Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard aka ‘The Dickens of Detroit’ - 10 out of 10

 Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard aka ‘The Dickens of Detroit’

10 out of 10

Get Shorty is the perfect choice for this Armageddon that we contemplate – some say that if the virus or Trump do not kill us, the economic apocalypse that could follow will, but they are naysayers and we should be optimistic and brave, just like Chili Palmer – as this Magnum opus is dazzling, hilarious, exceptionally smart, breezy, otherworldly enough to offer an escape from the pandemic, yet as credible as it is possible, with complex characters that we love and also empathize with, seeing their shortcomings makes them more approachable, they are not the super heroes that put such a distance between them and us that we – maybe you do not, sorry in that case – dismiss them and disengage – I dislike Batman, avengers and the like, but I just realized that most people are thrilled and admire those cartoon figures…

This delightful chef d’oeuvre has been included on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, in The Crime section, though it should be listed as a Comedy as well - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction -it has been adapted for the big screen - http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/02/get-shorty-written-by-scott-frank-based.html with phenomenal results, for the film is one of the best made in the last decades, though it has generated a controversy when it was beaten for the Supreme Nominations by is arguably a lesser film, and it was followed by a sequel that lost the magic, Be Cool - http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/10/be-cool-based-on-novel-by-elmore.html

Chili Palmer is one of the most interesting, elaborate, real, complicated, exhilarating personages we can find, because he is an extremely impressive combination of talents and flaws, being a shylock that works in Miami, with made men like Tommy Carlo, then he has to be part of the team of Ray Barboni aka ‘Bones’, after they have a rather awkward and especially mirthful – just like everything else, or almost everything that happens inside Get Shorty  - encounter…they have both eaten at the same restaurant, but when he leaves, Barboni takes the leather jacket that belonged to Chili and even worse, that had been a present from his wife and since relations between the two are anyway at a low, the absence of the gift would be ever more insulting – Chili has a gift in narrating in the story how his wife stays in the bed and asks for some pills, honey, milk ( though they could well be other things) and then later, he finds them placed back, which means that the Imaginary Invalid, does wake up from bed, but likes to play the victim…

The hero or antihero (the main character could be seen as one, the other or both) asks for his jacket, once he has finished his meal and a confusion and ridiculous stand ensues, for the men at the restaurant say they do not know, then they realize another client, a regular customer and mafia connected fellow has ‘borrowed’ the item, which looks like no big deal to them, but it does to the aggravated loan shark, who struggles to find the address, has to call a friend to be taken, since the car keys are in his jacket and when he reaches the house of the guilty party, he rings, kicks Bones in the face, walks in, finds his jacket on a chair, takes it and then leaves with no words said…what could he say?

This is perhaps part of the essence, one of the miraculous ingredients of this fabulous masterpiece, the perfect ease, the credibility of the characters – first of all the shylock – they do not act with exaggeration, or when they do, it is signaled that this is ‘offside’, just as in soccer and the hero is one of those that benefit from the errors made by the fools that think too much of themselves, like the American Idol of the Evangelicals and Other Birdbrains, who has done it again yesterday, when he has announced he blocks funds for WHO, in the middle of a pandemic, because, wait for it…they were late in their alerts and they cozied up to China, which is exactly what the Immense Dope did himself…

Chili Palmer then follows in the footsteps of Leo Devoe, who owes him money and is supposed to have died in a strange airplane accident, where Leo was supposed to be on board – he had had his luggage checked in – but nervous when a delay was announced and because he had had a conversation with the loan shark and knew it is dangerous, potentially deadly to have debts with such people, the lucky man saw his plane go down in flames, with him on the list of victims for which the families would be compensated – thus scamming the airline for hundreds of thousands of dollars, running to Las Vegas to win more money…

Which brings us to Hollywood, because the plot is challenging, offers wondrous side stories, many wonderful supporting roles, and also on account of a side job which has the money lender follow another trail, from a casino to Harry Zimm aka the Monumental Gene Hackman in the film adaptation, who is sleeping in the house of intelligent, beautiful Karen Flores, where Chili walks in (the patio door was opened) and is watching television and Karen sends Harry downstairs to see what is happening…

The life of the antihero is so exciting, the story of the plane going down is so thrilling, that this could become the screenplay for a movie – which it does in the end, doesn’t it – and Chili does work with the shylock, first to try to get out of a deal made with a local Mafioso, Bo Catlett, then to move on to bigger things, eventually produce a film he dreams of, Mister Lovejoy, reminding me of the brilliant The Loved One by the Divine Evelyn Waugh - http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-loved-one-by-evelyn-waugh-10-out-of.html  - also adapted for the big screen, with Roy Steiger, the actor with the highest Kevin Bacon number, higher than Kevin Bacon himself, as Mr. Joyboy…

‘Look at me’ may be one of the most memorable lines, in print and on screen, used as it is by chili Palmer, who does not like violence, though he has to put pressure, sends the unfortunate stunt man turned bodyguard for Catlett, Bear, down the stairs and to the ground another time, has to face off with Bones, once when the latter comes down to take revenge with a gun, after the jacket and the retribution incident, and he has to fight psychologically and perhaps literally with Catlett, as he tries to enter the movie business, an attempt to have him trapped is made, involving a sour drug deal, the money for the cocaine stacked at an airport terminal, in a locker watched by the Federal agents and the vicious Bones again, as he too follows the trail left so obviously by Leo Devoe, whose debt belongs to Barboni, now that he has taken over this illegal loans operation…

I must say it again: this is a phenomenal masterpiece.