My Wrongs #8245-8249 & 117: A Reappraisal

[Neil]

Cartel Communique made the video.  When one of them posted a couple of stills here - one of which featured the close-up of "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions" - that was what started the long, slow process of me realising just how great the short itself was.  The book is only seen in focus very fleetingly in My Wrongs, and is one of the crucial elements to understanding the character.  Similarly, I think I'm right in saying that the smoking device - which illustrates Him's obsessive, addictive and self-destructive nature - can only be seen in the packaging, menu screen, and Cartel video.  Pretty sure it was all but cut out of the final edit.

[Thomas]

Noodle Lizard, I see your 'Morris on the set of Veep' and I raise you this -



I think you're about right there, Neil, though the smoking-can is just about visible amid all the stuff on the table in the actual film, but only really if you know to look for it. I thought the matching-up of Barbara Woodhouse's dialogue and Him's actions in the remix was interesting.

[Neil]

Yes, Barbara Woodhouse fits in thematically, given the power games between Rothko and Him - with Him obviously being under the sway of the dog. 

I don't think this has been pasted in this thread, so here's a transcript of the ripped up cover scans - you can spot some references to other Blue Jam monologues (well, the first one, anyway):

Yes, my copy of My Wrongs finally came. And, as some of you know, it comes in a book-like case, with the DVD residing in a paper wallet with some shit written on the inside. So, out of curiosity, I carefully tore off the some of the glued-down areas of the case to read said shit.

It's basically more of the "things I did wrong" stuff you see elsewhere in the packaging. So, written on one side:
(C) 2002 Warp Films Limited (C) 2003 Warp Films Limited. Design Mat Intro 03


Then, in scruffy handwriting:


7456 -> That gun thing when I didn't know what it was =
arrested in zoo // arrested for being drunk // [7458] smoking
dope on tube (I thought they were turning a blind eye) //
[7457] Trying to beat up a party // [7469] -> cement in bath



Then, further down, the WARP logo.
(#7457 is bloody hard to read, I've tried as hard as I can)

And, on the other side (all in shit-handed writing):


          (37) broke harnys bib off       38, ate dads headlight bulbs
(39) shot old woman with airgun       38 (39) FREID Stephanies hand (accident)
(40) I locked myself in school gas      chamber (i think) // 41   //////
   41. read 807 books out loud to       crying infants // 42 tried to
      Look through mrs manldbings cheek // 43. Frequently no pants
    // 44. tried to  46 // Blew up rat coffin // 47 Smoked
  dried bannanna skins. 48  Gerbil Thing (NOT MY FAULT)
49. Sent out of class for being sutten and insolent
  but I wasn't so I ambushed teacher with pencil scrapings in face and was sent
            home but IT STILL WASN'T my FAULT although
                     everybody said it was

(50) Shat in swimming pool  ,   51 Laughed at
naked statue
                                     #52 Pinned up Dads pom in Kitchen
52. Second gerbil thing    (5?) Talking + Dude
                                      - mum cried   .



So, curiosity knackered up my case, and I now keep it in my CD holder. But at least everyone else can keep theirs intact, right?

Reading back now, you can see the capitalised "NOT MY FAULT" for 48 (Gerbil thing) clearly indicates his own sense of guilt.  It's one of the few things this troubled child was blameless of - going by his own recollection - yet still carries the burden of.

[Noodle Lizard]

Weirdly, I'd always thought the smoking can was in the film itself until I rewatched it today.  Strange, that.  And it's not mentioned in the Blue Jam monologue is it?

[Thomas]

Ah, that's brilliant, thanks Neil. Especially the bit about the gun in the zoo, a favourite Blue Jam moment of mine. Presumably Him is an adaptation or version of the original monologue speaker, not just from the Rothko piece?[nb]Is he given a name in the series? I can't remember.[/nb] (Though, as you've said, My Wrongs does exist as its own thing).

I don't think it is, Noodle, but the monologue character discusses his need for cigarettes in this one. It might mention the can thing, I'm just listening to it now.

[Neil]

Yes, I think it's the same narrator throughout all the monologues and the short, and you've beaten me to the monologue which - I think - is the one where he stands on corners breathing in second-hand smoke.  I'm sure the packaging also mentions standing outside record shops for THC...ah, here we go:





As you can see there, he gave up having a name as his self-esteem was so low that he decided he wasn't worth one, and I don't think he was ever named in the monologues either.

