The "goofs" section mentions the anachronism in the 60's scene, but the description is a bit off. The timing in the film is off by one year, not two. The son would have died in July 1964, before the election, so this scene should have been labeled 1965 (they met each year in the Spring--tax season). Otherwise, they had a weekend together after Michael was killed and he didn't bring it up. The play got it right, but the film inexplicably changed the year.
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I don't follow your question. My point was that the son's death is prior to the 1964 election and he died in July, after the couple's 1964 rendezvous. If he had died in 1963 or earlier, George would have told her about it before the election. So this had to be their first meeting after the 1964 election: Spring, 1965.
shareWhy does anyone find this difficult to understand?
George voted for Goldwater in November 1964.
His son died in Vietnam sometime between their 1965 meeting and the one in 1966.
When they got together in 1965, George didn't happen to mention that he voted for Goldwater. The subject didn't happen to come up. People don't necessarily have to say, "Oh, hey, I haven't seen you in a year, but let me tell you who I voted for in last year's election." The only reason he mentioned it the next year was because Doris had started going to college and getting political, and she brought the subject up: "Next you'll be telling me you voted for Goldwater!" But to have a rendezvous one year without having the subject of who he voted for come into the conversation is hardly a huge discrepancy; it doesn't take any great stretch of the imagination.
It just really isn't that complicated.
He implies that he changed his political stance (he once voted for Stevenson) & voted for Republican Goldwater (in Nov 1964) 'because' his son Michael was killed in Vietnam, so his son must have died before the the 4th of July 1964.
He was bitter & grieving in his own quiet internal way, he even mentions not ever having cried about his son's death, so that explains why he never mentioned Micheal's death before (during their 1964-1965 meetings). I suspect he would have never talked about his son's death for the rest of his life if he wasn't goaded into doing so by the woman he loves.
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