Joe and Bill go into the hippy underground to search for melissa, and they seem to view themselves as arbiters of morality in a scummy place. They go with the hipsters for a party in the hope of gaining more information on Melissa, but they end up doing drugs and screwing a couple of stoner chicks, and it totally deviates from their moral outlook.
share It simply demonstrates that their self-righteous moral posturing is just blatant, cynical hypocricy. Like the ugly American white men they are, the degenerate into beasts who lust for and murder their own children.
And before anyone takes offense and accuses me of anti-Americanism or racism, I use the term "ugly American" in reference to the condescending racist qualities that have made us so beloved in Third World countries, and referred to them as "white men" to identify them as part of the melanin-challenged global minority that holds the political and economic power in this country. White, male and American I may be, but I try to avoid ugliness and hypocricy. Bill and Joe share the same conservative, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant outlooks, despite their different educational backgrounds and social status, and that was what the film was trying to demonstrate--that they are really not so far apart, and that the contempt and hatred they feel towards younger people and more liberal viewpoints is vile and destructive and eventually leads them to madness and destruction. By killing his own child, Bill destroys his own bloodline and annihilates his future.
For all the nastiness and brutality, this is a beautiful movie.
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Apologies if this is blatantly obvious, but it wasn't to me, so I'll point it out: When Joe and Compton enter the restaurant (where they get invited to the party), a woman passes them on her way out. By that point, they had stopped asking people about Melissa and showing her picture. If I'm not mistaken, the girl that was walking out was Phyllis, Melissa's friend that visited her in the hospital. The tragedy is that if they had just kept on asking a little longer as they intended to, they could have found Melissa and avoided the subsequent carnage. Instead, they got absorbed into the hippie subculture and the temptation of drugs and sex, and lost their way. As a result, Compton ended up losing everything.
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Yes, isn't it nice that we're all entitled to our opinions, even when we think the other person is full of b.s.?
I love my country, but to love intelligently I believe one must love honestly. If you deliberatly blind yourself to your loved one's faults and flaws, you simply enable their disfunction. But if you don't like what you see, feel free to close your eyes.
Me, I'm not going anywhere. The country isn't "evil", but some of our policies and government officials....well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Vote early, vote often, and be active in advancing the good in your community. That's the way to build a stronger, freer society. Joe's solution was as twisted as his thinking.
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Well said, tjantus.
shareDoesn't anyone on here notice that the ugly WASP thinking of this movie continues on in the Bush administration? They are killing off the younger generation(however none of their children are involved except for McCain's son) and our future for their twisted ugly American views imperialistic views.
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"You want to talk about WHO is "killing off the younger generation"? HOW ABOUT PLANNED PARENTHOOD?"
LOL! I know, as long as it's in gestation, it's safe to care. This was a great movie about uptight conservative hypocrisy. There are still plenty of "Joes" out there who rant and rave about sex or drugs or whatever else all the while actually envying those who aren't strapped with inhibitions. These people cause their own misery.
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"Joe Curran was a loud-mouth bigot and, I'll grant you, a hypocrite...but he was DEFINITELY NOT a "conservative"! I just happen to be a Conservative, and I consider it to be a slap in the face to be compared in any way with Joe Curran! PUT THAT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT!"
LOL. How could Joe have been any more of a conservative? Please give me some examples.
"- The cities Sodom and Gomorrah were just FULL of slobs who were "not strapped with inhibitions" -and look what happened to THEM! I would say, "GOOD RIDDANCE!""
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
"'having a sense of right and wrong' are considered to be ADMIRABLE TRAITS."
Yeah, but a lot of that's subjective. And therefore meaningless. Tell me why anyone else is supposed to care about what you happen to find right or wrong.
"This movie clearly illustrates that- "whenever society tolerates decadence, it spreads like a disease"."
LOL! Uh, what this movie clearly illustrates is that intolerance is worse than tolerating decadence....maybe you need to see it again. Nice rants though.
@burrell_dale
How come it never seems to occur to you *beep* crazy anti-abortion nuts that Planned Parenthood and legalized abortion exists simply because there is a NEED for them? And because women fought like hell to get abortion legalized? Because women NEED the services that they provide,gotdammit! And FYI, Planned Parenthood does NOT do abortions---they provides heath care and cancer screenings---they do referrals---do your research. Seriously, GTFO yourselves! Thanks to people with mindsets like yourself, abortion has been made illegal again in some states, mainly to win Republican votes,without even considering how it's going to effect the women that will, in effect, be affected by these stupid anti-abortion laws.
And it's basically a matter of women having control over their bodies, but the right-wing dosen't even want women to have that---I mean look at these idiot politicians who were trying to get laws passed when an abortion would NOT even be allowed in the case of incest or rape----that's totally *beep* up beyond words,seriously. Hell,they're trying to do that s*** in Michigan---telling women they have to buy what is essentially "rape" insurance if they need to get an abortion as a result of that. And that s***'s pretty damn close to getting passed! How *beep* up is that? But, then, the Republicans are in charge, so of course they're pushing that crazy s*** through because they're sucking up to the anti-abortion group that fill their campaign coffers--it figures.
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Planned Parenthood and legalized abortion exists simply because there is a NEED for them?There is apparently a NEED in this world to kill fetuses. Who knew? I think it's the same kind of "need" like the segment of Japanese people who NEED to eat whale. Or like when your daughter just NEEDS a new outfit. You know, saying "need" when you really mean "want".
abortion has been made illegal...without even considering how it's going to effect the women that will...be affected.It certainly is a shame that the lawmakers don't consider how the women will be affected. I mean, such far-ranging effects as taking responsibility for your actions (in almost all cases). It's a shame the lawmakers are too busy considering how the unborn babies will be affected since abortion barely affects them at all, right? Oh wait... share
HEY,NUMBNUTS....
IF BOTH CURRAN AND COMPTON ARE IRISH,AND I THINK THAT YOU WOULD AGREE THAT THEY ARE...THEN HOW COULD THEY POSSIBLY BE ANGLO-SAXON...AS A MATTER OF FACT,IT HAS CROSSED MY MIND THAT JOE WAS AN INSPIRATION FOR THE ARCHIE BUNKER CHARACTER THAT SURFACED ON TELEVSION A YEAR OR SO LATER...AND HE WAS,INDEED IRISH...NOT ANGLO-SAXON...ASTORIA QUEENS....SEEMS TO BE TOO MUCH OF AN COINCIDENCE...
IF BOTH CURRAN AND COMPTON ARE IRISH,AND I THINK THAT YOU WOULD AGREE THAT THEY ARE...THEN HOW COULD THEY POSSIBLY BE ANGLO-SAXON...AS A MATTER OF FACT,IT HAS CROSSED MY MIND THAT JOE WAS AN INSPIRATION FOR THE ARCHIE BUNKER CHARACTER THAT SURFACED ON TELEVSION A YEAR OR SO LATER.
In fact, the character of Archie Bunker was based on the (presumably Anglo-Saxon) character Alf Garnett in the British sitcom Till Death Do Us Part.
And, for the love of God, please don't SHOUT! My ears hurt.
All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?
They don't have a moral outlook....that's the point of the second half of the film. The anti-EASY RIDER film. They're both 9/10 and excellent films.
sharePeter Boyle turned down a lot of films, including French Connection, because he didn't want to do any films that he thought glorified violence. When he realized that people were cheering for Joe instead of being repelled by him, he made the decision to avoid doing anything that would encourage violence of any kind.
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