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I'd Had Gotten Away With It, Too, If It Weren't for You Meddling Kids

posted 10 years ago by Eponymous-too
3 replies | jump to latest

I realize this is a classic, and the shots of the cathedral are spectacular, but I just couldn't take the whole Scooby-Doo Mystery of the Glue Man section seriously. Anyone over the age of 8 knew who it was the moment they showed him. I saw the original version, but I've read that when it got re-released they cut most of this subplot out of the film. That sounds like a smart choice.

"My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs stretching all the way back to the Whale Rider."

[–] simonton-4 10 years ago

The film was not about the mystery of the Glue Man, it was about the mystery of blessings and miracles.

[–] Steve Crook 10 years ago

It wasn't meant to be a mystery for the audience, only for the characters in the story. Colpeper gave it away in a very early scene when he admonished himself for not fixing the blackout curtain properly.

It wasn't meant to be a Whodunnit, it was a Whydunnit as explored the motives of Colpeper and of the pilgrims

When it was initially released in the States they didn't cut any of the glue-man plot. They did cut some scenes like the boys' river battle though. However it's very difficult to find that version now. All re-releases are of the full film as it was originally made

Steve

[–] PlaintiveMelody (245) 7 years ago

I liked the "mystery". It wasn't meant to be a mystery that we are consumed about figuring out, it was meant to take our minds (and the meddling kids' minds) off the VERY serious business of war. The mystery itself is a blessing to the three. Two young men who may be going to their deaths, and a young girl who had lost her fiancee. I think the glue man mystery might have been a blessing to the audience too. They'd had enough of death, and needed an innocent, harmless mystery.