What's really disappointing, I guess, is that hardly anyone seems to even note this. I know I'm not the only liberal out there, but this movie is all about how you should stay in your lane, be provincial, lead a boring, staid life, only date people your own age, stay in school, do what your parents say...yet hardly anyone seems to note "wow, that's a pretty Puritan message there".
shareThe ending of the movie seems to suggest that she was better off for having had her fling. That her fling didn't turn out well is hardly surprising. It seemed doomed from the start.
And if they did wind up getting married? What would the message of the film be? Girl must find her salvation in marrying a rich guy. That's about as conservative as you can get.
But there aren't only two ways it could end. She could ditch the married guy but still throw off the Oxford straitjacket her father had set up for her.
Anyway, given that this is a memoir, it wouldn't make sense to have just any old ending. But I just haven't seen recognition that the memoirist is a conservative, writing for a very conservative Rupert Murdoch newspaper, who clearly had a distinctly conservative message in mind for her cautionary tale.
A "staid" existence keeps society alive while a "liberal" lifestyle is utterly selfish as people wanna do their own thing ignoring the consequences of their behavior. Liberals hate responsibility. People fornicate and then have abortions that are paid for by tax money.
shareWhat country are you in? Tax dollars do not pay for abortions in the U.S.
sharealankinggleythomas- Planned Parenthood gets taxpayer dollars every year. The taxpayer money is not supposed to go directly for abortions; however, this in effect does pay for them b/c it frees up other funds to pay for them. It's just a shell game with funds moved about...
shareThen food stamps pay for drugs because poor drug addicts can keep more money to buy drugs if they don't have to buy food. Same is true of the money people give Salvation Army bell ringers. You can stretch the logic out forever.
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See a list of my favourite films here: http://www.flickchart.com/slackerinc
Your twisted logic is silly and stupid. Where does an "addict" get money? Yes, people can use Food Stamps for certain items but that's the fault in the system. It still doesn't disprove my argument. And your ridiculous Salvation Army comparison just proves you aren't serious about the true issue...
You think addicts never have money? Okaaayyyy...
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See a list of my favourite films here: http://www.flickchart.com/slackerinc
You should work for Fox News. You seem to share their ability to spew rhetoric without factual foundation.
http://tinyurl.com/7km6euf
SHe also wrote for Penthouse.
shareI don't think it was like that at all. Oxford was not a straitjacket, and marriage to the fun-yet-dangerous Daniel was not positive nonconformism. It's all about what reasons push you to marry, or study. The movie implies that our justifications for actions are what make them good or bad. I think this is made clear when Jenny's father supports her wedding and completely drops trying to get her into Oxford because Daniel is a rich, respectable-looking guy. To him, Oxford is just a way to ensure a stable life for Jenny. If she's being handed that stable life through a wedding ring, then to him it's even better. Similarly, Jenny's motivations for marrying Daniel are based on her desire to have fun and do all the exciting things she's been dreaming of without the hard work or consequences. Both are ultimately a form of conformism.
When she sees her teacher's apartment, which is neither ugly nor boring as jenny might have expected, she realizes that an education can give you a life which, whilst not entirely satisfying, offers a certain measure of personal reward and, more importantly, independence. Miss Stubb's studies gave her an independence that was modern for those times. It allowed her to lead her own life, and you can't have that without some amount of pain or sacrifice. But it's still precious.
*Smile* ~~and stop being so pathetic::..
I would have liked to see Jenny take a third way - go study in Paris! but of course since it's based on a memoir, they had to follow what actually happened
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What's really disappointing, I guess, is that hardly anyone seems to even note this. I know I'm not the only liberal out there, but this movie is all about how you should stay in your lane, be provincial, lead a boring, staid life, only date people your own age, stay in school, do what your parents say...yet hardly anyone seems to note "wow, that's a pretty Puritan message there".
I certainly didn't take away that message. It's a coming-of-age story, with the evidently gifted Jenny emerging from her various adventures with a few emotional scars but a great deal of perspective, and even some compassion for her humbled father.
Well, these are the words of the woman who wrote the memoir the movie is based on:
"My experience with Simon entirely cured my craving for sophistication. By the time I got to Oxford, I wanted nothing more than to meet kind, decent, straightforward boys my own age, no matter if they were gauche or virgins. I would marry one eventually and stay married all my life and for that, I suppose, I have Simon to thank."
To be honest, I hadn't done any background reading on the author of the memoir. For anyone else on this thread who's interested, here's the link to an article on the Guardian website about the real-life details.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/jun/07/lynn-barber-virginity-re lationships
It is followed by a brief bio of Lynn Barber, and I was more than a little startled to see the names of some of the publications in which her work has been published...
I completely disagree. The title suggests it, the relationship (as doomed as it was) left her enlightened, and less naive than she was in the first place. She was educated, and what she went through made her a better person in the end. The point of the film (in my opinion) is "action makes character".
shareBut do you consider yourself liberal or conservative?
shareWhy do you want every movie to have a liberal message? The world subscribes to many beliefs and a liberal one is not the end-all answer. Do you feel that your ideals are the best way for everyone to live? How would you feel if a conservative started bashing your preferred movie for having a liberal agenda? You shouldn't force your ideals on others otherwise you will be seen the same way as bible thumpers and combative atheist are.
shareI do believe my ideals are best; otherwise they would not be my ideals.
And conservatives DO bash many movies and other media content for "liberal messages". My complaint in this case is that liberal publications seem to have gone for this movie, not picking up on the conservatism at its core. If conservative media outlets like FOX News gave rave reviews to an obviously liberal movie (and there are plenty of those, I'm not denying it) I'd expect their viewers to complain.
Of course they do and you're no better. Do you really want to been seen the same way you see the conservatives? Fox may be biased but no more than the other liberal networks such as CNN. They actually did a study on it and Fox is the only right leaning network while every other American network leans to the left. Give them their one network and leave it alone. I'm smart enough to realize that neither side has all the answers. Each has something to offer and each has something I find repulsive. For you to just jump in a boat with one and say "everyone else with an opinion is an idiot" is just arrogant and no better than the very people you seem to have such disdain for.
shareI thought the message was rather "to think" and not to jump into things that may seem exciting as a teenager...
shareI consider myself liberal and I didn't take away a conservative message from this film at all. In the fifties, women had only been allowed to go to Oxford for thirty years, and Jenny's goal of attending there is her taking control over her own life to achieve something that people who just follow the herd would never be able to. However, she gives all this up for what initially seems to be a daring and thrilling love affair but eventually becomes clear that it leads to the traditional stay-at-home lifestyle, approved by her parents. Her father is happy for her education dreams to be thrown away because she'll have a man to provide for her. Eventually she sees the dishonesty at the heart of the relationship and takes control of her own destiny again.
The reason I am a liberal is because I believe in the freedom of personal choice for everyone, regardless of who they are. That does not mean that I believe that someone cannot make bad choices or mistaken choices, neither do I believe that making a film showing someone making a bad or mistaken choice is a condemnation of freedom of choice.
Thats not the message of the film at at all. The message is that when we are young and as we grow, we make mistakes. But those mistakes mold us into who we are and in the end learn, gain a true "Education" if you will. To say that the film is saying that we should all stay in school and listen to our parents is quite a simplistic interpretation....
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