guy staring from the vw beetle - Broken Flowers (2005) Discussion

[–] bornin04 14 years ago

The guy in the VW is Bill Murray's actual son in real life, Homer Murray. Check the credits.

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[–] shurbanm 14 years ago

thanks for info but I was not asking who the actor is in real life

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[–] bornin04 14 years ago

Ok well you asked what the significance of that scene was and the significance of that scene was that it is his actual son. I think it gives some major closure to the film.

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[–] shurbanm 14 years ago

erm I asked what the significance of it was in the movie. not what it was in real life. there is a little difference.

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[–] bornin04 14 years ago

He's looking for his son for the whole movie and bam there he is right at the end. That doesn't have any significance to you?

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[–] shurbanm 14 years ago

lol...i think i was pretty clear in my OP.

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[–] bornin04 14 years ago

I think you are missing the point, friendo.

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[–] shurbanm 14 years ago

nope i think you are. now please stop posting here.
thanks

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[–] bornin04 14 years ago

Alright well good luck hoping that someone else will find a better answer to your dumbass question.

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[–] shurbanm 14 years ago

ok. now go away.

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[–] Julia-Caesaris 13 years ago

hahahaa you guys.... stitches...

<3 much love to both

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These are for you McNulty

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[–] CoraJack 13 years ago

I watched the movie again and I think this. He has no son. Some woman who was pissed off at him wrote that letter to screw with his mind. So he would think that every 20 year old kid he saw could possibly be his son. And to hurt him because maybe he would WANT a son, which he ended up wanting.

I do NOT think the kid in the VW was his son in the movie, just an example of what he'd have to go through the rest of his life, wondering if any of these kids he sees could be his son.

YMMV.

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[–] jcjlf 14 years ago

I think this shot is just an eye-wink from both Jarmusch and Murray. In the film Johnston stays behind empty-handed, no happy end. In reality Murray HAS a son. No deep significance, just a cameo as a joke to the spectator who stays watching the credits and then understands the gist.

Holly would be better!

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[–] dezmusxv 14 years ago

lmao seriously...

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[–] ImpotentBoy2 12 years ago

thanks bornin,your answer cleared things up. I was pretty sure that's the son when the car pulled a u-turn in the parking lot, but now I'm convinced.

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[–] foranewdisaster 14 years ago

I think it's to convey that every boy that looks to be 20 yrs old is going to have Don thinking "is that my son?", and that he is forever changed. Also, what the other guy was trying to say is that throughout the whole movie the audience is trying to do their own detective work, and that having Bill Murray's actual son play a small role in the end may be a clue that the kid in the VW is actually Don's son as well.

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[–] shurbanm 14 years ago

Well thanks but that is a crude hint. I would have liked the hint to be IN the movie and it to be made better rather than an extraneous piece of information that would be used.

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[–] monzone 14 years ago

Well, tough luck!
You won't get that in this movie.

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[–] shurbanm 14 years ago

lol...yeah that's my whole point...

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[–] kurban625 14 years ago

I'm pretty sure jarmusch used bill murray's real son in the end to exaggerate the fact that Don never had a son and will never have a son. Or, it may just highlight the desperation in his effort of searching for the son that never existed, and even when he see's a young man that looks exactly what Don's (murray's) son would genetically look like, it won't be his own, and never will be...perhaps....

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[–] scum_manifesto 14 years ago

Like some other posters said, I think that bit is only trying to get us a bit confused (and the fact that it happens to be Murray's son just some tricky cameo to have us entertained).

We don't know if the guy from the airport was his son, yet all the sequence between them has a really father-son thing going on it. I felt that it didn't really matter if he was his son -though it clearly matters for Don, and for anyone who could be in the same situation-, but they were just two lost people hanging out like if they had this relationship. Look at the way they're dressed. It's the first time we don't see Don wearing a suit and ta-da, the guy, who is dressed the same way, comes in.

