MovieChat Forums > Ronnoco > Replies
Ronnoco's Replies
It was a downbeat ending, but it showed how Fr. Laforgue gradually lost most of his his well-intentioned but grandiose cultural illusions about converting the Amerindians and civilizing them. He ended up just doing the best he could to try to help them and do what he thought best. He was probably questioning his own faith at the end.
Yes, the little boy that the Iroquois killed was Chomina's son. In actuality, though, in most cases like that, the Iroquois adopted young children, whose parents they'd killed, into their own tribe. Rarely did they put captured children to death. They'd also likely have adopted the older sister too, rather than intending to kill her. They mainly put to death captured adults, who were too old to be adopted into the tribe.
I thought the Amerindians in the film were portrayed realisticaly and respectfully. They were shown as individuals, each with their own feelings, beliefs, and prejudices, rather than as stereotypes. Also, many Amerindian tribes felt that individuals with physical abnormalities (such as the dwarf shaman) were in close touch with the spirit-world, and were deserving of respect, as that shaman (Mestigoit) was. And it's understandable that Mestigoit felt threatened and angry at the presence of the christian Black Robe , who was there to convert the Amerindians to christianity, and was thereby undermining Mestigoit's position. Mestigoit, with his annoying chanting and yelling, was hoping to intimidate the Black Robe, embarrass him in public, and drive him away.
Actually, though, self-flagellation was a common private penitential practice of priests and monks for hundreds of years. It was practiced in certain monasteries (especially Carthusian ones) up until fairly recently.
Yes, the Jorge of Burgos in the movie was more fanatical than the one in the series. And Bernardo Gui in the movie was fiery and wicked while in the series he was sinister and malign. But I think they were equally effective. They were variations on a theme.
The series was able to delve deeper into the political and religious issues of the time. But it did this by introducing several different story lines that I don't think were present in the book, or in the movie. I have mixed feelings about this. The series gives the viewer more insight into the historical perspective of what was happening. But the movie better represented the atmosphere of mystery and foreboding within the monastery.
If Lee had been able to open up and talk about his kids' death, at least a little bit, that would have been the beginning of his coming to terms with what had happened, and then he probably would have been able to beat it, and go on with his life. That was what Randi wanted him to do, when she asked if they could have lunch together. But Lee couldn't do that, it would have been too painful for him, he couldn't face it. He had too much pain, grief, and guilt. It's too bad, but that's the way he was. There are people like that, who just cannot bring themselves to open up about things. It's tragic, and it ruins their lives. I think I can sympathize with him anyway, though.
I think that earlier in the film. Elsie (the household maid) mentions to Mary (the Scottish maid) that the Ladies' Sylvia, Louisa, and Lavinia's father (now deceased) was the Earl of "Cartham". He must have been the brother of Countess Trentham.
It must have been pure torture for Henry to be out there in the witness-protection program in the Midwest suburbs, eating generic egg noodles, after having grown up with genuine New York Italian cooking. That alone was his punishment for ratting out his pals .
Jimmy knew that Maury was a talker, and wouldn't be good at keeping secrets. And he also knew that Maury told his wife everything. If Maury had been a little more discreet, and not had such a tendency to talk to everyone, he wouldn't have gotten whacked. Maury was a nice guy, but he wasn't all that smart.
I think you're right. The shoe wasn't actually contacting Costigan's hand. That was pretty noticeable. I guess DiCaprio (the little prima donna) didn't want to take a chance of getting his hand hurt.
Costigan probably had details in the envelope that he gave to Madeline about how to reach Dignan, and get the envelope (or at least the info it contained) to him.
I think there's a good likelihood that Colin was a deeply closeted homo, but he was trying to suppress it. His homophobic remarks and his inability to get it up with his girlfriend point to it. He had a lot in his life that he was hiding. Also, there was his boss's remark that getting married was always a good idea, it would be proof that he wasn't a homo. There was clearly an unspoken bias against gays within the police force at that time, which was all the more reason why Colin needed to conceal his own gay inclinations.
Costello needed someone inside the State Police to keep an eye on Sullivan, to ensure that he was staying loyal to Costello. Sullivan knew an awful lot about Costello's activities, and that would make him vulnerable. He needed to have another rat in the Dept. to watch Sullivan, and keep him advised of Sullivan's activities. Costello probably made it a regular practice to place rats within the State Police. He probably had informers (rats) in the Boston city Police force, too. Not to mention plenty of Southie politicians that he was paying off, and who were taking care of him. That's Boston for you.
I thought the rat on the railing at the end of the movie was a nice little touch of black humor, just before the credits went up.
Best Wishes to moviechat.org. I posted for 10 years on the IMDB messageboards, and I'm sorry to see them go. But I hope that moviechat.org is successful in maintaining the discussion forums. I've already located one of my old IMDB posts (on a fairly mainstream movie)on here, and I'm happy to see it preserved. A lot of my old posts were on rather obscure movies, and although the movies are listed here, the posts, so far, haven't made it over. But regardless, good luck in archiving as much as possible from the old IMDB discussions. I'd also love it if the actor/actress messageboards, and the TV show messageboards, could somehow be brought over, but that might be asking for too much. But anyway, good luck in the future, and it's nice that you're maintaining the public discussion tradition.