MovieChat Forums > The Man in the Moon (1991) Discussion > I don't get it...*spoiler*

I don't get it...spoiler

posted 16 years ago by jara0779
26 replies | jump to latest

I bought the DVD on sale and am just now watching it for the first time.

What in the world happened on the tractor with Court? One minute he's fantasizing(?) about seeing Maureen and the next minute the tractor is still running without a driver? Did he fall off? If so, why? That doesn't make sense since he's so experienced as a driver...What more is there to do than sit on the tractor? His death seemed like a big plot device to up the drama in the movie. I liked the movie up until then. It would've been better if they skipped a few years ahead to when Maureen comes home from college with a NEW BOYFRIEND (engaged or married) and Dani is now old enough to date Court without him feeling guilty about the age difference.

Reese Witherspoon is a great actress!

[–] cheerqueeen879 16 years ago

He was distracted about Maureen and not thinking reached out for his hat and fell off, then the tractor blades cut him up.

[–] Deannie308-2 16 years ago

What a horrible way to die!Poor Court,poor mother!
Poor Dani! Poor Maureen!Poor writers!

[–] cmflash 16 years ago

That scene with Court's mother holding him and covered with blood, just breaks my heart. I think of my own son and I would just want to die too if such a thing happened to him!!!

"Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat". ~Henry Emerson Fosdick

[–] imwoblin 16 years ago

A very sad scene, which unfortunately happened all too frequently when one doesn't pay attention when handling dangerous farm equipment. Oh, and as far as this scene being a plot device, this movie was based on a true story and filmed on location where everything happened....

[–] cheerqueeen879 16 years ago

This was a true story? Wow.

[–] vicky_lc2001-1 12 years ago

A true story? Do you have any more details on it? A link or something?

Global Warming, it's a personal decision innit? - Nigel Tufnel

[–] ago-silverman 10 years ago

Other thread about the story, maybe?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102388/board/nest/212216283

in VA

[–] queen_supreme-1 16 years ago

Wait what?
I don't remember the movie showing court's mom holding him.
Did it show him after he had been cut up?

[–] SnapCrackledThePop 11 years ago

She was holding him covered in blood when yelling at Dani to go away.

[–] Limeginger 16 years ago

do you not have Rewind on your DVD player?

[–] Deannie308-2 16 years ago

Who was the real Court Foster?

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] banders46 16 years ago

Of course it's a plot device; it's a movie after all. But as a previous poster pointed out, these kinds of farm accidents used to be all too common. I had a relative killed in this way.

[–] alzanden-1 13 years ago

Accidents happen....being careless, not paying attention. It's very sad and one doesn't have to be stupid for it to happen to them. My uncle fell off his tractor once and it ran over him. Luckily he lived but it broke his pelvis. I'm not sure exactly how it happened but more than likely he wasn't paying attention somehow. Careless yes, but we've all done stupid and careless things, luckily the results are not always as extreme as being severely injured or killed, but that really just boils down to luck.

If Court hadn't been tilling the field with the discs he would have just had a few bumps and bruises since obviously the fall didn't hurt him too bad and he fell off the back so the actual tractor wouldn't have run him over.

[–] PenTheater 13 years ago

farming injuries and deaths are way up there on the tote board, and back when farming was a bigger industry (you do know it used to be a majority) even more.

[–] jaynekranc 11 years ago

The ACCIDENT actually happened. It has happened often. A guy near me in Indiana fell of his tractor and died a few weeks ago. There is not necessarily a Court Foster. If I am reading this correctly...which I think I am.

[–] writer_cb 16 years ago

Your DVD must be faulty. What I saw in the movie was: Court was remembering the time he'd had with Maureen, her running towards him, their embrace and kiss, and then he leads her to that spot in the woods. Then, he sees his hat still on a tree branch, and it jolts him out of his fantasy a bit, as if he's thinking, "Oh, I left that there?"

He reached out to grab the hat, but reaches too far, and ends up falling (somehow) backwards off the tractor. You see him look back towards the tractor blades that are coming towards him...

And in a later scene, his mother holds his body...it's so sad!!

[–] thorg23 13 years ago

Actually, not "tractor blades". The tractor was pulling an implement which I believe is called a "disc"; a parallel series of steel discs which is used to break up the soil. He fell off, and the disc was pulled over him, presumably chopping him up horribly.

[–] gallileo60 13 years ago

Things like that happen all the time, not paying attention, and getting hurt, or killed.Dani is the one who I felt sorry for..Court was crazy to let her get away, and it cost him his life..Maureen should have been ashamed of herself knowing how her little sister felt, and back in the day people did grow up a bit faster, and had more responsibility than today...Reese was, and is Smoking hot, and a great actress..This is some of her finest work IMHO.....

You Have a Hard Lip, Herbert..

Better Living Thru Chemistry

[–] missik777 13 years ago

I just watched this movie again last night for the first time in years. Unfortunately these sad farming accidents happen all too often. I live in farm country and work in the medical field, so we often see horrible accidents. Especially horrific are the ones where children are riding on the tractor and fall off and run over, or get caught up in farm machinery.

Farming is a dangerous business, one of the most dangerous, and often young people are working on family farms while they are too young to legally work anywhere else.

That scene in the movie was horribly sad. I know his injuries would have been horrific, and when his mom was holding him and covered with blood it was so incredibly awful. Losing a husband and then losing her son in such a terrible accident, how could she ever go on?

[–] Traction311 12 years ago

What I don't understand is how he got hit. Gravity suggests while leaning to his left to get the hat, he fell to the left. So if you fall out of a car with no doors driving at about 5mph, you won't get run over.

Unless...The tractor had long rear blades. Did it, I don't recall?

[–] llindith 12 years ago

A disc is wider than a tractor. The discs are sharp enough to cut through tough sod and weeds -- not razor sharp, but they're weighted to slice through several inches of soil. Skin and bone are nothing compared to tough tree root and matted layers of grass roots. Plot device this may be, but it's a realistic one. In fact, we had a Labrador that died that way - bolted between the tractor and the disk before my dad could get the tractor stopped. :(

I agree with a previous poster. The minute I saw he was daydreaming on the tractor, I *knew* he would have a serious, if not fatal, accident.

[–] banders46 11 years ago

Yes, it was all too common. My older cousin died in a tractor accident like this in the 1950s.

[–] Deannie308-2 11 years ago

Sorry about the cousin and it would be nice had Maureen gotten
pregnant from that love making. It make Court's death easier to take.

[–] zoolzool 11 years ago

Had Maureen gotten pregnant, she would have been made to give it up for adoption. Or a story would have had to have been made up that she and Court got married a week or two before. Or she would have been married off to that other kid that was her date at the dance (Billy?). This was the 50's remember?

The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had.

[–] Deannie308-2 11 years ago

Yeah, I know, but I'm sure things like that did happen. Maybe Maureen's
parents would be more understanding and not so opinionated about that situation.