Our BetterMost Community > Chez Tremblay
"You don't think so, or you don't think that I'm the one?"
CellarDweller:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on February 15, 2018, 05:53:09 pm ---Of course, "confirmed bachelor" can also be code for gay. ;D
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I've heard that one be used.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on February 16, 2018, 11:20:16 am ---Sure enough. But then why did we debate so much about practically anything and everything for so long all those years ago if we weren't, well, pretending, that these were real people with real emotions and real reasons for doing and saying things? We could all have just said, "It's a movie" and had done with it ;D
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Even in them days, and even when talking about the characters like they was real people, I asked myself what Annie, Diana, Larry, Ang, etc. might have been trying to do as much as what might have motivated the characters as people. Yes, "it's a movie," but an extraordinarily complex and subtle one, in which characters' thoughts aren't always obvious but are important, so there's plenty to debate. But you can also leverage the idea that if the movie takes the time to show somebody doing something, it's for a reason that serves the objectives of the story/film.
So even in them days it wouldn't have made sense to me to say, oh, they threw in this five minutes of screen time just to give us a glimpse into Junior's mind and understand that she's resentful about having to share time with her dad. The movie is too economical for that. (Heck, even the pavement-spreading scene has at least two or three meaningful things in it!) Obviously, a real life Junior might not know her dad was gay (in fact, that seems far more likely, given the time and place and her lack of direct evidence -- at the very least she probably wouldn't be so tactful and sensitive about it). But a real-life Junior doesn't have a camera following her around recording significant conversations.
So I don't mean "it's a movie" in the sense of, "it's just another installment of Spiderman, you're reading too much into it, a cigar is a cigar." I mean it in the sense of, how can we understand the characters in terms of what we know about them, how they behave -- but also the film's theme? What is the work of art trying to say by including that bit of dialogue?
--- Quote ---I don't suppose I did, because I was never sure how much time was supposed to have elapsed between the two scenes, and I don't remember any dialog about Cassie wanting to go to nursing school.
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OK, I'll admit, I'm confused. I can't lay hands on my copy of Story to Screenplay and I tried to google it but wasn't entirely successful. Does he even mention a nurse in the movie, or is that just in the story?
There is, however, a mention of an unnamed waitress in the story: “Ennis said he's been putting the blocks to a woman who worked part-time at the Wolf Ears bar in Signal where he was working now for Stoutamire's cow and calf outfit, but it wasn't going anywhere and she has some problems he didn't want.”
--- Quote ---(Kind of OT, but often I seem to have trouble figuring out/understanding how much time is supposed to have elapsed between scenes in movies and especially scenes in "serial"-type TV shows, especially when the amount of time is not constant. Of course an exception would be when in one scene the characters are young and in the next they've been aged significantly, or the other way 'round when an older character is supposed to be thinking back to something that happened when he or she was young.)
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I've been watching Frankie and Grace, that TV series with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. It's not very good, but it's mildly entertaining. (Jane Fonda, BTW, looks fantastic at 80. Lily's not bad herself.) Anyway, last night one episode skipped forward in time from the previous one. It's not entirely clear how much time has elapsed, but seemingly months rather than years. The characters' situations have changed somewhat. But it would have been much more confusing except that in the second episode Sam Waterston had grown a goatee.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on February 17, 2018, 11:02:04 am ---OK, I'll admit, I'm confused. I can't lay hands on my copy of Story to Screenplay and I tried to google it but wasn't entirely successful. Does he even mention a nurse in the movie, or is that just in the story?
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My copy was handy. In the script as printed in the book, p. 79, Ennis is given the line, "Been puttin' the blocks to a good-lookin' little gal over in Riverton. Waitresses part-time, wants to go to nursing school."
I forgot about the "waitresses" part. That's why I always assumed it wasn't a reference to Cassie, because when we meet her, she's a bartender instead of a waitress (probably makes more money that way ;D ). I suppose it could still be a reference to Cassie, but I've never thought the script necessarily bore out that interpretation.
Front-Ranger:
What? Cassie was a bartender? I never got that impression. ???
Jeff Wrangler:
Incidentally, I always specify "the script as printed in the book" because my favorite line in the entire movie, "Jack fuckin' Twist," does not appear in the script as printed the book.
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on February 17, 2018, 12:58:38 pm ---What? Cassie was a bartender? I never got that impression. ???
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Well, IIRC, the first time we see her she's standing behind the bar, and around here, anyway, a waitress would not be behind the bar, even to get someone a bottle of beer. Bartenders are fussy that way. We do have women bartenders (just not in a bar where the patrons are mostly gay males). so I've always assumed she was tending bar. That would bear out her comment about being on her feet as much as being a waitress would. Years ago I tended bar for club functions, and being on your feet behind a bar does get tiresome.
Of course, on double checking StoS, on page 72, Cassie is described as a waitress, but what I remember seeing of Linda never gave me that impression. On page 73, there is a reference to another waitress, but I don't remember if we see another waitress in the film or not.
The wine that Cassie drinks is probably her "shift drink," if they have that concept out West. Around here, bartenders and waiters and waitresses get a free drink at the end of their shift.
(Incidentally, I don't mean to argue here, just explain my impression and why I had and have it.)
Of course, it's been so long, my memory may have turned into a mirror and I've got it backward now. My memory is that Cassie is behind the bar (bartender) and walks around it, but maybe she's in front of the bar (waitress). I'll be the first to admit that my memory may be faulty.
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