The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
"Somewhere in Time" 1980 film with parallels to BBM?
Mandy21:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on November 05, 2010, 09:58:24 am ---My memory of Christopher Plummer's character is of a controlling, possessive person. Jane Seymour was his "discovery," and her "career" was his creation. If she went off and gave up her career for love, he had a lot to lose. His purpose in life was solely invested in her career.
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The next point you made that has me intrigued is, was the above your first and only impression of the man? I don't know how many times you saw the film or what age you were at when you did, but didn't you ever in the slightest, think that perhaps he was romantically in love with this woman first and foremost, and THEN would do anything he could do to MAKE it succeed, because he knew it would make her happy as a passionately-committed actress? Cause I've never felt any other way. Perhaps that's the romantic in me, I don't know.
Mandy21:
--- Quote from: Lynne on November 05, 2010, 01:07:47 pm ---My copy comes from Netflix Friday.
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Lynne, you're so intelligent and perceptive. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the film.
Mandy21:
--- Quote from: Marge_Innavera on November 05, 2010, 10:32:32 am ---My take on the Christopher Plummer character was that in some way he knew that this stranger represented something that would happen to cast a shadow over the rest of her life. He was certainly controlling but he seemed to be mainly motivated by protectiveness and a kind of frustration over a deep-down knowledge that there was nothing he could do to prevent it.
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I would agree wholeheartedly with this, Marge. He was wise enough to know that fate had taken the reins. The look in Jane's and Chris's eyes said it all. And he, like Aquirre, was watching it from afar, and realizing that everything they'd strived for was about to be shot to hell.
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Mandy21 on November 06, 2010, 01:48:22 pm ---Interesting points, Jeff. I'm curious if other gay men on here would reiterate your distinctions? I was especially intrigued by your last sentence above -- "recognize the possibility of love". Which leads me to my next question, and I vaguely remember addressing this question before a few years ago on here somewhere. We believe that Jack had sex with the sheepherder he was with up on the mountain during the spring before he met Ennis. Are we to also believe that based on the story and the screenplay/film, that there's no remote possibility that Jack also could have loved THAT man, but just gave up quicker on HIM because it was potentially a first-time, flash-in-the-pan, you're-expected-to-be-this-way-with-your-raging-hormones-away-from-females kind of thing? What if he'd never met Ennis? (Eek, that possibility makes me sick to my stomach.) Anyway, what if Jack had gone back to the mountain and been faced with the other guy instead of Ennis? Could it THEN have finally become love through the passage of time, and the dedication it would have taken to return to the place of THEIR first meeting? Or would it have just been another spring filled with random sex?
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I'm not that great at speculation, but my feeling is that a profound relationship is more than chemistry, it's also timing and environment. So, even if Jack had a relationship with a previous sheepherder, the timing in his life was not right as it was on the year he went up the mountain with Ennis. Also, if he'd met Ennis at the right time but in the wrong place, ie in the flatlands, their love may not have gotten out of the starting gate either. It really was a rare thing for all those to come together for the two of them.
Mandy21:
--- Quote from: All Pawed Out on November 06, 2010, 02:03:04 pm ---I'm not that great at speculation, but my feeling is that a profound relationship is more than chemistry, it's also timing and environment. So, even if Jack had a relationship with a previous sheepherder, the timing in his life was not right as it was on the year he went up the mountain with Ennis. Also, if he'd met Ennis at the right time but in the wrong place, ie in the flatlands, their love may not have gotten out of the starting gate either. It really was a rare thing for all those to come together for the two of them.
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OOH, great thoughts! I'll have to watch it for the 400th time on 11/7 and reconsider it from the timing/environment perspective. ;)
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