Forget his family, if he had real musical talent, why not pursue that? Or, was it because he saw how this gift destroyed his family, and he wanted no part of that. E.g. Tita, a talented pianist who is victimized by cynical record producers, or a pompous ass like his brother Carl, the violinist. Maybe Bobby thought that the gift of music could turn you into a monster or suck you dry, and it was not worth it. Any thoughts.
shareI felt it was because he didn't like what came along with it, i.e. the pompous nature of it all. The elitism, etc. But he also couldn't stand to be too far into the opposite of said world, i.e. bowling alleys and country music. He's passionate about finding what he's passionate about. He's adrift forever and he'll continue to be that way as he heads up north to what is most likely Canada.
share[deleted]
I suspect that "elitism" is something that is inherently wrong. But are the musicians elitists? Or just good at something. He feels nothing for it, the music. Not sure that is their problem.
share
I wish they would have made a sequel to FEP. It would've been interesting to find out if Bobby relocated to Canada and found "peace of mind."
Cheeers! :-)
He lacked self discipline. Music requires not only talent but the discipline to stay the course. Bobby also had a temper that seemed to alienate him from people. Witness the famous diner scene where he pushed all the water glasses onto the floor. Part of succeeding in a music career requires making bonds of trusts with people who can further your career. In his familial relationships he exhibited traits that alienated him from others. In a conversation with Catherine Van Oost after he fought with his brother, she told him he didn't love himself or others. He appeared to have what the psychologists call LFT -- Low Frustration Tolerance. People who have that habit show their frustration with the annoyances of life by lashing out at others or going to pieces over seemingly minor things.
share[deleted]
Because he was born into a family of musicians, and was expected to follow that path. Even when he plays the piece, he says he feels nothing for it.
Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.
[deleted]
What makes this such a fantastic film is that the theme of alienation here is addressed, in part, by asking where it comes from, but offers competing answers.
Clearly the decision to leave music behind is portrayed not only as emblematic of Bobby's estrangement from his family. It also had the practical effect of his leaving his family, his family home, a potential life including a way of making a living. But in the film's beginnings we see that the alternative he found, has found at least so far, is not rewarding, and arguably is just as alienating to Bobby as his life with his family.
In fact the film toys with the notion that his life with Rayette, as an oilworker, is one he is perhaps even more estranged from.
In short, is the problem him, or just coincidentally two very different lives and environments? And obviously this does not have to be a binary choice - it can be partly both.
What viewers of this film today may not realize is how, in 1970, the film could be seen as perhaps a rejection of the freedoms that came to be valued in especially the late sixties. Bobby rejects his stuck up family, the upper middle class, meaning bourgeois, lifestyle, the conventions that come with it, and has, before the film began, headed out on the road and sought something else.
But he didn't end up on a commune, and in terms of music found in replacement of the intensely classical the Nashville influenced music that Rayette warbled in a loose imitation of Tammy Wynette. While I don't think the film sneers at Rayette's musical choices, it is clear they do not particularly animate Bobby's sensibilities. Not particularly.
Rejecting the music is the specific form of rejection Bobby acted upon. And while we can see why he did so, why he made the choice he did, was it one that led to happiness, or a better understanding? I think not, as his decision to leave Rayette at the end clearly showed.
On one hand we would not say that the fact that ONE choice of a life's approach made, and found to be wanting, does not establish that the original decision to leave his life with his family, his first life if you will, was wrong. The ending certainly leaves open that Bobby might well find, in another approach to life, one that will make him happy.
But I tend to think not.
This brings us back to the music. I think his feelings about music were too tied up for him in terms of his feelings for his family. Which were too much for him to stick with. He could not find a way to relate to music that would allow him to separate it out from his feelings about his family.
He lost much in moving on from it, but I do not get the sense from the film that, at least subjectively, he felt he had any real choice in the matter.
Your is a very thoughtful discussion, but I always viewed Bobby's attitude and actions to be pretty simple: he rejected his family and wanted to be nothing like them. It is just about being the black sheep, and not measuring up in attitude, achievement or ambition. The music was just a prop. They could have been doctors, in which case his background would have been that he was a med school drop out. I think the theme was just that he rejected his roots and family, to avoid constraints and trying to measure up to what was expected of him. He would claim to be freer and happier, although we all know he is miserable. I think this was a very timely theme and presentation for the period, although it may not translate well into the last 2-3 decades.
So he returns home to his family from whom he has long been (and still is) alienated. He develops the hots for Catherine, but she is just another set piece of his family and he is doomed to reject her as well (sooner or later). When I was much younger and first saw this, i thought the family werer suffocating and that he was just trying to break back out because he just had to have his freedom. 30 years later, i see it a bit differently. The family aren't bad at all. Sure they are quirky and have rude, obnoxious friends, but Carl and Tita are fine. Catherine is ok, although she represents a lot more snobbery than his siblings. He just tolerates Catherine because he wants her but that is another doomed situation.
At home, the only guy like him was Spicer, and Bobby can't get along even with him!
Clearly Bobby is an unhappy person. Is it because he is a black sheep, and fights againt convention to be a non-conformist? Or is he a non-conformist, black sheep because he is so misreable inside? I used to think it was the former; now i see it is the latter.
I think that anyone having expectations of and for him pissed Bobby off to no end, so he refused to "play ball". In a nutshell
shareBobby explained in his talk with his father that the expectations on him were too much for him to bear. Of course, what many of you have said about the other aspects of his behavior are also true - his impatience, his alienation from the values and focus of his family's life, etc.
However, in many ways these behaviors, and his rejection of his less-educated and less-well-off friends and his oil-rig job can be seen as a result of Bobby's initial reaction to the expectations on him - he foils relationships before they get too heavy, as he foiled his music career, his manual labor jobs, etc. He is running from every responsibility in his life - work, relationships, etc.
The answer is not simply that Bobby lacked discipline, as there are reasons suggested in the movie to explain why he is undisciplined. Clearly, he isn't at all comfortable with his brother or his father and the other people who inhabit their world. He is only more comfortable with his sister, who is more respectful and unconditionally loving of him. Bobby stated in the movie that he doesn't like to get "too stimulated." Being passionate about something or someone requires commitment and responsibility - and his alienation from his family and their expectations on him must have had a role in forming his fear of commitment and rejection of any one lifestyle or occupation.
My real name is Jeff
You'd need to be really gifted at something to understand it. You might similarly ask why L. Lohan has ended up where she is.
share