Do you think Joe Buck stayed in Florida?
After the loss of his good friend, do you think Joe Buck would have tried to live out the Floridian dream on his own?
He who conquers himself is mightier than he who conquers a city.
Well, in the book it talks about how when Rico and Joe are on the bus Joe has this fantasy (right before Rico dies) about how he can live in the future.
He thought about going to work and meeting a young woman, and to stop the cowboy crap. This is also dialoug in the film.
It had to be a subliminal message that gave you the story of what happened to Joe after the movie ended.
My idea of it is that after the movie ended, Joe buried Ratso, found a job, went to work, found a woman, maybe had some kids, and lived the rest of his life pretty good because he was finally intelligent about the world and knew how to live it.
I wouldn't think he would go back to New York or Texas EVER again. Too many bad memories.
He would most likely want to live somewhere where he would have a new start.
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<< My idea of it is that after the movie ended, Joe buried Ratso, found a job, went to work, found a woman, maybe had some kids, and lived the rest of his life pretty good because he was finally intelligent about the world and knew how to live it.>>
Pretty much the same way I envision it. Joe had experience as a dishwasher so he got himself a job in one of the many seafood restaurants in Miami. Worked hard and eventually was promoted to cook after being trained by the chef. Developed a mutual attraction with a sweet, cute little waitress which led to a relationship and eventually marriage. Joe would be a good husband and father.
Right, then, old chap. Large brandies all around, what?
Nah, i don't see it quite as "Sunny happy ending-ish" as the two above me portray. (with all due respect) you're forgetting about the raw grit of this movie and the horrible life Joe Buck had lead from the time his own mother dumped him off on his grandmother to the moment he discovered Rico dead. (i prefer to call him Rico mind you)
The life of Joe Buck (condensed version)
-Abandoned by his mother.
-no father to speak of.
-he's pawned off on a promiscuous grandmother that parades a line of men in & and out of his life and her bed.
-grandma is obviously far too "affectionate" with the boy-evident when we see the boy in bed with her in a few scenes. even while in bed with other men.
-he falls in love with a slut that has slept with nearly every boy in town, many of them his own friends. These "friends" discover him on a date with her and while they are intimate in his car they are both snatched out and gang raped. She has a nervous breakdown and is sent to a mental hospital. When speaking of her he refers to her as "Crazy Annie"
-he enlists and does his time in the Armed Forces, He comes home to learn his grandmother passed away. The one person he had in his life that meant anything to him.
-His ONLY ambition is to not have a normal successful life...NO! it's to be a male prostitute that he calls "A Hustler" adopting a Rhinestone Cowboy look that is surely what influenced the Village People.
-he's a failure the moment he arrives in New York; His first conquest HE winds up paying HER, He's then hustled himself by a small time dirty conman which results in him being locked out of his hotel room for lack of money and left with nothing but what he's wearing and a radio. Homeless, he runs into this coughing conman and with no other choice accepts an invite to share his living quarters which turn out to be a condemned building. He gets money however he can-but NOT by hustling (several attempts of that horribly failed) but by selling his blood. He does manage to get one woman to see a transaction thru but that was almost failed by a sudden erectile dysfunction. He still suffers from disturbing flashbacks of his life, the worst being his involvement with "Crazy Annie" His ONLY friend is this coughing, dirty, smelly, sweaty conman who he somehow becomes attached to and opts to help get him to florida killing a man to get the money to do so. For a second, he's convinced he can change his life by changing his clothes and taking care of this new friend of his but in that instant...the man dies.
all this and he's expected to live some semblance of a normal life? as Spock would say "Highly illogical, Captain"
I think "Ratso", despite being less than socially polished, indirectly taught Joe Buck quite a bit about humanity. NYC is so much more than just glitter; there are actually PEOPLE there. I agree that Joe's past was sordid and confusing and left him with a warped sense of reality, but his experience with his newfound friend (whom he could have left at any point) "right-sized" his views quite a bit, I would say. I think he came to realize that his own reality was not something he had to escape and that his genuine, caring feelings for others were worth more than any lucrative trick that might come his way.
He who conquers himself is mightier than he who conquers a city.
