Duality


Everything in this movie happens twice.

Twins act in this film even though there are no twin characters (apart from the flashbacks).
Roughly halfway into the movie, we see Holland behind a window and the frame freezes. At the end of the movie, we see Niles behind a window and the frame freezes.
We get two flashbacks to a deadly fall.
First we see a fetus in a water container (the so-called "hydrocephalic baby") and later we see a baby in a wine cask.
Cousin Piggy jumps twice.
Mrs. Rowe has two encounters with rats.
The entire first half of the movie is set in daylight (apart from one scene set at dusk). The second half on the other hand is a journey into darkness (in more than one respect).
Winnie stops Niles' way to the oven twice.
Two grown-ups jump/fall to their death inside the apple cellar.
Holland uses his slingshot twice.
Two characters ask Niles to remember.

A few dialogue repetitions.
Niles and Mrs. Rowe: "Let me go. Let me go." - "No sass, boy. No sass."
Niles whispers "Father" twice.
Niles yells "Mother" twice.
Piggy says "I'm gonna tell" twice.
Ada and Niles: "Now." - "Now."
Niles: "I'm coming. I'm coming."
Holland says the following lines of dialogue twice: "That damn Uncle George", "You're good at the game" and "Get it back".

Niles and Alexandra have two scenes on the staircase outside the house.
Two scenes in the church.
Two scenes in Ada's room.
Two scenes in Alexandra's room.
Holland tries to kill an animal, Niles succeeds in doing so.
Two older women die in close vicinity to Niles.
The two main characters are 11 years old, a repdigit.
An alliteration: Big Bertha.
Twins with two different birthdays (which consist of two digits beginning with 2).
Niles has two identities.
Which of course is an extension of the great game where you also have two identities: your own and the one you assume.
Niles has a very characteristic mirror image.
Two elven-year-olds die.
Niles uses the handsaw twice.
Niles uses the hedge clippers twice.
There's another character with two identities: Bo-Jo, the dog-faced boy.
Two pitchforks play a significant part during the introduction of the great game. Or is it the same one used for two entirely different purposes?
Two birds, a real raven and a weathervane in the shape of a falcon, play a significant part during the introduction of the great game.
Set in two different years. The main plot is set in 1935, the first flashback is set in 1934.
Mysterious Niles makes Mrs. Rowe and his mother guess wrongly. Unsurprisingly, both women are doomed.
Matching clothes for the twins.
Mrs. Rowe uses her rug beater for two different purposes: beating her carpets and beating Niles.
The very first shot introduces the forest with a pan and then zooms in on Niles. About halfway into the movie, a very similar shot is used for the very same location.
Two magic tricks are performed, one by Chan-Yu and one by Niles.

Niles adopts everything (sometimes via the devious route of Holland). A few examples include:
Russell's nickname, Piggy Lookadoo, comes from a book.
So does the story of the changeling.
The intended imitation of Chan-Yu's magic trick will save Niles' life.
"Yowsa" is first said by Uncle George.
The kidnapping of the baby is, as one character puts it, "the Lindbergh thing all over again".

The trap door to the apple cellar slams twice.
At first there's a baby in the cradle. Later it's a changeling (metaphorically speaking).
Mother and daughter both jump/fall down the stairs.
Piggy Lookadoo dies in the story and in real life.
Robert Mulligan attends two tasks: producer and director.
Tom Tryon (an alliteration) also attends two tasks: executive producer and screenwriter.
Winnie is played by an alliteration: Loretta Leversee.
And there's another alliteration in this film: Anthony Adverse.
It is often said that the twins never appear in the same frame together. Well, their two hands do appear together during the ring removal.
Speaking of the ring removal, Niles goes through Holland's death and its aftermath for the second time.
The flashback scenes show the passing of the two most important male characters in the life of Niles: his father and his brother.
The first and final shot of the movie both approach the main character.
Niles, the two-faced boy, is startled by the two-faced man.
Holland annoyed: "Ada says, Ada says." Twice.
Niles reads Grimm's Fairy Tales, written by two brothers.
And now guess how many elves are seen stealing the baby on the picture inside the book.
Niles has an affinity for two birds: a raven (during the introduction of the great game) and a peregrine falcon (the family crest).
The raven serves a dual purpose: as Niles' embodiment of freedom and as the harbinger of Piggy's death. Those things seem to go hand in hand, don't they?
The name of the actor portraying Cousin Piggy is Clarence Crow (another alliteration by the way). So the raven announces the downfall of the crow.
Holland's birthday (March 20th) is also his death-day.
Two 0s in the film's runtime: 100 minutes.
May 23rd of 1972 is of some importance here. For two reasons of course: 1. The film premiered. 2. Coincidentally, it was the 11th birthday of the Udvarnokys (who were born under the astrological sign of Gemini).

