it suddenly and arbitrarily delivers narrative events STUV, which completely invalidate events WXYZ."[7] Newsweek said that "while it looks like the cast is having a blast and a half, the studied hipness can get so pleased with itself it borders on the smug."[8] Claudia Puig with USA Today remarked, "At the rate things are going, all of Hollywood will put in about a day's work on Ocean's Seventeen."[9] More positively, Roger Ebert concluded his review this way: "The movie is all about behavior, dialogue, star power and wiseass in-jokes. I really sort of liked it."[10] Ocean's Twelve was rated by Entertainment Weekly as one of "The 25 Worst Sequels Ever Made".[11] Steven Soderbergh, however, has stated that it is his favorite of the three Ocean's films.[12]
Soundtrack[edit]
This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Ocean's Twelve
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released
December 7, 2004 (2004-12-07)
Genre
Electronic music
Ambient music
Modern Rock
Length
57:05
Label
Warner Bros.
The original soundtrack to Ocean's Twelve was released by Warner Bros. Records on December 7, 2004. David Holmes returned to compose the music for the film and won a BMI award. His songs "Amsterdam" and "I Love Art...Really!" were released as singles and do not appear on the commercial soundtrack. The soundtrack is also absent of the music used during the Nightfox "laser-dance" sequence in the film. The clip is from a track called "Thé à la Menthe" performed by La Caution, according to the film's end credits. The track titled "The Real Story" is different on the commercial soundtrack than it is in the film, which uses "Rito a Los Angeles" by Peppino de Luca, featuring part of the main riff of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. The music Benedict plays on the piano when he comes to visit Basher is called "Requiem for a Dead". It was written and performed by Andy García. The track that plays as the group are escorted from the police station to the black cars is "Margaret" by Giuseppe De Luca. The track that plays as Lahiri cracks Matsui is "El Capitalismo Foraneo" by Gotan Project. "Ascension to Virginity" was taken from the 1968 movie Candy where it likewise appeared in the epilogue—the version on the soundtrack is the full length version from the Candy soundtrack LP.
All songs by David Holmes, unless otherwise noted
"L'appuntamento" by Roberto Carlos, Erasmo Carlos and Bruno Lauzi, performed by Ornella Vanoni – 4:35
"$165 Million + Interest" (into) "The Round Up" – 5:43
"L.S.D. Partie" by Roland Vincent – 2:59
"Lifting the Building" – 2:34
"10:35 I Turn Off Camera 3" – 2:25
"Crepuscolo sul mare" by Piero Umiliani – 2:44
"What R We Stealing" – 3:21
"Faust 72" by Dynastie Crisis – 3:23
"Stealing the Stock" (into) "Le Renard de Nuit" – 4:53
"7/29/04 The Day Of" – 3:11
"Lazy [Album Version]" by Yellow Hammer – 4:30
"Explosive Corrosive Joseph" by John Schroeder – 2:33
"Yen on a Carousel" – 3:13
"The Real Story" – 2:55
"Ascension to Virginity" by Dave Grusin – 5:05
"Three 8 Bar Drum Loops" – 1:02 (hidden track)
"Thé à la Menthe" by La Caution – 3:44
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b "Ocean's Twelve (2005)". The Numbers. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
Jump up ^ Spelling of "LeMarc" from the script
Jump up ^ "OCEANS 12 - Production notes - Twelve Is The New Eleven". CinemaReview.com. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
Jump up ^ "OCEANS 12 - Production notes - About the production". CinemaReview.com. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
Jump up ^ "Ocean's Twelve (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
Jump up ^ "Ocean's Twelve Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
Jump up ^ Stephen Hunter (December 10, 2004). "An Uneven 'Twelve'". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
Jump up ^ Ansen, David (2004-12-13), "Style Over Substance". Newsweek. 144 (24):63
Jump up ^ Puig, Claudia (2004). "Forecast for 'Ocean's': Splashy and very cool"
Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (2004). "Ocean's Twelve" Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
Jump up ^ "The worst movie sequels ever - # 16. Ocean's Twelve". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
Jump up ^ Nissim, Mayer (16 November 2009). "Steven Soderbergh defends 'Ocean's Twelve'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
External links[edit]
Ocean's Twelve on IMDb
Ocean's Twelve at AllMovie
Ocean's Twelve at Box Office Mojo
Ocean's Twelve at Rotten Tomatoes
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Films
Ocean's 11 (1960)
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Ocean's Twelve (2004)
Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
Ocean's 8 (2018)
Characters
Danny Ocean
Rusty Ryan
Linus Caldwell
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Steven Soderbergh
Films
Directed
9012Live (1985)
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
Kafka (1991)
King of the Hill (1993)
The Underneath (1995)
Schizopolis (1996)
Gray's Anatomy (1996)
Out of Sight (1998)
The Limey (1999)
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Traffic (2000)
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Full Frontal (2002)
Solaris (2002)
Eros (2004)
Ocean's Twelve (2004)
Bubble (2005)
The Good German (2006)
Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
Che (2008)
The Girlfriend Experience (2009)
The Informant! (2009)
And Everything Is Going Fine (2010)
Contagion (2011)
Haywire (2012)
Magic Mike (2012)
Side Effects (2013)
Behind the Candelabra (2013)
Logan Lucky (2017)
Unsane (2018)
High Flying Bird (2019)
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The Daytrippers (1996)
Pleasantville (1998)
Welcome to Collinwood (2002)
Criminal (2004)
The Jacket (2005)
Solitary Man (2009)
Ocean's 8 (2018)
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Nightwatch (1997)
Criminal (2004)
Television series
K Street (2003)
The Knick (2014–15)
The Girlfriend Experience (2016–present)
Mosaic (2018)
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