The amount of animosity towards men of the cloth that exists in this thread is disturbing. If I could, let me make two points.
1. Don't judge a 1938 film by current standards. It is not fair to the film and it a dishonest way to try to make cheap criticism look 'enlightend'. It is far too easy to look into the past at a film and say how stupid you think it is or how cheesy or outdated its values are just because you were born 50 years after it was made. Even Quentin Tarantino states during his 'Blackspolitation' film festivals that the point it to meet the film where it is and evaluate it from there, not to mock it - in fact he gets angry when movie goers do that. Its just a cheap, egotistical way to knock something you do not connect with.
2. You have to understand the point of view of the priest if you are to understand why he asked Rocky to do what he did. He did not ask Rocky to lie, he asked Rocky to make a sacrifice. He asked Rocky to lay down that which was most important to himself so as to do something for someone else; in other words to love someone else, the kids, more that he loved himself.
The reason Jerry is asking this is because he is a Christian priest and that is EXACTLY what Christ did. Suggesting that Rocky was lying by letting go of his 'dignity' for someone else is like saying Jesus 'lied' on the cross because He allowed Himself to be wrongly crucified for crimes He did not commit. Jesus was making a choice to give the greatest gift of all, to lay down His life for those He loved to save them from their sins. This is the choice Jerry was asking Rocky to make.
Arguing about whether Rocky was 'lying' misses one of the film's most critical elements, which is that Rocky, and ostensibly all of us, have a choice to make. Will we live according to our own selfish, self centered code or will we sacrifice our greed and egos for the benefit of those around us, loving them more than ourselves?
Is this not the very question we are discussing on this board - did Rocky do that or not?
Life is about choices and Jerry asked Rocky to make a choice; a choice that would change the way in which impressionable children (made vulnerable by the poverty surrounding them) would view the criminal lifestyle. Either Rocky saw the truth in that sacrifice and gave those children the gift of 'de-heroizing' gangsters, or he died a screaming coward.
Don't you get it? Either way, the result is the same! The kids saw what happens to a person at the end of a sad life of selfishness, greed and rebelliousness. For them, they did not know Rocky had a choice in the Death House and it didn't matter to them what choice Rocky ultimately made; the result was the same - Rocky was executed a screaming coward.
For the audience, we do have a choice: Did Rocky go out a hero by giving up what was most valuable to himself for the sake of others or was his whole life a lie and he died a shrieking, sniveling thug? I think the answer was showing on Jerry's face as Rocky died. (BTW, this same choice awaits everyone of us as well.)
Additionally, to side against the priest and say he was a 'bad guy' or a weasel for asking Rocky to 'give up his last shred of dignity' misses the point of Rocky's behavior at the execution entirely. Wouldn't crawling on the Death House floor screaming for mercy in the face of execution have done that anyway? It doesn't matter what request Jerry made if Rocky was a coward, he still would have died screaming and the kids would have still seen that.
But, if at the moment of death Rocky was acting the role of coward for the children's sake and making the sacrifice Jerry asked him to, then wasn't it Rocky's choice to make that sacrifice for the kids? You see, arguments and complaints levelled against Jerry for making that request are invalid because he only asked Rocky to act a coward, he couldn't make him act like one. Rocky had to choose to agree to do that.
If you truly think one's selfish personal pride at the expense of others is important enough to die for, then your arguments or complaints should be aimed at Rocky for choosing to grant Jerry's request and for loving the kids enough to do so. It was Rocky's choice to give up his personal pride or 'dignity' as you call it (again, even though screaming and crawling on the execution floor would have eliminated that 'dignity' anyhow).
Simply put, Rocky chose a life of evil and paid the price for it, dying as either a coward or a hero. Rocky died screaming, either by choice or by cowardice. It didn't matter to the kids; Rocky died a coward and they would have seen him that way no matter what caused him to scream for mercy, and his 'personal dignity' would have been destroyed regardless. Unlike the Dead End Kids, though, we got to see that Rocky might have been an even braver man that they could have ever known.
