Just saw the movie via Redbox and took a look at these boards and didn't see a mention of Holmes drinking the embalming fluid. Anything to this? Sorry if somehow missed in the movie but was waiting at the reveal the reason behind why he was drinking it.
shareDon't believe what you read on the label. That's part of the point -- or so I took it to be, at any rate.
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Lazy + smart = efficient.
That scene is a perfect example of a poor script!... Everything written in a good script should have a purpose that eventually ties into the film. This formaldehyde bit does not.
... End of line.
Actually it does have a purpose not for the plot but for the character. Sherlock is a drug addict and would try any strange new thing to get a high and let's face it, he was a bit out of it when John showed up wishing he had brought a sedative.
It is a similar theme to what they did in the Sherlock BBC with him having not one but several nicotine patches on his arm, getting a high out of it. Later Mycroft sneaks him a (albeit low-tar) cig in the morgue. All this was to show Sherlock's drug problem AND get around London's tobacco rules at the same time.
...Eh eh eh eh....Stop telephoning me! ...Eh eh eh eh... I'm busy!~Lady Gaga
Next he should get hooked on Vicodin.
shareHolmes is not a drug addict. He uses drugs. There's a difference.
When he's on a case, he doesn't need to get high. It's only when there's nothing to occupy his mind that he turns to drugs. The drugs themselves aren't important to him, only the stimulation they provide in the absence of anything better.
"That scene is a perfect example of a poor script!... Everything written in a good script should have a purpose that eventually ties into the film."
Why? Personally I like an element of randomness. Life is not a film and not everything that happens has a reason. When everything that occurs in a film ties in eventually with the plot, it also makes things much easier to predict.
Also as an aside, the formaldehyde scene is character layering.
Everything written in a good script should have a purpose that eventually ties into the film. This formaldehyde bit does not.
And yet it's precisely the little things that don't tie in and don't advance the story that can flesh out characters so wonderfully. Try reading Dickens sometimes-there are dozens and dozens of little bits that don't do a thing for the story and yet create the wonderful atmosphere he is justly famous for.
http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/
That scene is a perfect example of a poor script!... Everything written in a good script should have a purpose that eventually ties into the film. This formaldehyde bit does not.
How do you know it's formaldehyde? Just because it says so on the jar, during a conversation in which, if I recall correctly, Holmes is expressly discussing a man who is not at all what he seems?
As I said above: Don't believe what you read on the label.
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Lazy + smart = efficient.
Holmes is a functioning drug addict and quite willing to ingest anything in order to experience a new high.
sharei also thought them mentioning holmes' eating the coca leaves in this flic was a nod to him being a cocaine adddict in sir a.c doyle's books.
it is better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have it
I thought that too, I just took it as a reference to the book with Holmes using anything and everything he could to stimulate his mind into essentially another realm of thought. No offense to the modern take on Sherlock Holmes, but that is part of the BBC series I don't really like is the nicotine patch thing, not sure why it doesn't sit with me well, it just doesn't.
I think they did something like this is the first movie as well, when Watson tells Sherlock that what he is drinking is meant for eye surgery.
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage and make a Northwest Passage to the Sea
Cocaine solution is (was) used for eye surgery. I'm a retired Navy pharmacy tech... we had vials of pure cocaine (labelled 'fluffy white crystals', I kid you not) to make the solution for surgeries, although it's been 20 years since I can definitively say I saw it... I didn't work in the narcotic vault as I mostly did outpatient stuff.
shareAlcoholics in prison will drink "aftershave" for the alcohol in it.
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In me the tiger smells the rose - Siegfried Sassoon
I think it's more straightforward - he was boasting to Watson about how Moriarty hadn't shaken him, but the formaldehyde showed how much he had on his mind.
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You're about as on the ball today as a dead seal
I lean towards this explanation also.
Not only depicting "how much he had on his mind", but his absent-mindedness.
Having been in Mortuary college I can say it does taste a little better than shoe polish. Does anyone remember that stuff?
Obtained from the liver of the inflatable mongoose.
My question in that scene was, can someone get sick from drinking that? Is it even safe to drink?
I'll look down, and whisper no