MovieChat Forums > Mommie Dearest (1981) Discussion > One thing I noticed...

One thing I noticed...

posted 6 years ago by CinemaDemon989 (1286)
3 replies | jump to latest

Every single time Joan Crawford received good news about something, her excitement and joy was always short-lived...which always concluded to her going off on Christina and doing something crazy. Moral of the story, in my opinion was...no matter what good came Joan's way, her aggression and narcissism always seemed to get the better of her. So really, there was just no such thing as making her happy. No matter what happened, she would always find something to trigger her into madness. But then again, I guess that's supposed to be the point of the story.

Great movie by the way...

[–] LetThemEatCake (2717) 6 years ago

I agree.

[–] breathfromanother (745) 6 years ago

Good observation. I also think Joan sabotaged her own happiness because a part of her felt like she wasn't worthy of it. I read something about her childhood and how her own mother was cruel to her and blamed her when she discovered her husband (Joan's stepdad) had been raping her since she was 12 or 13 and she looked at Joan as "the mistress" and not a victim. Instead of choosing to do a better job at being a mother she chose to adopt, control and abuse her own kids like punching bags whenever the shame and pain from the past came back to haunt her.

[–] lemonhead1 (410) a year ago

It was a movie, not real life. Yes, Joan was a bitch and should've NEVER adopted Christina & Christopher, but what you are watching in this movie was written by a screenwriter. It isn't word for word what Christina said happened. Also, we also have one woman's word over another. Joan never got to defend herself. Try reading some comments from people who used to work with Christina in the theater. She was bat shit nuts and constantly lied & exaggerated.