I mean, yet again I have to point out just how fucking brilliant the packaging is at extending the entire theme of My Wrongs.  Look at the paranoia when he's making his personal inventory,[nb]and evidently Imogen did get hold of it, at one point...[nb]I love how the "SPECIAL FEATURES: anyone who lists these needs boiling" infoband contrasts with the methodical inventory by Him.[nb]Also, I gues 10/02/03 was the release date?  Which is beautiful, because it's almost pleasingly sequential,[nb]Numbers tend to be important to OCDers[/nb] but...wrong.[/nb][/nb][/nb] which causes him to divest himself of guilt, and try to stop people from taking (ultimately ridiculous) opportunities away.  See why I love this so much?  You could watch that short a hundred times, and not get that he has an addictive nature, unless you watched the Cartel vid, and/or looked at the packaging/menu, and/or noticed that the spine of "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions" is in focus, briefly, and still mostly obscured. 

One thing I've always wanted to find, but never could, is a thread started by the package designer, who actually came on here and asked us what we'd like to see in the finished product.  This has occasionally made me wonder if the theme of obsession has some comment on fandom, or on the type of person who would become a fan - particularly one motivated enough to join a forum, back then.  It does feel...sort of aimed at obsessives like me/us.  I also wonder how much of CM is in it - I always say that propinquity means that, for instance, obsessive people are very strongly drawn to the work of obsessive artists, because they're the only ones who will give them the kind of detail they really need and crave.  At one point, when I was just coming to terms with my OCD, I think I did see My Wrongs as a kind of warning, one I needed, given how dogmatic I'd become.

Then again, I project all over the shop when it comes to this wonderful, beautiful film.  I encourage you to come up with your own interpretation.

Anyway, actually looking up the 12 Steps on Amazon was another big light-bulb moment for me - note that God is commonly substituted for "a higher power", which may be one reason why Him gives over control to Rothko so readily.  This also shines a light on the packaging itself, and the name of the short, and to the book which we see Him carrying when he plunges into the pond, IIRC (keeps it up his coat.)

    1 We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
    2 Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
    3 Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
    4 Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
    5 Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
    6 Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
    7 Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
    8 Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
    9 Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
    10 Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
    11 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
    12 Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Time to go back through the monologues, not heard most of them in years! 

[legion]

I was actually wondering the other day how he makes money.

I've often wondered that.

Both his parents are doctors, his brother made War Horse, his wife has a full-time job as a literary agent.

I'm guessing he just sponges off his family.

[dr_christian_troy]

If anyone is in the Central London area in April and fancies seeing it in the cinema, My Wrongs is being screened as part of the Warp Films at 10 season at the National Film Theatre on the South Bank, on April 5th from 8.45pm, with other short films. Details here. Tickets go on sale on Tuesday 12th March at 11.30am.

[amnesiac]

My wife made me hide the DVD because of the grotesque cover and I could never find it again. Didn't even get to take it out of the cellophane.

[Noodle Lizard]

My wife made me hide the DVD because of the grotesque cover and I could never find it again. Didn't even get to take it out of the cellophane.

Is the cover grotesque?  I'm looking at it right now, it's alright isn't it?

[Kane Jones]

My wife made me hide the DVD because of the grotesque cover and I could never find it again. Didn't even get to take it out of the cellophane.

Are you sure you're not getting it confused with this one?

[mcbpete]

My wife made me hide the DVD because of the grotesque cover and I could never find it again. Didn't even get to take it out of the cellophane.

It's it just a man looking at a dog with a drawing of a bus ? Are you not mixing it up with the next Warp Films short - Rubber Johnny ?

[Kane Jones]

Are you not mixing it up with the next Warp Films short - Rubber Johnny ?

Just googled that.  Bloody hell.

[Mister Six]

EDIT: Ignore. The ducks made me do it.

EDIT 2:

dogmatic

Interesting choice of word.

[mcbpete]

I don't think this has been seen before. Taken from the companying book of the recent WarpFilms10 box set -



Caption underneath reads - A personal list of wrongs from director Chris Morris' notebook. More from the list can be found on the inside sleeve of the My Wrongs #8245-8249 & 117 DVD.

[hummingofevil]

Hey. Sorry if you've read this before but I've been reading Gogol and The Diary Of A Madmen is an obvious influence on Morris. There this reading of it by Kenneth Williams that is superb.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W6-xtJX5aJ8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DW6-xtJX5aJ8

It's got the month

Spoiler alert

Martober

[close]

(Blue Jam reference) and

Spoiler alert

'talking' dogs

[close]

are very central to the story. If you not read or listened give this a go.

Need to give My Wrongs another go. Again.

[Thomas]

Rothko telling Paddy what to say to people reminds me of Morris' phonecalls with Paul Garner.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Rothko telling Paddy what to say to people reminds me of Morris' phonecalls with Paul Garner.

Yes, it's a Morris trait that keeps popping up in his work. There's also the phonecalls in Nathan Barley, where Dan's commanding Nathan.