I need to watch the movie again closely but I wondered about this scene and all those people. I wondered if it was a hallucination of Harlan's or real. I thought it would be cool if was a hallucination that nobody else could see but him and that would indicate his mental illness.
Also, the shadow on the bedroom curtain really creeped me out "Night of the Hunter" style. What was that supposed to mean?
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i live in the valley and im pretty sure that was in the mountains between simi valley and my town of chatsworth. we have old western sets in our mountains and a lot of scenes from movies get done here.
the scene was basically supposed to be that he walked on do a movie getting filmed.
Oh, that was a movie being filmed? I thought that was some kind of hallucination in Harlan's mind, at least until David Morse pulled up in his car.
shareMy interpretation of that scene is that it is not another one of Harlan's delusions, but it is a film being shot. Remember when the girl asks the man in black to "take a turn with her?" I think they say that bit of dialogue a couple of times in Harlan's presence. I feel like they were rehearsing a scene together. Also, in at least one shot you can very clearly see a movie camera.
I believe Harlan and the boy wandered onto a film set by accident.
There is no doubt that it is a movie set - you can see the camera and camera operators behind Harlan's head and also the production trailers when the police car pulls in to the set with the father and the cop. The scene is shot in that manner for three different reasons: 1. to build momentum for the closing sequence, starting slow Harlan with waking up and walking down as the music gets louder adding to the suspense of the sequence 2. to provide a moment of ambiguity as the audience questions the reality of whether or not it is an halucination and finally 3. to reaffirm the movie's strong connection to the western movie given Harlan's delusional cowboy fantasy. Another example of the film's subtle origninality displayed throughout. A great movie.
shareI can't believe some people think otherwise. I did initially think it could have been a hallucination/dream but after the film camera pops up.. hello? what else could it be?!
Ironically, this isn't even ironic at all.
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