MovieChat Forums > The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) Discussion > Could he have survived that hit? (Spoil...

Could he have survived that hit? (Spoilers)

posted 9 years ago by jgroub
20 replies | jump to latest

Of course I'm talking about Dickie in the boat. He was bleeding very profusely, they were very far out. Assuming that they, ahem, kissed and made up after that blow, I don't know how you'd be able to stop bleeding like that. Especially not in time to get all the way back in to shore, and then wait another hour after that for an ambulance, like Silvana did. I think he would have bled out.

What do you think? Was he a goner from that first hit, no matter what either of them did?

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

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] Quicksilver1900 9 years ago

Upon reflection, I do not think Dickie planned to kill Tom and throw him overboard. That would have serious blowback for Dickie, not least of which would come from his father, who was in regular communication with Tom. I do think he planned to give him the fright of his life as payback for the deception he had perpetrated.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] Quicksilver1900 9 years ago

But why would he do that? He had a good life - his trust fund, a great life in Europe, and a fiancé. Why would he jeopardise that? The incident at Princeton was an unexpected, out of control attack. Dickie planned to take Tom out in the boat, he rented the boat (and in Europe you have to give documentation for everything) and he had no real reason to kill him. He just wanted to rid himself of Tom's presence, and pay him back for having deceived him.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] AllieMDA 9 years ago

Eariler in the story, Meredith was also saying that only she sees a tender side to him that no one else sees, so somehow she knew somewhat of his past but loved him anyway.

Wait wait. Do you mean Meredith, who mistook Tom for Dickie the whole time?
Or Marge, Gwyneth Paltrow's character who was basically engaged to original-Jude Law- Dickie?

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] AllieMDA 9 years ago

Thanks for clarifying! I was pretty sure that's what you meant but I wanted to double-check.
The names are pretty easy to confuse (one reason I tend to think of Marge as Gwyneth Paltrow :)

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] Quicksilver1900 9 years ago

Marge is such a 1940s-50s name.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] AllieMDA 9 years ago

Don't forget the sky-high bad perm blue-haired look . I wouldn't exactly call it 50's but I guess you could call it "brute"!
:)

[–] jgroub 9 years ago

Bandaged it with what, though? Wrapping their shirts around his head? How is that going to stop the bleeding anyway? It'll just absorb a lot of blood, is all.

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

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] frankiegee 9 years ago

I think if he was given immediate medical attention say within the hour I think he could have had a chance. Tom was pretty strong himself it seemed and well he definitely wasn't weak, and he hit him as hard as he could right around the temple with that heavy oar. I mean you can kill someone by hitting somebody in the temple with a blunt object so maybe maybe not.

[–] Noir-It-All 8 years ago

I can barely look at that scene but it looked like Tom cracked Dickie's skull open.

[–] brinsonmh 8 years ago

I think he'd have bled out in a few minutes.

[–] degree7 (821) 5 years ago

That was hardly a fatal injury. He wasn’t even bleeding that profusely.

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 4 years ago

Agree - it was a bad gash but not life-threatening.

It was, however, bad enough to drive Dickie into his rage-state, likely exactly his state at Princeton when he "half-killed" the other guy.

So Dickie could've survived, but at that point I believe Tom's life was genuinely at risk.

But I do NOT believe Dickie took Tom out on the boat with any ill intent. He was actually feeling relieved that Tom was finally going away, which is why the conversation turned so ugly when Tom started talking about returning to Italy after reporting to Mr. Greenleaf

In his commentary, Mingella describes Dickie's reaction as "alarmed," which I find funny for some reason.

[–] Otter (24464) 4 years ago

The bleeding was ugly, but not life-threatening. A human has to lose pints of blood to die of it, blood trickling down your face won't kill you.

As to the head injury, depends. If he had a concussion and/or skull fracture without complications, yes, he might have survived it. He was young and healthy and had no conscience to trouble his recovery.

If he'd had a bleed anywhere inside the skull cavity or a depressed fracture, or anything that required surgery, he'd have been toast. I shudder to think what medical care was like in the Italian hinterlands, in the 1950s.