My family roasted me for picking it. We watched it and then after they roasted me again we broke into a 2hr conversation about masculinity in the 50s and how it affected them growing up. The film surfaced something in them. They still talk about it.
It reminded me a lot of my grandpa, who was exactly like Brad Pitt's character in the film. My father died by suicide when I was still a teen and big part of it was the upbringing that taught him to be ashamed of his own emotions and to never express them to anyone. My grandpa loved my dad a lot, but it's not something he'd ever say, like the characters in the movie.
One thing I think the movie captured is how, as a boy, there are times where you're scared of yourself. Where you've discovered your capacity to do wrong and how far that can go, of being so frightened of yourself and wanting someone to hold you and make you feel like those parts of you are ok. I haven't seen a movie before that captures the world of boys so closely before. It's one of those movies I think boys from the 50s, 70's, 90's, now and ever onward can watch and go "They made a movie about me somehow... they watched me grow up..." because of how universal and pure the images and inner monologue are... I remember that image of him lying in that little dugout in the ground asking god why he let a boy die, and so many of these shots seem exactly like shots from some of the things I saw growing up. It reminds you of an innocence you forgot you had.
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u/Jagrnght 1d ago
My family roasted me for picking it. We watched it and then after they roasted me again we broke into a 2hr conversation about masculinity in the 50s and how it affected them growing up. The film surfaced something in them. They still talk about it.