An overly protective mother, here, means not enough contact for her children with external reality to make that reality real for them; hence, the violent behaviour of the son. This film is all about worship; of pornography, of horses and of Jesus, and of how any idolatry can make us shut out the truth as a substitute for happiness. The iconoclastic cure helps the son take control of his own life rather than to effectively blame the thing worshipped. The Western culture depicted here seeks to avoid pain, which can only be achieved by separating thought from emotion; making emotions causeless and thoughts unwanted.
A stagey adaptation of a stage play about the baleful, sexually repressive influence of Christianity among Western Whites. Such attitudes, learned young, can stay with you your entire life despite the fact that they can never be a fundamental part of yourself since they originated in the minds of others. The disturbing material is thought provoking as it details difficult emotional journeys both for the clients and those acting as emotional travel agents – the psychiatrists.
An uneven film of some brilliance featuring excellent performances from Richard Burton and Peter Firth – the supporting cast is also superb.
Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment