By and large I never tried to convince anybody. That is, except my immediate family. I DID drag two of my closest girlfriends along to see it, but they came cause they were sick of hearing me talk about it (just how much I loved it, not sort of "you HAVE to see this movie" kind of talk) and they wanted to see what the fuss was about. One liked it, the other friend, I am ashamed to admit, I am re-evaluating in a BIG way. She said that given the way she was raised the only character she really identified with was Jack's father and that furthermore, her brother would probably have been one of the guys at the end who beat Jack (I'm NOT joking). Now, this friend lived way out west in Australia, probably a 9 hour drive from the Queensland coastline - its very remote. I imagine it, in my darker moments, as like 1963 Wyoming. Men are *grunt* MEN end of story. And women raise children, keep house and don't bitch about it. You go nowhere fast, dreams die and if you are like me, you'd die in that environment too. When she said all this me over a coffee after the movie, where I'm drying my eyes and floating in that emotional funk I always left a screening in, I was quite dumbfounded. Then shocked. Then seriously pissed off. And I haven't been anywhere socially with her since. Oh, she's calling. And trying to get together. But funnily enough, I'm always busy when she's free. I mean, screw that, who needs friends like that right?
But after that episode, I just shut up tight as a drum. Didn't even talk to people (except Ray and you fine folk) about the movie at all. In fact, the only time I've spoken about it is the other night when my sister sat through the DVD with me and peppered me with questions.
My point *reader sighs.. ahh finally* is that I'm not going to try and sway people to see it. I've learnt the hard way not to put something so close to my heart out there on my sleeve for people to sneer at, ridicule or judge. I love it and that's all that matters to me. I don't want to fight any battles over it. In some ways I can see people's point of view - it is just a movie. But its "just a movie" that has changed my life. Not everybody needs to know about that, y'know?