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Post by Fading Fast on Aug 27, 2023 20:49:21 GMT
He could not handle that. Is Tom's mother dead? I don't remember the plot addressing why it's just the father who visits him. I think he said his mother left them when Tom was five, but she's not dead from the conversation I remember. He said his parents didn't get along, but for whatever reason, when they divorced, he wound up with his dad.
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Post by topbilled on Aug 27, 2023 20:50:13 GMT
A version of the story today would have a psychoanalyst as a supporting character, and there'd be scenes with him realizing he's been a victim of bullying and self-loathing.
It wouldn't all fall on Laura to counsel/mother him.
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Post by Fading Fast on Aug 27, 2023 20:50:30 GMT
Topbilled, if I could, I buy you Kerr's gigantic torquiest car.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Aug 27, 2023 20:51:05 GMT
In the very beginning I think he says she left and now lives somewhere else since he was five.
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Post by topbilled on Aug 27, 2023 20:54:57 GMT
Topbilled, if I could, I buy you Kerr's gigantic torquiest car. Hilarious. I will be having nightmares in turquoise tonight.
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Post by topbilled on Aug 27, 2023 20:55:36 GMT
Okay, she is really coming across as a sexual predator in this wilderness sequence.
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Post by Fading Fast on Aug 27, 2023 20:59:31 GMT
This should have been edited down to 100 minutes.
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Post by topbilled on Aug 27, 2023 21:01:26 GMT
She was happy (in the letter) that she'd learned he was now married. Why would his being married mean he has a good life? Maybe it's not a good marriage. And of course, today, he could be married to a man.
The whole letter seems like the filmmakers' way of apologizing to the production code office for the content of what just played out for the previous two hours.
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Post by topbilled on Aug 27, 2023 21:03:09 GMT
This should have been edited down to 100 minutes. I think we got spoiled by those shorter 1930s movies you selected earlier this month that ran from 65 to 80 minutes.
I wonder how long it took the stage play to be performed before a live audience...
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Post by Andrea Doria on Aug 27, 2023 21:03:46 GMT
Her letter in the ending is unexpected. I didn't remember that she regretted it later and thought she had been wrong. Wow. In a way it's more her story than his.
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Post by topbilled on Aug 27, 2023 21:04:33 GMT
Her letter in the ending is unexpected. I didn't remember that she regretted it later and thought she had been wrong. Wow. In a way it's more her story than his. Probably because the production code office insisted she had to regret what happened to make the story morally correct.
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Post by Fading Fast on Aug 27, 2023 21:05:39 GMT
Her letter in the ending is unexpected. I didn't remember that she regretted it later and thought she had been wrong. Wow. In a way it's more her story than his. That an interesting observation about it being her story. I want to think about that.
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Post by topbilled on Aug 27, 2023 21:08:04 GMT
I don't think Vincente Minnelli was the right choice for director. He seemed more focused on the color design and clothes and hairstyles.
If Otto Preminger had directed it, then the dialogue would have been revised and it would have been edgier, more subversive and Preminger would have fought the production code office about the ending.
If Douglas Sirk had directed it, there would have been more shots with mirrors and reflecting surfaces...and the characters would have seemed more trapped by their circumstances with staging that suggested claustrophobia and great inner turmoil.
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Post by topbilled on Aug 27, 2023 21:11:29 GMT
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Post by topbilled on Aug 27, 2023 21:14:58 GMT
This should have been edited down to 100 minutes. I felt the stuff at the beach in the beginning was a little too long.
The bonfire sequence was also too long but we needed that scene to show the hazing...maybe it could have been tightened with quicker cuts.
What would you suggest? What scenes would you have shortened or cut out?
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