For me, Rocky was a man who finally understood sacrificial love for others and that "I, I, I, me, me, me" is the saddest way to live and the surest way to death. Rocky chose to give up his last and (in his estimation) his best for the others. The film is not nearly as powerful otherwise.
On a side note, what is truly sad here is that some on this thread actually think that the priest was the villian, NOT the killing, lying, cheating, ruthless, self serving criminal. Hmmm...
Must explain why hip hop is so popular.
Strange days, indeed...
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
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dgallmeier
17 years ago
Very well said. It would seem that the storywriters made sincere efforts to build Jerry's character as morally upright and as good a guy as possible, but even that can't persuade people from their hate.
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jackboot
16 years ago
"1. ... the point it to meet the film where it is and evaluate it from there, not to mock it - in fact he gets angry when movie goers do that. Its just a cheap, egotistical way to knock something you do not connect with."
To criticize things that one does not understand is the cornerstone of all ignorance, intolerance and hatred, isn't it? To exhibit such hubris is why the human race is probably doomed to eternally repeat the same atrocities and crimes against humanity that we should all know better than to ever commit again. Why else would anyone posting to this discussion cite being a gangster as somehow being preferable to honestly bettering oneself and why else would someone point a finger of blame at a clergyman who seeks a better life for the kids in his parish? I hate to say it, but I think that humans are generally lazy when it comes to thought. I think that people will always choose to be lazy and skip making the effort to examine historical evidence and instead consume sugar coated ideas that go down easily, like envisioning violent thugs as being somehow attractive, vis a vis the "gangster" myth.
TexasRanger, you hit the nail precisely on the head for saying that, in the final reckoning, all responsibility lay with Rocky and that up until his life was snuffed out he had the opportunity and free will to choose.
In an interview Cagney did intimate that Rocky did that "yellow" act on purpose, for whatever that is worth. Whether he did it to help the kids, or just as a favor to his old friend, Jerry, we won't know, but clearly he did choose to put on the "yellow" act.
"Dignity" implies that Rocky would want others to see him as he wished himself to be seen and thus controlling how they would think of him. That is what this idea of Rocky's dignity really means. If the definition of dignity is "worthy of honor and respect", then maybe Rocky chose the honor and respect of his friend, Father Jerry over any wider perception by the public, or the kids in particular, of him as having gone to his death without fear. That Rocky would choose to give up on leaving this world as a tough guy shows that he possibly was redeemable in some way. Rather than being an egocentric man concerned with his image, right up to his death, he did something for someone else - whether it was so that the kids would not see him as a martyr-hero or for his friend Father Jerry.
That the church's role in the community back in 1938 could be so misunderstood today shows that the church no longer fulfills that role and has lost its position of influence and respect. What has taken its place? I would say nothing has and our communities at risk have lost an important advocate and source of strength in a sea of temptation, corruption and vice.
"Gangster" is a word that carries a certain amount of romance and intrigue with it. Was Rocky really a gangster? I did not see him portrayed as a member of any organized group, either as leader or member. Wasn't he just a criminal?
I thought that this movie was especially interesting as, instead of going the easy route of just saying that "crime doesn't pay", the people who made this film attempted to show the social conditions that actually make a life of crime possible or even unavoidable. Many of those conditions still exist currently but today we have an additional problem in that it is now somehow fashionable to be a criminal. I am reminded of someone's writing, I can't remember whose, but something which stated that the earmarks of a civilization in its final stages and on the brink of collapse is its idolization and adoration of the society's lowest and bottom-most elements, which we clearly have today in popular culture. It's not cool to not be a "gangster" according to the purveyors of this garbage.
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HillieBoliday
16 years ago
I know this comes 2 years later; but thank you so much for your intelligent
and spiritually as well as enlightening review and comment on this classic
movie.
But most importantly, thank you for your witness to those who read this thread of the great and loving sacrifice that our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ made for the entire world.
You are a true blessed saint; and may God continue to bless you!
"OOO...I'M GON' TELL MAMA!"
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