MovieChat Forums > Sunset Blvd. (1950) Discussion > He shoulda gone with Betty

He shoulda gone with Betty

posted 10 years ago by jgroub
12 replies | jump to latest

Betty was great - she didn't care about Joe's status. "I haven't heard any of this. I never got those telephone calls. I've never been in this house. Get your things together. Let's get out of here." Good enough for me!

Betty was willing to forgive everything. He shoulda ran outta there with her, hocked all the gold trinkets Norma gave him, and started fresh with Betty. Selfish jerk. Of course, then we'd have no picture.

I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jgroub 10 years ago

True, but he could have forgiven himself, too. Again, I realize - no movie. But in "real life," if you were in this situation, and the woman you really loved forgave you, wouldn't you fall into her arms, and forgive yourself as well?

I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

[–] good-girl-u 10 years ago

Some people will just never let themselves be happy. He seems like he's just endlessly tormented.

[–] telegonus 10 years ago

Yes, I think there's something to that. The movie's larger than life characters,--Norma, Cecil B. DeMille, even the once great director turned butler Max Von Mayerling--tend to overshadow the struggling and very modern Joe Gillis. There's a restlessness to Joe, a self-disgust mixed with an ambition that seems driven more by a desire to be rich and famous than a desire to be an artist. Betty saw the best in Joe, which is more than what Joe saw. I don't think he believed it.

[–] good-girl-u 10 years ago

Spot on! I just don't think he would have been happy though in the long run with Betty. He was doomed to always be forlorn.

Spoon your way to health...

[–] Arum 9 years ago

Spoiler alert...Even so, the script would in that case have had no other choice but having Norma kill Betty as well, as the viewer at that point already knows Norma has a gun at hand. By not going with her, Joe actually saves Betty's life.

[–] cpmorr 8 years ago

Very good point.

[–] lubin-freddy 9 years ago

No,he had to continue the narrative's learning curve, and atone for "sins".

But, Wilder then subverts the dramatic conventions.

"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."

[–] thesnowleopard 9 years ago

Not so selfish. She was engaged to his best friend, remember?

Innsmouth Free Press http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com

[–] cartesianthought 9 years ago

I think Joe missed his freedom the most. To write whatever he wants for whoever he wants. To just drive his car and be free.

He didn't want to have an affair or break up Betty's engagement. He didn't want to be Norma's pet and caretaker either.

[–] rmontro 9 years ago

I think this shows how harmless flirting can escalate into something more. I thought Joe was a little cavalier with his friend's fiancé from the very beginning. But whatever. I think he knew she would be better off with Artie, sort of like the end of Casablanca.

He may have also suspected (or known) that while Betty didn't care about his status then, she might in the future.

[–] liscarkat (18897) 6 days ago

Yeah, but it's part of the tragedy of Joe's short life that he let that relationship go.