Soul's Sonata: Des pensées profondes

So, fellow GDSHP founding father forever Matt (god damn his soul©) has consistently insistently persistently suggested that I follow up on the first post of this blog, which was actually intended to be the sole and terminal entry. Subsequently I have submissively let myself be cajoled to step out from my pouting corner and thrust my fingers towards the keyboard in a fresh fit of critical analysis.

Matt specifically suggested that I do an entry on Soul's Sonata, accepted among the GDSHP community as our best production. I guess I'll see what I can recall from memory and write out whatever I think.

Although I do agree that Soul's Sonata is GDSHP's best work, I really don't think there's too much to be said about the characters, as there is in College Daze. Donald, the protagonist, is nowhere near as contradictory and multi-faceted as Shep Foster. Rather, he's a fairly one-dimensional character, albeit one who finds himself in rather particular psychological conditions, believing that his destiny is to become a piano virtuoso, as mystically prophecized by the neighborhood shaman. In fact, the scenes which feature Donald exclusively and no one else tend to be the weakest in the movie. (WTF was the whole failed dream sequence thing where he goes retarded pretending to play piano?) So Soul's Sonata, rather than being driven by Donald's character, finds its merit in the interplay of forces and characters around Donald.

Something that achieves particular comedic effect in Soul's Sonata is the juxtaposition of mystical and spiritual elements on one side against the recreational use of psychedelics. In a particularly self-destructive move, Donald chooses to adopt drugs as an essential part of the path towards reaching his mystical destiny. Interestingly, his drug dealer has an almost as mystical status as his shaman, only being known as the "capsule man". This creates a strong conflicting antagonism between the contrasting spiritual and psychedelic elements present in the film. And so the humorous side-by-side co-existence of the two opposite ends of the spectrum continue throughout, with lines like "it is my destiny" and "uppers, downers, and all-arounders" being liberally tossed around into the same scene. But how can these two seemingly conflicting beasts lay in bed together? The answer is they cannot, not for long. For near the end of the film lies the ultimate confrontation of the two, in the scene where Capsule Man meets with Shaman. At this culmination of tension, the situation becomes no longer sustainable and results in the death of Donald, who was really the underlying cause of all the tension, him being the one who brought the Shaman and the Capsule both into his life at once. And so the uncontrolable force of Destiny, combined with the even-less-controlable force of Drugs, leads to the final loss of control: Death.

So, following logical order, one can only conclude that the purpose of Soul's Sonata is to make fun of hippies. Only hippies, who attempt to unite drug culture with eastern spirituality are as stupid as Donald. Let this be a warning for YOU, hippy.

But what about Drew's role in the movie? Simple narrator? Crucial witness of events? Subliminal shaper of the storyline? Maybe Matt will comment?


Who cares?