Author Topic: Lureen's Blondeness  (Read 5301 times)

Offline juneaux

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Lureen's Blondeness
« on: April 25, 2006, 10:06:17 pm »
Okay~ I haven't seen this discussed anywhere (no doubt it has been but I missed it)~ why does Lureen get more blonde as the movie progresses?  Is it merely a fashion statement regarding the times  or does the lightening of her hair parallel the growing coldness of her personality?  Jack does say she has a head for business deals but that their relationship could be expressed by telephone.  Anyone have any thoughts on this?  Am I turning nothing into something?  Please share.


Thanks,


J.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Lureen's Blondeness
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2006, 11:48:18 pm »
I see it as an outward sign of her marital frustrations. Also, back in them days when wives complained that the spark had gone out of their marriage, it was fairly common for them to be advised to lighten their hair.


Offline Kea

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Re: Lureen's Blondeness
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2006, 03:31:40 am »
I always thought it a pity as the Lureen that Jack met was stunning with that dark hair......

they matched so nicely together...as they danced...( appearences only of course).....

I tended to see it as more that she became less of the woman he married and more like a doll....

it seemed unreal ...and pretend like their marriage.

saw the switch to the blond as...a symbol of the unreality of it all.....the pretense....Anne Hataway said she enjoyed the Farah Fawcett look of the time....more of keeping up with expectation of that day and age...prehaps..

if you get what I mean... ::) ::)
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Offline ednbarby

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Re: Lureen's Blondeness
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2006, 09:54:01 am »
Excellent point, Kea.  I think it's a combination of everything mentioned, here.  I can see her becoming blonder and blonder in an effort to get her husband's attention (I commented yesterday in another thread where that subject cropped up but wasn't the main subject of the thread that I myself once tried to go from ash blonde to platinum a couple months after having my son because I thought it would rekindle the spark of my and my husband's then largely non-existence sex life).  But I can also see it as a symbol of the falseness of their marriage as well as the brittleness of her soul.

God, I love this movie.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Lureen's Blondeness
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2006, 11:37:16 am »
But I can also see it as a symbol of the falseness of their marriage as well as the brittleness of her soul.

I get the false marriage part, Barb, but what do you mean by the brittle soul part?

Offline delalluvia

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Re: Lureen's Blondeness
« Reply #5 on: April 26, 2006, 09:07:50 pm »
Dunno why she went blonder.  I just assumed it was because she was trying to 'change' to catch her husband's attention and she just kept going until it became extreme.  But in the end, it becomes a facade on her true self, just like her marriage.

Online Lynne

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Re: Lureen's Blondeness
« Reply #6 on: April 26, 2006, 09:16:17 pm »
I tended to see it as more that she became less of the woman he married and more like a doll....

it seemed unreal ...and pretend like their marriage.

I always interpreted it the same way, Kea.  I read somewhere, IMDB probably, that the 'fading' of Lureen through the years can be seen parallel with the fading of Ennis.  Remember his bright, clear reflection in the bathroom mirror when he's getting his toothbrush to go into the mountains with Jack after the hotel reunion scene?  Contrast that with Ennis' ghostly refllection in the phone booth when he talks to Lureen about Jack's death years later.  Ponderous.

Terrific thread, juneaux!  Thanks!

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Offline ednbarby

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Re: Lureen's Blondeness
« Reply #7 on: April 26, 2006, 09:22:10 pm »
But I can also see it as a symbol of the falseness of their marriage as well as the brittleness of her soul.

I get the false marriage part, Barb, but what do you mean by the brittle soul part?

I'm thinking back to that lovely post on TOB a while back called The Elements where the poster described Jack as the wind/air, Lureen as fire, Alma as water, and Ennis as the Earth.  And he described how when we first meet Lureen, she is wearing a vivid red shirt and hat and has fire in her expression and her soul, but that by the end of movie, her clothing has faded from red to white, as has her hair - the fire has all but gone out.  I guess I think of that as a fiery soul gone to brittle, burning embers.
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Offline fernly

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Re: Lureen's Blondeness
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2006, 10:01:09 pm »
Barb, I so agree with your take on Lureen's losing her fire, until all the red that's left is what's painted on her fingers and mouth.  And I think most of that fading was self-imposed.  Every time she smothered her words, like during her father's rudeness about who Bobby looked like, or when the customers were so insulting about her husband right in front of her, she was smothering passions she should have had, and would never be able to get back.
Lynne, great catch about Ennis' changing reflections.  His fading parallels one that meryl described of the change in the view of the landscape out the window in Jack's truck - sharp and clear on the way up to Ennis after the divorce-came-through message, and blurred on the despairing trip back south.
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Online Lynne

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Re: Lureen's Blondeness
« Reply #9 on: April 26, 2006, 10:08:13 pm »
Lynne, great catch about Ennis' changing reflections.  His fading parallels one that meryl described of the change in the view of the landscape out the window in Jack's truck - sharp and clear on the way up to Ennis after the divorce-came-through message, and blurred on the despairing trip back south.

I didn't catch that!!  There's always a reason to watch again.  ;)
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