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CalvinJarrett's Replies
I happen to think calling the show (and the book it was based upon) 'Slough House' would have been a better choice.
You only heard that from Diana Taverner and she has no reputation whatsoever for truthfulness. If it suits her to have Sid deemed dead while using her as her own personal spy she would not hesitate to do so. There's also the massive foreshadowing from Roddy's research and his scene early in S2 with River. I expect Sid to appear in S2 (I'm only one episode into it), and as a fellow admirer of Olivia Cooke's beauty, I hope sooner than later.
You should, pazuzu9. Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton, and Judd Hirsch all did a fantastic job. It was Robert Redford's directorial debut, for which he won the Best Director Academy Award that year, 1980. Filmed in the affluent northern Chicago suburbs (where I grew up), I could really relate to the characters and the setting.
And the search continues. One thing's for sure. Man's quest to learn the identity of a hot woman is never-ending, no matter how old the source footage may be.
"Maybe he felt the psychological trauma she underwent had an effect on her ability to physically recover from the pnuemonia as well."
That was my takeaway. I always thought she was so depressed after what she underwent that she didn't take good care of herself. She got a cold or the flu but did not have the will or drive to nurse herself back to health. It settled in her lungs and devolved into pneumonia, then death. So, indirectly, it was Alex and his droogs that killed the author's wife.
There are times when I feel this is my favorite too. But when I sit down and critically compare movies, invariably, I give the nod to Ordinary People - a totally different film, I grant you.
Because it's probably the most artistic film ever created. I don't think you have to be male to appreciate A Clockwork Orange. Anyone who admires fine acting, good storytelling, and terrific art and musical direction would enjoy A Clockwork Orange, regardless of gender.
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Truer words have not been spoken on this thread, Kowalski. That being said, I think Renee Rapp has a very sexy shape.
I don't know what kind of "research," you'd, MuffCabbage, but Renee Rapp is not a complete unknown. Watch The Sex Lives of College Girls. You'll get an eyeful of Ms. Rapp. She is a breathtaking woman, both face and figure.
You make a compelling case, Annkat. Enough so, that I think I ought to rewatch The Stepford Wives (1975). I must admit, I hope brainwashing does not turn out to be explanation. The way I have always interpreted it (murder and robot replacement) sends a much more sinister message. But I will rewatch it with an open mind.
You do make some good observations, Annkat. However, I still find it hard to make the leap into first-robots-then-brainwashing when we see no such scenes of brainwashing. We do see the robots. We see that Bobbi is a robot, and we see Joanna's robot replacement.
I also think you're misconstruing Diz's motivation. I really don't think it's money. Remember that dialogue between him and Joanna at the end of the movie at the Men's Association right before Joanna meets her replacement? He says something akin to, "We did it because we could. We found a way and we're moving forward." As simple and cold as that. I think Diz genuinely believes the way of the future is a return to the past. I'm not a history buff, but it seems he's trying to reclaim something akin to the Victorian era. In any event, he's trying to create an age that would have existed before the First and Second Waves of Feminism. Sure, I'm certain he charges the men a fee. But money is not the primary goal. He wants women to be servile to men, and the more husbands he can get to go along with it, the more normalized it will appear in Stepford ... Connecticut ... New England ... the U.S. ... and beyond.
I think it's more of a casting issue. I don't have a problem with Paula Prentiss, but she has a very distinct style of acting. She's more of a stage actress who happens to be playing film roles. If you ever saw her in Last of the Red Hot Lovers with Alan Arkin (1972), you'll see what I mean. But her voice and mannerisms are a little over-the-top and that's what I think you're seeing more than anything else in Bobbi.
Carol (Nanette Neuman) had a malfunction at that party early in the movie. She kept repeating the same thing (like a broken robot). She would have been one of the earliest wives traded in for a robot. When Joanna stabs Bobbi - no blood. Sparks and wires. Robot. When Joanna meets her fate, it is an eyeless robotic version of herself that strangles her (yes, offscreen). There is a lot more evidence of the wives being permanently replaced by robots than place holding until they are sufficiently brainwashed. Again, you're blowing up the name of the company to provide a biochemical explanation while ignoring evidence of a permanent robotic replacement.
As for the eating and drinking, maybe once a month the husbands take their robot wives to 'the doctor' for a cleaning. They basically get vacuumed out like an aquarium. In the interim, they don't stink because the food and beverages land in a hermetically sealed chamber - sort of like a Diaper Genie, but better.
I don't think it's brave to abandon your wife by faking your own death. I don't think it's courageous to sacrifice seeing your child(ren) (i.e., his daughter), and any grandchildren at any time in the future. Sorry, because of those factors, I cannot look at Arthur Hamilton in an asset-based manner.
That's an interesting observation about Coba Bio-Chemical. But why couldn't he have a bio-chemical company and also study/work with robotics? Isn't his nickname 'Dis?' If I remember correctly, didn't that stand for 'Disney?' And wasn't there some discussion about the robots in Disneyland/Disney World like in the Hall of Presidents exhibit? Couldn't the robots possess some biochemical properties - like the ability to eat and digest food (regardless of whether they gain/need nutrition from it)? You know, just so outsiders won't catch on? 'Hey, why do we never see [Joanna] [Charmaine] [Carol] [Bobbi] eat or drink anything? She wouldn't be ... a robot?' I guess I don't see why the identity of Coba's company makes it impossible for the woman to be replaced by robots - with or without biochemical properties. Again, it's an interesting observation that I'm glad you shared with me, but I think it's a stretch to suppose that it lends that much credence to your theory.
My issue with this decision is that by 1979, if you wanted to have a blockbuster movie (or whatever the equivalent term would be) you had to have more than one male performer. Wayne and RJ were speculating that this was going to be a critical and commercial success. I don't know how they could think such a thing when they had the same actor in every scene in the movie. They did have two actresses (and by a stroke of luck, a third), but the same dude? For porn realism, they should have cast at least one other male performer. They could have indicated that RJ or Wayne took a scene, which did happen form time to time on '70's porn sets. In fact, it would have added a lot of authenticity if they blurred the line between cameraman and actor, producer-actor, etc.
I may have missed the name of the company. It's been a number of years since I last saw Stepford Wives (and even longer since I read Ira Levin's novella). If you would illuminate me on this topic, I'd appreciate it, Annkat. I think this film has passed the 'statute of limitations' on spoilers.
I think that decision makes the film all the more eerie. I don't think it was done to create doubt. It makes the final reveal at the Men's Association all the more chilling. And if they showed that to be the fate of other Stepford wives earlier in the movie, they would have given away the ending. The fact that these men are able to commit murder time and time again with impunity shows they pretty much have it down to a science. And it shows how powerless Joanna was from the get-go despite her single-mindedness and intelligence. It is a truly harrowing depiction of oppression foisted upon any wife unlucky enough to move to Stepford, and it goes beyond mere Stepford, Connecticut. Who's to say this couldn't happen in 'your own home town' - it's worked so well in Stepford?
Because she wanted Joanna to get her kids.