JonathanLB
Jan 18th, 2003, 06:47:31 PM
I just watched it and I wanted to make a few observations about it in my review, but I'm not sure if maybe I am reading too much into it or if what I see there is something other people noticed too. I looked over a few reviews but they don't seem to mention it. Don't read further if you've not seen the movie because it could spoil part of it.
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I sort of thought that the movie seemed to be some sort of moral lesson for society, almost like, "Hey if you have premarital sex, then THIS is what's going to happen to you -- you're going to be forced to murder someone and you will fry in the electric chair," or whatever. I mean, I know that early Victorian Melodramas were constantly saying what people should or should not do, how women should act, what happens if you act this way or that, and movies have long been focused on moral lessons or philosophies about life and whatnot. Again though, perhaps this was not an intended message.
Also I wondered if the fact that the main character, George Eastman, could not manage to climb the social pyramid successfully was suggesting that people should stay in their own class and not try to move beyond their position in society. I find that message more likely to be in a film from the '30s during the Great Depression, but I don't rule out the idea that a film in 1951 could have carried with it a similar message. Perhaps I should mention these in my review only as questions, because I'm not sure if the film really intended to make these points, but that is what I saw.
*******
I sort of thought that the movie seemed to be some sort of moral lesson for society, almost like, "Hey if you have premarital sex, then THIS is what's going to happen to you -- you're going to be forced to murder someone and you will fry in the electric chair," or whatever. I mean, I know that early Victorian Melodramas were constantly saying what people should or should not do, how women should act, what happens if you act this way or that, and movies have long been focused on moral lessons or philosophies about life and whatnot. Again though, perhaps this was not an intended message.
Also I wondered if the fact that the main character, George Eastman, could not manage to climb the social pyramid successfully was suggesting that people should stay in their own class and not try to move beyond their position in society. I find that message more likely to be in a film from the '30s during the Great Depression, but I don't rule out the idea that a film in 1951 could have carried with it a similar message. Perhaps I should mention these in my review only as questions, because I'm not sure if the film really intended to make these points, but that is what I saw.