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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features
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41: The Haunting Number “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” wrote Shakespeare—or the gentleman for whom he fronted, and from whom he received his pun-ish name, but I digress.
As “41” opens we see a loving—yet unavoidably maudlin—elegy to a beautiful and talented young man, Nick O’Neill, who died tragically, at the age of 18. That occurred in The Station nightclub fire, in West Warwick, Rhode Island, on February 20, 2003. He was the youngest of the 100 victims who died that night—or shortly thereafter.
Filmmakers Christian de Rezendes’ and Chris O'Neill’s palette includes an immense amount of video and stills of Nick—as well as newspaper clippings, and other memorabilia. They interview many who knew and loved Nick—including themselves, which is something I always find touching and admirable in documentary films.
As the film progresses something different emerges. Nick was a born performer and prolific writer. He sang, danced, acted, and played guitar—and he wrote poems, songs, notes, and a play. As “41” gradually reveals Nick’s life and work, we learn there were prescient references to his ultimate passing the most dramatic of which was his play, “They Walk Among Us”, which he wrote a year before his death—despite having very poor grades in school, including an unprecedented F- in English. Yes, that’s ‘minus’. Chris O’Neill directed the play posthumously, and also directed a film adaptation which Christian de Rezendes edited.
The number ‘41’ appears frequently and mysteriously throughout Nick O’Neill’s life—including in the details of his passing and in the subsequent weeks and months. De Rezendes and O’Neill do a terrific job of simply presenting this information, presenting this beautiful young man named Nick. Regarding the almost ubiquitous presence of ‘41’ in Nick’s life and death, each and every viewer, of course, evaluates this provocative phenomenon via their own epistemology. Those who adamantly believe life to be the accidental combination of atoms and molecules will likely not be convinced otherwise, but all will be haunted by both ‘41’ and the film, “41”—and they will have been touched by a beautiful soul.