[diebitter]

I saw this movie 20+ years ago, when I was a young twentysomething, and back then didn't like it that much. Bits were okay and quite memorable (I still remember the whole scene where he's asking the lady with the poodle for money, and she gets 20 out of him), but that first time, it just seemed a complete mess. I did forget the whole flashback/memory device though, so that came as a surprise.


I liked this film a lot. While the story was threadbare and there wasn't even much dialogue, I found it pretty rivetting watching. Hoffman was terrific and understated, and this must have been a shock to audiences used to him in The Graduate.


** SPOILERS **

I found the whole flashback thing very ambiguous. Was his grandma good and kind, or was she mean and abusive, for example - hard to say from these little glimpses. And the thing with the girl. I couldn't work out what was real, what was fantasy, or what order we were to impose on these possible events. At one point she seems to be walking willingly somewhere, being provocative, as men follow, at another she's attacked and gangraped (as is Joe), then we seem to see him as one of the crowd watching her in a gangbang, and the constant voiceover of 'you're the only one, Joe'. This is obviously haunting him, but what happened? There's a few possibles I guess:

- She was the town pump, and was in a gangbang, but they became lovers and he becomes 'the only one'. The good ole boys decide on a good time one night, and attack both of them,

- She was his girl, then somehow took part in a gangbang which he starts to rationalise as an attack

- She was attacked (as was he), but he tries to assuage his guilt about not protecting her by sometimes reimagining it as voluntary.


I think the last one the most likely. There may be others.


His name, 'Joe Buck' is quite accurate in terms of his motivations. Buck in terms of a young male looking for action, and buck in terms of his quest for the dollar. First it's greed, and later it's necessity as him and Ratso have to make ends meet. However, he's a likeable guy, and good at heart, and even through the sordid sexual escapades and even the beating of the guy at the end, he remains something of an innocent and distanced from what's going on. Only at the end, when he dumps the cowboy clothes, do you get a sense he's engaging with reality more realistically.


Finally, the relationship between Joe and Ratso. There's a lot of references and indeed acceptance in the film about homosexuality, and indeed shots and moments where you could interpret their relationship as having that subtext, but what struck me about the movie was that the relationship was more like two prepubescent boys as friends - a pair of 10 year-old boys was what they conjured up for me. They kid with each other, but they stick together and do stuff for each other. It does seem purely platonic and, again, innocent, despite the stuff they both have to do to survive and get through the cold and hungry days.


Good choice, good to watch.