MovieChat Forums > Indignation (2016) Discussion > The Key Scene with Caudwell

The Key Scene with Caudwell

posted 8 years ago by burger1124
4 replies | jump to latest

Look, I don't want to stir up a religious debate here, but I found myself almost siding with the Dean in this scene more than Marcus. I could obviously see the Dean was testing Marcus so he was clearly not innocent but Marcus was standoffish from the beginning, and in some regard, by accepting a scholarship from Winesburg, didn't he implicitly agree to the terms set forth, including chapel attendance? I understand that he is an atheist and sees no point in the whole enterprise, but even before that, I thought the Dean was asking some good questions about Marcus simply leaving any time a conflicting viewpoint arises.

In my opinion, this was not a clear-cut "Marcus is the good guy" conflict. It was also clear that the scene was not really "about" the argument taking place, but Marcus' pent-up repression coming out.

What do you all think?

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] 8 years ago

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[–] wyldeone2 8 years ago

Exactly, what Rhinojack said. And I would have added the part about him getting punched in the nose for defending his girl.

I would have told Dean Caulwell, "Lets say me and another student lived in this office with you and I came over and snatched these papers off of your desk and started reading them all the while keeping them from you. Let's say I referred to your wife as a slut too. Let's say I played my music while you are trying to work on a report and this went on every day... How would you want to work that out?

It's not like Marcus had trouble with explaining his reasons in answers to other questions like those concerning his thoughts about religion. I agree he must have known (being a law student) about the chapel requirements when he accepted the scholarship.

Dean Caudwell was basically calling him a coward along with being anti social for moving. Making it sound like he was running at the drop of a hat which clearly was not true. His moving was justified. Ironically the badgering he got from Caudwell was nothing compared to what he would experience from a drill sergeant or jumping from a frying pan into the fire.
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Books and movies are usually better than real life.

[–] evanston_dad 8 years ago

Marcus's moving may have been justified, but the dean had a point about him running from conflict. He never confronted his roommates about their behavior. A few scenes showed him being irritated at the loud music while he was studying, but you never see him ask his roommate to turn the music down. I realize that the music was not the real reason he moved, but he never really confronted the real reason. And that's why I liked that scene with the dean. The dean came across as a jerk, and to a certain extent he was bullying Marcus. But Marcus wasn't an innocent victim. He applied his own rigid standards and moral code to everybody else in his life, and his first instinct when challenged was to get angry and shut down. I think this movie was largely about Marcus's youth and lack of worldly experience preventing him from being able to deal with the world as it actually is, not how he thinks it should be.