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March 2000, Week 4

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Subject:
From:
"Shari L. Rosenblum" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 22 Mar 2000 14:21:43 EST
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Silvia Fernandez writes:

> I have been thinking about Monty Clift in "A Place in
>  the Sun"... why do we consider him the hero, when he
>  commits a crime? Why don't we feel pity for poor
>  Shelly Winters? Why do we justify his murder?

Why do we consider him the hero?  Because he is our
guide through the story.  Not just the protagonist, but the
eyes through which the story we get is filtered.  Despite the
mock objective narrative, the perspective we get is almost
entirely his -- with a few impersonal touches to keep it
"honest."  He is our guide and, in some ways, our proxy.
We identify with his struggle to make a name, to make money,
to fit in, to be loved.  Through him -- if he is unhindered --
we can achieve the fantasy of wealth, beauty, and passion.

But he is not unhindered.  Shelly Winters is his hindrance.

Because the story is his, she (like Elizabeth Taylor) is
always seen from the outside. As the woman who wants
him (though never the woman he wants), waits for him, takes him
in and takes from him.  We don't feel for her (ostensibly)
because we don't know what she's feeling.  We only know
how what she is doing is dragging him down, and with him
as our proxy, dragging us down too.

We judge him kindly because we want to have what he wants to
have. We judge her less so, because she is what we never want to be.

Shari Rosenblum

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