Joe's wife could have helped the family during a crisis a little better. First of all she kept denying her sons death even though it was obvious to everybody else. This kept her husband and other son on edge. She disapproved of Burt Lancaster's girlfriend when he needed her approval the most. She demanded the best and received it from Joe. I had the strange feeling that she was silently judging Joe so that Joe had no support as the final facts become revealed.
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Enrique Sanchez
The mother was a selfish pain in the ass. Arthur Miller, one of America's greatest playwrights, has the family dynamic down cold. She and Joe, her husband, were both in a Grand Canyon of deep denial, easier to do than to accept responsibility. When Joe says at his final curtain 'they 're ALL my sons,' it just jumps off the screen. Where do you go, what do you do, when you have the blood of thirty or more men on your hands? Look, LBJ went to his grave saying Vietnam was a noble war, otherwise how could he have live with himself for the pointless slaughter of 20,000 American soldiers and countless Asians.
shareIt's not unusual for mothers who have had sons die in war to ignore the realitiy. It's understanadable in that the boy she gave birth to has died at such a young age.
I'm an Iraq and Afghanistan war vet and I've seen it first hand. Sometimes they seemed angry because I made it and their sons didn't. That's normal and I never took it personally. I've even had some level of guilt for the same reason. I'm an old guy and most of these boys who have died haven't even started living yet.
She certainly didn't help things much, her acting was so so, the role of a dutiful wife to someone like Joe was fine enough-convincing? I have seen, sadly, many women stay and support men who are husbands and boyfriends who are not worth the feces of an ant, and who treat them far worse than Joe treated his wife. Howard Duff normally is a decent enough actor-but in this film, he was more like a Wooden Indian in front of a Cigar store.
"It's the stuff that dreams are made of."
she seemed to go back and forth. she was helpful at times.
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