The kid in the car


First off, I loved this movie. But of all the bad things that happened in the movie, the one this that drove me crazy was the kid standing, walking around, and jumping in a speeding car. Nothing gets me more riled up in real life than seeing a kid not buckled up or sitting in someone's lap in a car, but seeing a kid hopping over seats in a covertable had me yelling at the screen. I know it was just a movie, but it bugged me.
But it is an awesome movie.

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Yes, I had the same "modern" reaction! mI'm sure they had the child use this behavior to heighten the sense of danger and tension- I don't think most children, even back in those care-free, Parisian days, would behave so blithely, or that Tony wouldn't yell at him to sit down.

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This thread reminds me of this ...

I was in Amsterdam last week. It seems nearly all the locals cycle.

No one was ever wearing a helmet, at least not that I saw (out of literally thousands of cyclists).

Several times I saw guys cycling, with their girlfriends perched (side saddle style) on the rear rack of the bike smoking and texting.

A number of times I also saw a father cycling, with one small child perched on the front handlebars and a second child STANDING on the rear rack with his hands on his father's shoulders.

Just saying.

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Amsterdam: a low speed city with bicyclists a high proportion of the moving traffic. In Southeast Asia you'll still see a whole family on an underpowered motorcycle in the rain in truck traffic at highway speeds: dad with a little girl on his lap, son on the handlebars, wife nursing a baby sitting sidesaddle behind him. No helmets, obviously.

BTW, that kid is still working, 59 years later: he voiced a character in a French cartoon feature in 2012. He's also the French dub for Nicholas Cage. And the brother of Patrick Dewaere.

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wadetaylor, I felt exactly the same!

Stop "The Warriors (1979)" remake!
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopwarriorsremake

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[deleted]

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I wasn't worried, more like po'd at the little brat. Somebody needs to establish some boundaries. Seriously, I thought the kids behavior was kinda funny it was so out of control.

Poets are made by fools like me, but only God can make STD.

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Erm, I think health and safety was the last thing on Tony's mind considering he was bleeding to death next to his best friend's kid and a suitcase with a ridiculous amount of spondulicks in it.

It's not like he was just driving on the way to a nice spot for a picnic was it, then I'd concur.

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If only he had immediately thrown the suitcase into the woods by a certain landmark, then driven to the nearest diner. He could have called the mom, told her where they were and also where to find the money. He bleeds out in the diner without careening dangerously through the city, she comes and gets her kid, then later retrieves the money when no one is looking.

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The first car manufacturer to have seat belts installed as standard was Saab - in 1958, two years after this film was released. People couldn't buckle children up in cars which didn't have seatbelts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belts

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This is an extremely odd thing to be frustrated with. Don't worry about it. Like Jean-Gabin-fan said, the seatbelt didn't arrive until after the film (I did not confirm this, but I know it's around that time) and nobody used seatbelts back then. I remember my parents telling me they used to sleep in the back seat, on the ground in the back, and also right in front of the rear window (on top of where you'd put your head).

Anyways, it's nothing to get huff huff about.

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George Bush Doesn't Care about Black Puppets!

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I slept directly in front of the rear window in my mothers 1970 Olds cutlass before, and on the rear floor a many times. Remember smoking used to be allowed on planes and in hospitals and anywhere at work! Yes, times have changed since then and even moreso since 1950's France. However in the same vein, I laughed how acceptable it was to leave a young child at the diner. They serve food and baby sit! Probably also a sign of the times. I thought the kid was a good addition to the story, and gives this film an element that The Killing and The Asphalt Jungle did not.

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Yes, I used to have a 1958 auto and it had no seatbelts. It had a dashboard carved from a solid piece of wood but no seatbelts! Seats were stuffed with horsehair.

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Yes, it was weirdly off-putting... BUT it'd already been established that the kid was an out-of-control lil' hellion, PLUS the driver was literally right on death's doorstep and in no position to be babysitting!

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I noticed the kid not being buckled in and all, but I barely reacted to that. What I DID react to was the way the kid was waving that toy pistol around, in public. I mean, nowadays, wouldn't that get the kid sent to a maximum security prison or something?




“Take Major Danby out and shoot him.” — Catch-22

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And why didn't Tony just warn Jo by calling him on his cell phone?

George Carlin: It's all bullsh-t and it's bad for ya.

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Hehe, yeah, toy guns were a lot more common and acceptable back then, but even in this movie they were making a statement about toy guns, that guns are not as fun as little boys think they are.

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Virtually noone used seatbelts here in the US till the laws went into effect requireing you to (late 1980's - 1990's??). I remember my uncle and his family did back in the 1970's and that was thought to be rather odd at the time.

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The kid was in perfect opposition to the whole 'seriousness' of the theme. Here is god-father is, dying of a gun shot wound while he's oblivious and waving his toy gun around. Playing in the car as well. It's one of the most striking scenes I've seen in a while, one where you really want to laugh, nearly losing site of the gravity and tone of the ending.

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I guess my family was one of the odd ones: we always used seatbelts, every single time, in the late ‘70s and ‘80s when I was a kid.

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