I saw this movie a couple weeks ago and the ending was a little... unclear to say the least. I'd just like to know how other people interpret this play. I really enjoyed Shaw's performance. Wearing pajamas to your own party-- too funny.
If you plan to face tomorrow do it soon-Gordon Lightfoot "Race Among the Ruins"
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i rented this movie from a local library,you can check online to see if the libraries in your area have it and if not, you can have the librarians send away for it.
If you plan to face tomorrow do it soon-Gordon Lightfoot "Race Among the Ruins"
Who are Goldberg and McCann? This play has a historical context behind it since it was written during the Cold War.
So how does the history apply to why Stanley disappears is what bugs me!?
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Pinter seems to have suggested that it was just a general comment on totalitarian regimes and how people just 'disappear'. I don't think there's any historical context there, after all McCann is Irish and Goldberg is Jewish!
sharePinter has said that Goldberg and McCann represent people who talk about tradition and yet underneath are violent and inhuman. Goldberg reminisces about his childhood and then is brutal towards Stanley and seduces Lulu and abandons her. Like Stanley they cling to the outer forms of respectability, but underneath they are quite ruthless. Why they take Stanley away to Monty is never clear, but the point Pinter is making, I think, is not to trust what people say, but what they do.
shareThis was performed at a local professional theatre last year and we had a talk back with the actors, etc.Pinter is my favorite play write. The actor that played McCann said that he believes there's a good amount of evidence to suggest that everything is related to the IRA, which is definitely plausible...
sharea lot of the things goldberg and mccann say during the interrogation scene and also right before they take stanley away at the end,have led me to believe that they are probably freemasons,or belong to some such other secret religious organization,possibly the golden dawn.
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the questions they ask during the interogation are reminiscent of the sort of questions they ask a candidate of the freemasons...you could say they are trying to re-initiate webber.as for the IRA,that theory doesn't make sense,as goldberg(and stanley webber for that matter)is an english jew.also the techniques goldberg and mcann use on webber suggest a secret religious organization,not the lead-pipe methods of the IRA.of course the organization in question needn't nessecarily be masons or golden dawn,but something relatively arcane,almost certainly religious...the questions they ask webber are metaphysical rather than political,i.e."do you recognize an external force?"and they even call him a "traitor to the cloth",and ask him when he last prayed.there are even more examples if you listen closely.
shareI find an interpretation of the ending very difficult to guess. The play just invokes that fear of the past catching up with you. People in Pinter's plays always seem to lie and have short memories. Stanley terrorises Meg with a van coming that day with a wheelbarrow. We never know why Meg should be scared at such a prospect.
McCann and Goldberg remind me of the Inquisition and the Nazi hunters movement. And yet there doesn't seem to be any reason why Stanley should be on the run from either. We can't take the reminisces of this trio of characters at face value. So we never know why McCann and Goldberg are after Stanley.