(It turns out, I am wrong. Oh, spoiler alert for those who haven’t seen Gone Girl yet.)
I was a child when the amazingly talented Richard Marx released his most transfixing ballad, Hazard. I loved this song, no, correction, I love this song. To this day, whenever Hazard comes on the radio or at karaoke, it is inevitable that the crowd says: “I love Hazard!” and we all proceed to sing the song, knowing all the lyrics. I sing it with so much gusto and passion, I become an absolute rock star. (Again, I am wrong.)
For me, Hazard was more than a song about Mary. I was convinced that the film clip was a representation of the song. A story, a short movie if you will. And, as a child, I had no understanding of a non-linear storyline. Hazard was a beautiful story told in full in less than 5 minutes.
This is what happened in Hazard, as far as I am concerned (and I’ll use most of the lyrics in retelling the story because Richard Marx is a great story teller and is an absolute genius!);
Richard’s mother moved them to Hazard when he was a boy, and even then, the folks in town, said with prejudice eyes, that he’s not right. As he grew and became an adult, he was a loner, a misunderstood young man. He wasn’t troubled, he was just different to everyone else in a hostile town.
Then, three years ago, Mary arrived, and for the first time in his life, someone other than his mother saw the man inside. They fell in love. The Sheriff was jealous of their relationship, and so too were the townspeople, because she was beautiful and chose the man they have picked on and hated.
No-one understood their relationship, or cared for it. Then one night after a fight, Mary leaves their home and goes for walk, Richard goes to bed. The next morning, the sheriff arrives at his doorstep, and everyone points their finger at him, he’s arrested by the police and taken into custody. He swears to them that he left Mary safe and sound by the river. He didn’t even know that she was missing or dead. He’s devastated upon learning the news.
They have no way of proving that either Mary was actually dead or that he killed her. They only know that she’s missing from the town and some circumstantial evidence of her clothing/cardigan being found. In the end, they’re forced to release him. And the townspeople are livid, wanting justice which the police are unable to provide them. They take the law into their own hands. They burn his house, preventing his mother from saving it.
Richard is desolate. He goes back to the river, where he and Mary have spent many beautiful days together dreaming their way out of the town and into a better life. It is by the river that he spots Mary. She’s alive, she was hiding and framed him for killing her, knowing that the town people would not think twice about him being guilty.
So, when the trailer for Gone Girl was released, the talking point was whether or not Ben Affleck killed his wife. I concluded (without any knowledge, evidence or basic research) that he hadn’t and “It’s just like Hazard” became my tag line. My partner would mention Gone Girl in conversation, and I would add my now all too familiar commentary. Or, I would say with quiet smugness; “I can’t wait to see Gone Girl, it’s just like Hazard.” I realised I was a broken record when a friend asked “What’s Gone Girl, it’s just like Hazard about?”
This is what Hazard is about for me. And I was certain that the writer of Gone Girl had ripped off Richard Marx’s beloved song. Prior to watching Gone Girl, I was certain that Rosamund Pike’s Amy Dunne was alive and had framed her husband Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) for her murder. Just like Hazard. And after seeing it, I came out of the cinema very smugly and stated with vindication to my partner, “See… it’s just like Hazard!”
Gone Girl is very similar to what I thought Hazard was about, but it’s definitely not what Richard Marx had envisioned. Nor what the film clip actually depicted.
I felt vindicated and my smugness knew no bounds, so, I sought out the film clip on YouTube to further illustrate my incredibly prowess for film and plot prediction. But alas, what I found was not remotely similar to what I remembered.
Ignorance is bliss, and research is the destroyer of ignorance. As it turns out, there were three versions of the video clip, and it is unknown as to who killed Mary. Mary was definitely killed by the river, her body was retrieved there. The sheriff was either having an affair with her or they had some kind of history together. There were pictures of the crime scene within the clip, as well as a body bag. Sucker is the smug fool who goes out of their way to disprove their own theory.
I am unable to find my version of Hazard, so, for the sake of my own skewed childhood memory, I will continue to claim that Gone Girl is just like Hazard, until my partner proves me otherwise and finds all three versions of the video clip.
Ranter & Banter 