Additions?

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Interesting. At what point in the movie did you figure this out?

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After having seen it twice of course.

Okay, to be honest, I've seen it about a dozen times over the years. It's the kind of film I like to return to every once in a while.

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I read the book at least 5 times - no joke. While they couldn't fit the entire book in the movie, all in all they did a good job. Did you read the book?

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Yes, but only once. I think the movie is superior and there's absolutely nothing from the novel that I miss on screen. Except for, maybe, the brief moment where Niles pees on Holland's grave. But it didn't really fit into the way the film reveals the twist.

As far as the duality theme goes, the book twins were born in 1922 - in the movie it's 1924. But I appreciate this minor change, since I find this story much more "charming" with eleven-year-olds.

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Two 0s in the film's runtime: 100 minutes.
The exact runtime is even better: 99 minutes and 55 seconds.

Body count: 6 (3 male, 3 female).

And now to the most important duality of them all:
There are exactly two things I don't like about this film.
1. Uta Hagen's accent strikes me as a tad too exaggerated.
2. We see Niles before we see that the padlock has been cut open. Should have been The Other way around.

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I think I've re-edited the film in my head over the years, changing that ending just a tad to match what you're suggesting.
I like the idea of holding the suspense just a few frames longer in lieu of having s seemingly-unrelated scene in a hospital (per the novel.)

No fate but what we make. -Terminator II

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Many sources list the film's runtime as 108 minutes (which would be a full 8 minutes longer than the version that's widely available these days). Now if an alternate cut that runs for 108 minutes should indeed exist, then I'd be particularly interested to see if the final revelation is presented any differently.

But for now I view the untimely disclosure of Niles in the final scene as the sole mistake Robert Mulligan made when directing this other-wise great film.

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Y'know it DOES seem to me that when I first saw the film in its original run, it ended differently.
Forty years later, it's hard to recall how the version I saw all those years back ended. My original viewing was colored quite a bit by my having recently read the novel and my fanboy admiration for the story. My DVD has the end we've seen for the past thirty or so years, and the version run on The Film Channel's 'classics' (taped on VHS before they inserted commercials into their features - that's how long ago it ran) seems to me to have been this one.

I'd love to know if there really is an alternate ending.

I'd like to know if an ending more similar to the ending of the book was filmed. Maybe Tryon (the screenwriter) just thought that his film ending left enough mentioned for a viewer to make assumptions about the actual outcome.

No fate but what we make. -Terminator II

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I sincerely doubt that an alternate ending was ever filmed, cause Mr. Angelini (who catches Niles in the novel) is taken into custody in the movie. Plus, Tom Tryon's sweeping swipe at the film interestingly did not include the rather easy target of the changed ending. This makes me think that Tryon might have known that only the film version had the appropriate conclusion for the particularly ill nature of this story. Not to mention that the final shot is second to none as far as final shots go.

What I just cannot rule out is the possibility that a longer version exists with 8 minutes of additional scenes and maybe a few alternate shots, takes, angles and/or cuts for scenes we already know. And as far as the latter goes, the only room for improvement I see is the disclosure of Niles in the final scene.

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8 years ago to the day, Robert Mulligan passed away. Thank you for To Kill A Mocking Other In The Summer Of '42.

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Interesting.

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