What a creep!
Each time Stewart walked onto screen, he made my skin crawl. I'm sure they could make a sequel showing the true story of Elwood P. Dowd the serial killer! WTF was with his almost aggressive insistence on going through doors last? Drooling over Miss Kelly like she was a juicy steak... This freak clearly had more issues than just the giant rabbit.
I agree about Elwood. I couldn’t see what made him so endearing. What I saw when watching the movie was how relevant this old movie is to what's going on in the world now. I saw some interesting parallels.
For one, Elwood has very serious emotional and psychological problems; he's a drunk who has withdrawn completely from society and has abandoned all the things he once had going for him. He spends all his time in a bar and hanging out with his imaginary friend - a six foot, talking rabbit. He contributes nothing to society.
Yet, the movie suggests the problem lies with the people around him; like his sister who worries about him and wants him to get well. It's very much like what's going on in our society today. A lot of people are dealing with serious mental issues; they don't know who or what they are and can't figure out the basic rules of nature but it's the people who suggests they might need help who are said to have the problem.
How bizarre! What's even more absurd is we bend over backwards to makeover the world so the few oddballs can feel like they fit in and are 'normal' while the majority have to adjust and be inconvenienced. It makes absolutely no sense. It's like we're all on drugs and loopy; which relates to the movie too. All the drinking has seeped into and affected Elwood's brain. He doesn't just have a rabbit for a friend - his rabbit is beyond any kind of rabbit anyone has ever seen. It's no wonder a lot of states are legalizing drugs. If we all get high we'll all start seeing a talking, six foot plus tall, talking rabbit too.
Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]
The story is a joke, as in entertainment, escapism (- Key word)
Yet, the movie suggests the problem lies with the people around him
The main joke is that the audience is expected to root for this creep. Give this role to literally anyone else apart from Stewart and the film would have been forgotten decades ago.
shareThe Protagonist that is seen as unique (as in different from everyone else) in either a comedy or a drama that seems to be the hero of the story that if analyzed objectively is actually flawed. Nah, never been done before or since.
Ephemeron.
Thanks for defining the word "unique" for me mate. I really would have struggled to understand such a complex comment without your help! ... You may perhaps want to crack open the dictionary again for that last word though, which is assume was supposed to say 'since' ???
Elwood is not flawed, he is a psychopath, and is in no way likeable. Although I'm kind of over it now to be honest. A pretty mediocre & extremely dated film.
thanks for the edit,
before you go could you elaborate on him being a psychopath? He didn't seem amoral, violent or antisocial to me.
Plenty of the people in the movie liked him.
I looked up the definition of psychopath in that same dictionary, it's not fitting Elwood's character. Which dictionary are you using?
I went to Sarcasm University too, I think I graduated a few years before you though.
Ephemeron.
You're a very sad person who makes the world a worst place. You're on a forum continuously ranting about a fictional character. You're the one with the problem.
shareHalBanksy says > The main joke is that the audience is expected to root for this creep. Give this role to literally anyone else apart from Stewart and the film would have been forgotten decades ago.I can't tell if you're paying Stewart a compliment or you're saying the audiences accepted the movie because he was in it; probably both are true. I think Stewart did an excellent job and deserves that credit.
altpensacola says > You almost got the joke.No, I got the joke. As I said, I did enjoy the movie - until the end. For me, the ending changed everything. I felt it was no longer a joke at that point; the message was clear. In order to be happy Elwood had to remain as he was AND everyone else had to just accept his delusions. We're to believe everyone is better off that way.
This is interesting because I read the same type of debates on other film characters on this site, are they good? are they bad? should we like them? etc...
Enid in Ghost World, R.P. Mc Murphy in Cuckoo's Nest, Tommy in Tree's Lounge, Heck even Atticus in To Kill A Mockingbird.
All more serious films (yes, even Ghost World), but I never thought that seriously about Elwood Dowd, I always looked at it as a funny little old stage play, now when I watch it again I am going to check my thoughts! Not going to thank you yet....
Ephemeron.
😃 Be sure to share your thoughts if/when you see it again.
Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]
Let me ask you this, since this move is listed as a fantasy, and we as the audience are given clues to the Pooka's actual existence, in the scope of the story, IF Harvey is real, is Elwood still pathetic to you?
Ephemeron.
altpensacola says > Let me ask you this, since this move is listed as a fantasy, and we as the audience are given clues to the Pooka's actual existence, in the scope of the story, IF Harvey is real, is Elwood still pathetic to you?Yes, because it still sends, what I think is, the wrong message. Even within the context of the movie, Harvey is an oddity. He exists in the mind of Elwood and perhaps to some degree for those who choose to play along.
Golly. Generations of movie-goers have had it wrong, but you nailed it. 😂
The take I had on Elwood was that he'd pushed himself too hard and snapped. "'Elwood' -- my mother always used to call me Elwood -- 'in this world you must be oh, so smart, or oh so pleasant.' I've tried smart. I recommend pleasant. And you may quote me." He was probably one of those three martini lunch types when he was a business tycoon. Now he's slowed down to take an interest in everybody. He's obliging. When that moronic, "impressed with his own MDeification" Dr. Sanderson -- who's exactly as competent as the average doctor I've met -- thinks he's gotten the wrong person in the hospital, Elwood wants to make him happy and leave, but he also wants to make that nurse in the sensible shoes happy by letting her give him a bath. Yes, Elwood is nuts. But he's obliging and pleasant.
Once upon a time, the polite thing to do was to allow the other person to go through the door first. It was called "manners," and -- with everything else that comes under that heading -- it has fallen out of favor in society.
If he were really drooling over Miss Kelly like she were a juicy steak, he wouldn't have kept trying to get Miss Kelly and the stupid Dr. Sanderson together all the time. He wanted people to be happy. He wanted his niece, Myrtle Mae, to get together with that "white slaver," (extra points for remembering Jesse White as the lonely Maytag repairman) over the objections of his social-climbing sister. He'd given up social climbing, and happily conversed with bums who'd spent the last month doing a job for the state...making license plates.
He was even so obliging that he was willing to take the doctor's special formula and go back to the stress of trying to keep his sister and niece up in the style to which they wanted to become accustomed again, even though it was the very thing that had made his mind snap. He was nuts, but he wasn't a freak.
thanks for making sense.
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