Yes, so well put! It is the truth of such moments like that that make this such a great film. It's hard to believe that we could feel for Joey at this moment considering how he had picked on Lupus earlier.
Watching this film brings back a lot of memories of my own childhood. It's interesting because we would probably all agree that Roy Turner was a certain kind of bastard. On the other hand, I also remember how tough and authoritative parents could be then and how far we seem to have moved away from that. Some of the authority embodied by Turner is greatly needed in today's society, I feel. But there are several things that make this one incident different.
First of all, Turner completely humiliates his son in a very public way. Humiliation is one of the most damaging ways to approach discipline (incidentally, I believe it's the most damaging thing in marriages as well). Secondly, Turner fails to recognize that Joey's attempt to bean Engleberg likely came from his own mixed message; he instills fierce competitiveness in Joey, yet forces him to intentionally walk a batter, causing frustration and shame. I'm not saying Turner shouldn't have tried to address what Joey did, but he couldn't have chosen a more damaging way to do it (when his wife comes over and calls him a sonofabitch, we can certainly feel that a major line had been crossed).
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