I'd really like to know if I'm the only one but everytime I watch this movie by the end I feel completely indifferent towards the girls and it's the way that their death affects the neighborhood boys that breaks my heart. That one narrative part where one of the boys says something along the lines of "And to this day, we still think about them" makes me cry every time
sharehave you read the book? it's gonna break your heart even more.
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I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world!
it was very sad. I felt for them as well
"it's a cold, cold world when you don't wear pants"-sb
youravon.com/lfrost
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Those boys were borderline creepy and criminally voyeuristic. I guess, it's kind of endearing that they fetishized "the Lisbon" girls. I mean, they stalked, watched, and documented the girls whole complete lives through a window across the street, stolen possessions, and recollections of neighborhood deadbeats.
I guess in today's world where no one steps outside or looks away from their phone could people act like this
Growing up as kids when you spent 90% of the time outside - your street was most of your world. You noticed every stupid thing and cared about everything that went on.
I can imagine how much more I'd be fascinated if 5 girls in my age range lived on my street
The boys as teens were a bit stalkerish, but the girls knew they did it and basically gave their consent.
I agree about the sadness of the boys' talking at the end! I usually cry also.
"Coulda-woulda-shoulda" is one of the worst feelings ever, and these boys obviously had this feeling through their whole adult lives.
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."
I loved the boys, I didn't think they were stalkerish because the girls invited them into their lives for whatever reason, the friendship, to mess with them. The end definitely breaks my heart, I think they so badly wanted to save them and when they couldn't they felt responsible.
As for the book, I've never read it but I want to, I just feel like I have to get into the mood for it. I know it's going to totally depress me :(
I love the boys! They are so sweet. I'd take Tim Weiner over Trip Fontaine any day.
shareHaving just watched this film for the first time (it's been on my must-see list for a long time--I finally bought it last week), I would be so bold as to say that it is actually about the boys and the affect of these girls and their suicides, not the Lisbon girls themselves. It's the boys we get to know through their fascination with the sisters. Other than Mr. Lisbon, I'd say the boys are the only truly sympathetic characters in the whole film, even though they're not the ones who died. Because we view the events of the film through the lens of those neighborhood boys, everyone else is a mythologized version of their true selves; Tim, Chase, and the others are the only ones we are allowed to really know.
shareThis is what I was going to say too. I completely agree that this story was more about how the suicides affected the boys and the audience doesnt know the girls that well.
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The story was written by a man.
And of course they wanted a piece of it. But for whatever reason, they were too timid to act on it. They kept a safe distance & indulged in fantasies. It happens:
http://www.vice.com/read/a-visit-to-the-worlds-largest-porn-convention
Kevin Williamson of National Review nailed down the irony of these conventions. People spend a ton of cash to attend these events in Vegas. Hotels charge peak rates, admission at the door is a few hundred bucks, opportunity cost is lost by waiting in booth lines for hours & there are fees for photos. It's as bad as Disneyland. Meanwhile, just up the road in Pahrump, some of the same porn stars are working in brothels. These porn enthusiasts could ACTUALLY have sex with porn stars. And they balk.
I found the boys pretty unrealistic. Yes, their reaction to Lux having sex on the roof is especially unrealistic (actually, I felt that was the film's low point, as it's also not very realistic that the guy would climb on the roof, etc, without anyone noticing). Also, the way they obsess about trying to understand them doesn't seem realistic for teenage boys (getting the same magazines as them was particularly far-fetched).
shareToo bad we didn't see the other guys as adults 25 years later. That was weird and goofy the way the guys were spying on Lux when she was having sex. I'm sure if she made a play for either guy, they would be on the roof too. The scene when the teens played music to each other over the phone was cute.
shareFor one thing, that's how it's written in the book. For another, these aren't boys like Trip--these are truly boys, afraid to actually approach, too childish for Lux to take real notice of them. I think it only seems unrealistic to us now because I don't think it's particularly common to try to understand anything about anyone anymore, which is a shame. In earlier times, being a young teen was a lot more about yearning and imagining than anything else, and this was the only way they could be close to the Lisbon girls, as they couldn't have real interactions with them. In the end, it's really the idea of the girls that the boys were infatuated with, just like Trip with Lux. They're nothing but symbols, and once they're known, they cease to have the same value.
I actually thought it was a loss to not include Lux's uneasiness while she and Trip had sex--that one sentence makes it even clearer that part of her allure was seeming incredibly confident and untouchable, and that it was nothing but artifice.
Never settle with words what you can accomplish with a flamethrower.
Are you saying that getting to know the girls would've broken the mysticism of them?
You want to play the game, you'd better know the rules, love.
-Harry Callahan
That is absolutely what I think. Getting to know anyone demystifies them. I mean, think about a time when you saw a person across a room and were immediately attracted to them. In your mind, they are anything you could imagine them to be. It's limitless, really--everything about them is a mystery and that can make them truly fascinating. Then think about getting to know someone you saw this way. They suddenly become a real human being, afraid of things, dysfunctional in their own way, with flaws aplenty. Confronting the reality of the person wipes away all that they might have been in your mind. It's the same reason Trip was over Lux as soon as he had her. While she was a mystery, she was unknowable and unbelievably alluring, and when she was demystified, she was just another girl.
Never settle with words what you can accomplish with a flamethrower.
lol my dear child. That's not always the case. A lot of times the person you're interested in can be one of the most charismatic human beings.
You want to play the game, you'd better know the rules, love.
-Harry Callahan
Thanks for being condescending when you know nothing about me outside of two IMDB posts (and there's definitely no reason to call me "child"--I'm 30 years old). I've been married for 5 years, with my husband for 8, and while I still think he's awesome and amazing, there's no mystery. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but that's the principle at work here.
Never settle with words what you can accomplish with a flamethrower.
Well, your interpretation is right on, I think, and obviously not something that would be made by a "child".
There's a scene with a character in "Citizen Kane" where he talks about seeing a beautiful woman one time, and even though he sees her only once and never even talks to her, he thinks about her every day. Even if everybody isn't like that, a lot of males are certainly like that.
I'm not discounting all those people who think they have found their "soul mate", but something that is mysterious and unrequited can be much more powerful and haunting than any requited relationship. I sometimes think even the "soul mate" stuff is just for shallow people. Deeper people may be more likely to spend their lives being haunted by an elusive "white whale" than to ever settle for the cliche of a "soul mate".
Thank you for the moral support. :D There aren't many things in the world more annoying than being talked down to.
I totally agree with what you're saying--in just meeting someone, having a brief interaction with them, or not even meeting them at all, the possibilities are limitless, and that's incredibly appealing to someone with an imagination. Plus, this kind of infatuation is totally suited to junior high/high school, especially 20-30 years ago, when the only interaction you could have with someone with whom you might be infatuated was at school or in your neighborhood, no following them on Twitter and Instagram and being friends with them on Facebook, where you have access to so much of the person. That is demystifying in itself. It's a shame, in some ways, and I do admit to being afflicted with a sometimes crippling case of nostalgia. :)
Never settle with words what you can accomplish with a flamethrower.
sometimes the flaws of the mysterious person you're infatuated with makes them even more unique.
shareTremendous post, lazarillo.
To sum it up, nothing matches our own idealism. We look for something otherworldly in the opposite sex, something which no earthbound person can actually contain. Although they may give off hints of it.
The whole concept of the boys' feelings toward them is to point out how the real victims of suicide are the loved ones left behind - not the ones who kill themselves
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