What Was up with the Colonel's Wife?

No offense but, but I can't believe some posts here are attributing it to alzeheimer's.

I agree w/ the other posts that say she was clearly just suffering from a dysfunctional family: closeted husband who is consequently repressed, violent (towards the son at least), and angry. If you lived in an unhealthy environment lke that, you'd probably succumb in some way too!

Also, I agree: maybe she was on medication, particularly anti-depressants. And speaking of, obviously depression was probably a likely condition she suffered from, from all of the above mentioned factors.

Lastly, I agree w/ the post that we didn't need to see "more" of her situation. The fact that we all gleaned this much and can discuss it proves it was enough! Also: we didn't need to know if her husband physically abused her, and he didn't have to—his silence and lack of genuine love towards her was enough abuse. And just because he physically abused Ricky doesn't mean he would do that to her as well. If anything, her dynamic as being his WIFE probably kept him at bay since he knew he was living a lie by marrying someone he wasn't even attracted to, you know? Just my speculation, that he probably didn't even TOUCH her in any way, shape or form for that reason.

I was always under the impression that the Mrs Fitts was a abused/battered wife. The movie makes it very clear that Colonel Fitts easily flies into a violent rage at his own son over insignificant things, hence there is no reason not to believe he wouldn't also do the same to his wife (which is very typical in an abusive family situation).

I was in an abusive marriage for six years, and ironically this film came out during that time. So I found it very easy to relate to the wife character. When a person is stuck in an abusive relationship, it is like you become an empty shell of the person you used to be before. The abuser drains all of the life and the spirit out of you until there is nothing of you left. They want to control you right down to the very thoughts and feelings running through your head... aka brainwashing. The wife character didn't have dementia. Being subjected to constant abuse (whether it is emotional, physical, verbal, etc) causes severe depression which can significantly impact your cognition and memory. It is like you are so mentally wrapped up in reacting to and surviving the abusive relationship that you have a really hard time thinking clearly about anything, or relating to things in the outside world. Many psychiatric drugs also have a numbing effect on a person's emotions, as well as causing a doped-up feeling which in turn impacts memory.

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George Lassos the Moon

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What do you think?