Presently I’m going to side with Gary who says that Crockett’s death was ‘happenstance’, however I would also like to add in a generous dollop of ‘dramatic irony’ if I may.
It is possible that Crockett’s own stupidity (not to mention his lust for Bonnie) lead him to his death.
Also it might have been a ‘salvation’ of sorts for Cully and Bonnie.
Follow me for a moment in my line of reasoning here:
27.01: Straker hires Crockett to make sure the ‘sideboard’ (i.e. the crate containing Barlow) is delivered to the Marsten House.
28.00: Straker to Crockett: ‘You will procure four stout padlocks’ with specific instructions that everything is to be locked up securely (hence prevent an escape of the hungry Barlow.)
Crockett hires Cully for the Portland job, who in turn sub-contracts it out to Mike Ryerson and Ned Tibbets, for his own reasons of wanting to discover the affair between Bonnie and Crockett. Somewhere along the way the importance of the ‘locking everything up’ instruction is not communicated.
Ryerson and Tibbets are in a tense and wound up state after delivering the crate to the house.
53.26: Ryerson to Tibbets: ‘The padlocks throw them down, the keys throw them down too.’
53.40: Tibbets does precisely that, hence not following orders, and leaving Barlow ‘free to roam’ as it were.
57.26: Straker delivers the body of Ralphie to the Marsten House, supposedly as a ‘wake-up snack’ however, the crate has obviously been forcibly broken out of.
1.02.58: An ill-used and unfortunate Crockett has an even more ill-fated meeting with Barlow
Cully and Bonnie later drop Crockett’s body at the lake, to avoid any connection with them (i.e. the fact that the poor guy had a heart-attack outside their house.) After all, didn't Dr. Norton say to Ben that there was 'local gossip' about the affair?
Thus it has all come full circle, Crockett causes his own death, and oddly the ‘winners’ out of the situation are Cully and Bonnie, who wisely decide to ‘skip town’ and avoid the local heat, and avoiding much worse into the bargain (although they do not know it.)
Score one for a little marital infidelity, if you will.
Please post with any thoughts.
Cheers for now.
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jangoq
8 years ago
Crockett's motivation and lust is separate from whether or not Barlow knew where he was. Barlow would have just as well gone to Crockett's house or office to kill him.
I already pointed out the town gossip, that would explain how Barlow knew where he was.
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stones78
8 years ago
In horror cannon, those who are promiscuous usually pay the price, such as Larry AND Bonnie, but Hooper threw us a curve-ball, and Bonnie got away without penalty, save for a rocky marriage, but poor Crockett paid the ultimate price. In the book, Barlow met with Corey(Ned)after Reggie(Cully)threatened him, but that obviously wouldn't have worked in the film with Larry. FWIW, I think Cully/Reggie was a fat wuss for not just beating up Corey/Larry, rather than go through the baloney with the rifle.
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