The Fall: One of the greatest movies ever made

The Fall.
I easily one of the greatest films and stories I have ever seen.I was at blockbuster with my father after getting back from the doctor's office, this was 2 years ago. We were walking down the aisles and the cover of this film caught my eye. To be honest, I tend to live by that sometimes. If the cover is intriguing I will pick it up. With books, on occasion, I will sometimes buy them without reading the synopsis. So far it has always worked out in my favor.
It was directed by Tarsem Singh and starred Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, and Justine Waddell. It is based on the 1981 screenplay by Valeri Petrov. It was filmed in several different countries over a few years.
It takes place in the happening 1920s, Los Angeles is the setting. Roy (Lee Pace) plays a stuntman who has been injured and is lying in a hospital, waiting for news and also going over the loss of his love to another man. He is paralyzed from the waist down from a fall. Then, one day, a note blows through the window and lands on his bed. Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) wanders in to get it back. She has a broken elbow or shoulder that she got when she had a fall as well. He identifies with her through this.
Roy then asks her to touch his toes, but not to tell him which one. He guesses wrong, but she lie to make him feel better. He must know she is lieing though.
He then decides to tell her a story, stopping at clever moments in order to ask for favors. And the story he tells is beautiful. I can't even begin to explain all the lovely imagery. There are several characters like an ex-slave, masked bandit, explosives expert, and indian swordsman and Charles Darwin (the only one with a name) and smaller stories that create this incredibly impressive and moving world we can't help but awe at and become so entranced. I will simply post images to entice you, the story is far too involved and pretty much just a conglomeration of several stories within other stories. Summarizing it would confuse both you and me. The film is lush and audacious, it leaves nothing to be desired.

But what I find more interesting is the title paired with the dispositions of our two main characters here. She represents something innocent and ready to mold, he has experienced life a lot up to this point (don't even get me started on his romantic entanglements). Both are in this hospital after having suffered a terrible fall, him from a horse on a very high bridge, and her from a tree in an orchard. But within the film the fall that counts the most is the one that Alexandria takes later, after having been manipulated by Roy's character into procuring more pain killers for him. This fall results in a terrible head wound and further injury. This could mark her fall from grace, so to speak. While she may maintain her good nature internally, she is unaware of how not having a better sense of self or solid groundings in her values can result in her demise. Sure, we have all done questionable things for our close friends, but at what cost? There are the immediate physical wounds that will heal, but how do we deal with the later realizations that all of our hardships could have been prevented had we had the courage to say no despite what the "consequences" may have been, in her case the consequences would be not hearing the end of the story. Then of course there are our fresh views of our "friends" after that point.
While Roy wasn't evil in nature, he was temporarily acting in a very selfish manner. All he wanted was to permanently end his suffering and he was so blinded by this he failed to see he had turned Alexandria into a pawn. But, as always, he is redeemed. He holds her hand and fixes everything for her. He builds her back up, though only after shattering her ideas and beautiful views of the world.
For Roy this fall marks the chance for change and rebirth, much like the season to precede winter. This fall is followed by transcendence and a new sense of self for both Roy and Alexandria, though with her young age it only makes sense this will happen many times over before she reaches his age.
I could go on and one about all the messages and ideas floating around in this film, but there are too many and so little time. But it is worth several viewings, I am quite certain even I am missing a few things.

But here I am, analyzing a story that should really just be appreciated for what it is, a beautiful story. Why aren't you out renting this now or finding it on netflix? Do it now!