I agree with you. As cynical as I can be, I really think he got a new life in Florida. He woke up, wised up and got better at making good decisions.
shareI think that goes in line with what I always said. Joe Buck realized at the end that he was NOT cut out to be a hustler. I think the scene where he discarded his whole cowboy outfit shows that he is ready to start anew in Florida. What he said to Ratso (or as he said, "Rico, I mean.") shows it that he planned to do some sort of job in Miami along the lines of outdoors work. What is worth pointing out is that despite his messed up upbringing in Texas and his horrible experiences in New York City, Joe was a survivor and had a very pleasant demeanor. I imagine that would have helped him once in Miami.
shareExactly. The man dies and sometimes that's all it takes to have a wake up call to start anew and fresh.
shareJust wanted to point out he probably didn't "enlist in the armed forces." This was during the draft, and he probably was drafted.
shareI tend to agree, at least to a point. I think that it's pretty unlikely for a person as damaged as Joe to just up and start living a normal life without any real help at all. He did learn a lot from Rico, about surviving and human connection and even a bit about responsibility. But a few months of friendship, while good for him, couldn't erase the sort of problems that Joe had. Joe's words and actions throughout the movie spoke of a man with no self respect, a man prone to depression, possibly suffering PTSD. Joe's actions bordered on self sabotage, self harm.
Florida, the 1970s economy, and a new desire to live as a working man should have covered Joe's shelter, clothing, and food needs. But mentally and emotionally, I personally see him spiraling out of control. I used the word 'breakdown' in another thread. I'll take it further. Joe's a man who turned his pain inward toward himself. In response to rape and sexual abuse, he didn't himself become a sexual offender - instead, he put himself in a sexually vulnerable, harmful position. Joe, in response to his past, hurt himself. He strikes me as likely to attempt suicide.
This could go a couple of ways. If he survived it, he'd be committed (even impoverished people are committed if their mental condition is severe enough). And then, if someone there was interested in helping him, I think he'd have a real chance at that happy life.
Perhaps it wouldn't have to be that dramatic. Joe might really strike up a couple of good friendships, with good, patient people, and maybe it would stave off his destructive spiral enough to give him a chance toward helping himself. But, the movie was melodramatic, and I love a good melodrama, so attempted suicide it is.
To get closer to the OP's question, I think Joe stays in Florida. There's nothing to call him elsewhere, unless he wants to go hunting down family (the book implies extended family that he doesn't know - an aunt, at the very least).
Your psych take on Joe, while interesting, is way too melodramatic Prismabird. It's not necessary or even healthy to read more into something, that might not and doesn't exist or even be the intention. Joe could just have easily met a girl and settled down to start a family. Isn't that what most of the herd do? He was in a new state, a new town, he would have gotten over his grief eventually and a young man like Joe Buck who looked the way he did, would have no problem finding a girl. He did throw his cowboy outfit away, so that indicates his hustling days are over. He had grown up and come full circle.
Exorcist: Christ's power compels you. Cast out, unclean spirit.
Destinata:💩
How do you know? You saw a 2 hr film, drew upon all these conclusions based on what you want and need to believe, then essay your imagination as if you're writing a new book/film. The film does not speak of a man with no self-respect, prone to depression, and suffering PSTD. If you knew people who suffered those painful things, you would know Joe was not suffering from them.
Maybe you see yourself in Joe, and you're are exchanging personalities with him. You come off as both ignorant of psychology , and caught up in your fantasies of who you want some fictional character to be for the rest of his life based on limited dialogue and action in a simple film.
Who the hell are you, some fortune teller, or a bored person writing a sequel. You are assuming everything that could possibly exist to anybody. You are making things up as you go along based on your rape/ "sexual abuse" assumptions. This is a form of mental-masturbation for you, which is kind of creepy, all the while you think you're being ultra-perceptive and introspective. No, you're weird.
IY, Prismabird would have done some psych courses, read some psych books and is wanting to impress with what they "think" they know, not what they have "genuinely" learned. It has to be more than what it is, because that is intellectual and too keep things complex, confounded and confused. They are caught up in their own head space and have only lost their way in the process. Most of the simple minded herd do this and pat each other on the back for how erudite and learned they sound.
Exorcist: Christ's power compels you. Cast out, unclean spirit.
Destinata:💩