Author Topic: "Somewhere in Time" 1980 film with parallels to BBM?  (Read 125543 times)

Offline Mandy21

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Re: "Somewhere in Time" 1980 film with parallels to BBM?
« Reply #50 on: November 06, 2010, 01:52:13 pm »
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.

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.
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Offline Mandy21

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Re: "Somewhere in Time" 1980 film with parallels to BBM?
« Reply #51 on: November 06, 2010, 01:53:26 pm »
My copy comes from Netflix Friday.

Lynne, you're so intelligent and perceptive.  I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the film.
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Offline Mandy21

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Re: "Somewhere in Time" 1980 film with parallels to BBM?
« Reply #52 on: November 06, 2010, 01:56:42 pm »
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.


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.
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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: "Somewhere in Time" 1980 film with parallels to BBM?
« Reply #53 on: November 06, 2010, 02:03:04 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?

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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Offline Mandy21

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Re: "Somewhere in Time" 1980 film with parallels to BBM?
« Reply #54 on: November 06, 2010, 02:08:58 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.

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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Offline southendmd

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Re: "Somewhere in Time" 1980 film with parallels to BBM?
« Reply #55 on: November 06, 2010, 02:10:08 pm »


"Is it you?"

Marge_Innavera

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Re: "Somewhere in Time" 1980 film with parallels to BBM?
« Reply #56 on: November 06, 2010, 02:26:57 pm »
Yes, he did, but what he knew was going on up there was sex, not love.

An OT observation about the mountain scene with Aguirre:

IMO, this wouldn't be the first time that young males working for Aguirre had sex to relieve tension (re Annie Proulx' quote). What seems to really disturb him on his unexpected visit is the discovery that they've changed roles: Ennis up with the sheep, Jack back at camp.  Aguirre might not have given either much thought; but the two together suggest a domestic arrangement that goes a bit beyond sex as a physical release.

When you think about it, that's a foundation of the opposition to same-sex marriage. It isn't so much opposition to same-sex activity as to the suggestion that there's something more than that. It's the people who are often accused of being "heteronormative" that are the real threats to the NOM organizers of the world.

Marge_Innavera

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Re: "Somewhere in Time" 1980 film with parallels to BBM?
« Reply #57 on: November 06, 2010, 02:30:58 pm »


"Is it you?"

Great BBM/Somewhere In Time sig!   :)

Marge_Innavera

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Re: "Somewhere in Time" 1980 film with parallels to BBM?
« Reply #58 on: November 06, 2010, 02:33:09 pm »

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.


Oh, now I'm gonna have to get a copy from Netflix too!  My old VHS copy is somewhere around, but we don't have a VCR anymore.

As I recall, Seymour's character says that her manager has foreseen a number of things that would happen in her career; that he seemed to know just what would happen.  So maybe he was a time-traveler too?  Now I'll have to read the book!

Offline Mandy21

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Re: "Somewhere in Time" 1980 film with parallels to BBM?
« Reply #59 on: November 06, 2010, 02:56:21 pm »
Oh, now I'm gonna have to get a copy from Netflix too!  My old VHS copy is somewhere around, but we don't have a VCR anymore.

As I recall, Seymour's character says that her manager has foreseen a number of things that would happen in her career; that he seemed to know just what would happen.  So maybe he was a time-traveler too?  Now I'll have to read the book!

Oh stop it, Marge!  Now you're just freaking me out with that possibility that CP was a time-traveler too?  EEK!  Guess tomorrow's going to have to be a double-feature afternoon.
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