He caused the accident, he crashed into her.
The film shows him becoming visibly drunk during the conversation with Dafoe.
The film shows his car - the car he is driving - speeding and weaving over into the opposite lane.
You see the car driving over the line, you see the road from the driver's point of view and for a moment the car is driving half in his lane and half in the opposite lane.
The film sound is ultra-amplified for viewers to hear and feel the sound of speed: you hear and feel the car speeding over patches of road that have been patched and repatched and patched again, you see and feel that the car is moving too fast and being steered uneven.
You see Russell looking down at the car radio, he looks like he's partially nodding off and partially listening to the game, he reaches over to raise the volume, his face is looking down, his eyes away from the road.
The scene switches to other the car backing out to a stop: the car is already partially backed but has come to a stop - once again: the car has come to a stop, as if the driver sensed or heard another car approaching (Doppler Effect) the curve, the car's tail lights are shining bright, lighting up the road - once again: the car's tail lights are shining bright, lighting up the road, and Russell does not see the other car's lights because (the last time we saw Russell) he was looking down and away from the road.
When the scene switches to the car backing out, you see Russell's car is speeding way too fast out of the curve, the car is driving over the line into the opposite lane, and he jerks the car back into his lane (indicating that he finally started to pay attention to the road), the same lane the other car was partially backing into, and Russell's car smashes into the other car at high speed.
The other car was already partially pulled out and had stopped when Russell came around: the mother may or may not have seen his bright headlights, she probably heard his car approaching (Doppler Effect), which explains why she only pulled partially out and braked, but she had no time to reverse forward because he was driving at a high speed and had inadvertently allowed his car to cross into her lane (because he was looking down and drunk and drowsy, not even alert enough to have glimpsed the bright light of her tail lights ), in that split second all she could do was pray the other vehicle would steer left around her car, which a sober person might have done, but a drunk and drowsy driver could not do.
Vehicular forensics would prove her car was braked and his car was speeding and veering over the lane (tire tread marks). Forensics could even prove he had a window of opportunity to veer left. He's "lucky" he was drunk because being under the influence makes the accident involuntary. Had he been sober, he could have been charged with something like second-degree murder (straightforward vehicular manslaughter), instead of involuntary vehicular manslaughter.
Also, the point of the scene is, the crash flashes by in a heartbeat, it's a flashing moment of that forever changes his life, it's a flashpoint of moral ambiguity, and it's how he responds to that moment, how he accepts his own culpability in that violence, that transforms him into a tragic hero viewers identify with. He nobly accepts the punishment, making him tragic and sympathetic, crucified by laws that seem disproportionate and unfair and outdated. The moment catapults him to Christ status and firmly establishes that the film is concerned with cycles of violence and cycles of vengeance and the problems of justice. His response to the moment sets up the film's exploration of vengeance and justice and redemption.
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Bolchevik (377)
4 years ago
I was pretty suprised too he went to prison because it wasn't really specified why he went except way later in the movie when the cop suggested it briefly. I think the reason it felt so unreal is probably because the movie absolutely doesn't show him drunk at all at any moment. Yes he drinks a bit at the bar but he seems under total control especially when he interrupts the tough meeting Dafoe had and was ice cooled when confronting Woody Harrelson. Then he takes what we can assume to be a last "hard" drink before taking his car but even then he doesn't seem to drive under the influence of alcohol. He didn't seem to speed and the accident seemed like ... an accident. Night, pulling back a car from the rear dow a hill (seems really stupid by the way), on such a road, everything was there to cause an accident, drunken or not. Also, his reaction after the hit : far from someone who was drunk : trying to assist instead of leaving, seemed to be fully sober, calling for help.
Honestly, I never thought he was drunk. I thought it was a trap set by Harrelson !
I read your post carefully and here are my comments :
I don't know where you saw he became drunk when talking with Dafoe. i didn't see that at all. Yes he had a drink but he seemed to keep his cool perfectly.
After reviewing the movie, yes he seemed to drive a little in the middle but it seemed more because of the night than because he was drunk. Also, I was not under the impression he was speeding, or if so, not recklessly.
Don't know where you saw the car stopping and all that stuff. Maybe the version of my movie was cut or something.
However, I really liked your final paragraph your analysis of what the accident meant. Really interesting.
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