#the grime and dirt going down the drain. the gun on the windowsill. fuck the shower scene is so so good

[kylejsugarman]

i talk a lot about el camino being a “quiet” movie and probably the best example of both that “quietness” and the movie’s realistic depiction of PTSD and the early days of “freedom” after extended abuse/torture is the shower scene at skinny’s house. a movie more concerned with turning jesse’s implied torture into a spectacle would’ve Amplified this scene—lingered more on his scars, lengthened his split-second flashback to being hosed, escalated his reaction to said flashback—but el camino doesn’t want to dramatize the quiet, achy reality of Living Through It. jesse has that brief flashback to being hosed and just grunts out a soft, involuntary “no” in the present moment. just a quiet “no”. el camino is as much about the absence of dialogue and sound as it is the dialogue. no answer to “did they really keep u in a. cage?” extensive silence during his flashbacks to mike and walt. no response to his parents after they beg him to turn himself in. the soft, scared “no” before reality returns. fuck, how can u sum up the experience of surviving torture and abuse with a long, quiet shower and a two-letter word??