Yes, we are left alone to work out our own ending. The guy freaked out and we don't know why (it could be because of the fear of finally knowing his father, or just because he trusted nobody and felt safer running away). But the truth is that Don lives in a really small town and that it felt like if they were a father and a son.

Then, why that shot of the guy in the car? Just to make us realise that Don will have the same doubt that we have. Despite of the nice moment with the little philosopher, anyone could be his son. His son is, once again, lost in a crowd that is plenty of 20-year-old guys, and he's got, as in the beggining of the movie, hardly any clue.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] lamont-hard 14 years ago

To the op: You asked a simple question and got berated by posters who sometimes forget what this message board tries to be. if they did not know the answer... as i was wondering the same thing.. .. they should try and be polite and either give there opinion or don't write anything.

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[–] StoneGriffin 12 years ago

Yep. I agree. A lot of the posters who thought they were 'answering the OP's question' were indeed NOT answering it, but instead were being overly self congratulatory douchebags. Just having the actor's real life son in a cameo means absolutely nothing. Any filmmaker who expects that to be an important clue in their narrative is making a huge mistake.

Sorry, I've studied film and filmmaking. If I were to cast a family member in a role, it's just that, a family member in a role. Their relationship to the star or the director or whoever is a footnote but should not have a bearing on the story. Anyone who thinks that is 'something clever' is actually incredibly stupid.

To the OP. I hope you got you answer, the one you were looking for. Personally, I agree with those that the existence of the son is actually suspect, but possible. The bleak ending is that any young man who looks at Don, will be suspected of being his son (well, any young man of the right age and race).

On another note, I for one, am a fan of Tilda Swinton and was really really disappointed in the scant amount of screen time she had. Booooooo.

Dr. Kila Marr was right. Kill the Crystalline Entity.

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[–] crash_logan 13 years ago

The young men Don thinks could be his son reflect how he sees himself. The first one on the bus is what he feels he portrays to the outside world at the beginning of his little quest; cool and aloof and desired by women, ultimately confident and self-contained. He fleetingly thinks about approaching him but as he isn't really invested yet, he doesn't bother. This is an existential path that he doesn't go on of his own volition. His friend pushes him on it because he sees that Don is adrift at sea. Don goes along because he has nothing else to focus on. Its all about the journey at this point, the women and the son are just excuses.

The guy from the airport is on his own journey. After realizing that he has had a very different affect on his former loves than he previously thought, very little impact or negative impact, he has to revise his opinion of himself. This young man seems decent and likeable, just lost with unfulfilled potential. Don wants to think that he's a basically good man who made poor choices.

When this potential son rejects him, Don realizes that he's most likely like everyone else in the world. Not special or unique, he could be any average schlub you pass on the street.

After the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.

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[–] armensog 12 years ago

I wonder what was to "nail" in this movie if you couldn't tell which of the boys was his son :D Not that it's possible but still, that's the only thing to nail. The rest is either pretty obvious or not THAT important. Anyway I think that ending indeed means that there's still the uncertainty about it.. and he will keep looking at those guys knowing any of them could be his. I think if there is any moral to this, is that if you live with one woman, you at least know WHO your son is, and I think if Don was given the choice to change it, he wouldn't be a Don Juan anymore. The whole thing kinda opened up his eyes.

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[–] jor30 12 years ago

i think it was symbolising that now he'd see his son everywhere- every kid with the same tracksiit too or similar- maybe with a heridotary widows peak, maybe not.

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[–] bluemagicmist 11 years ago

i think it was symbolising that now he'd see his son everywhere

This is my opinion too, he will continue to see his 'son' everywhere and never have closure.

Don wants a son so bad that he believes it to be true when it is false?
Don really has a son somewhere out there so his longing makes sense?

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[–] GIRobotII 8 years ago

The cameo of Bill Murray's real life son there simply means that from now on, Don will have the same kind of doubt as he looks at young men, and be wondering, "Could that be my son?"

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