Arthur's status / motives / relations to Peter
I remember my reaction when I saw this movie on tv (quite a long time ago):
one of the most arousing movies ever; highly disturbing in its explicit cruelty (the shocking content is justified; but never let children watch it all on their own - it can do more damage to a child's soul than a million porn flicks!)
Like many a spectator, I had problems to understand it. As I do not believe in any kind of esoterics, I did not think of something supernatural for a second; anything at this level I thought to be a dream, or religious hallucination, or the like. Neither would something like a spiritual guide come to my mind.
So what I saw was the story of Arthur, an Indian who had good control of himself ouside of himself, but was so furious and hateful inside about the ecological damages that capitalism does with its insatiable greed for more money and its lackeys (white ones mostly where he lived) and what they did to his natural environment that his fury made him go too far in his revenge (maybe encouraged by the tradition of the torture peg that some Indian tribes had - don't know which ones).
The other constituting motive of Arthur seemed to be some kind of *beep* intentions he seemed to have on Peter, who is a guy with good intentions - in his own view, at least - , and really trying to follow them, but who was somewhat timid when things got tougher. Remember the scenes in the hotel, with the bunch of noisy @ssholes next door: Peter complained, but did not dare to risk a fight, so the bunch went on. Arthur showed Peter to control his fears and take the action that took him to his goal.
Arthur's motive was not quite clear to me: did he really try to educate Peter? Did he want to help him become a better man (in whatever sense)? Did he want to HELP him? Did he want to make Peter ashamed of himself to humiliate him? Or did he want to have a worthier enemy against whom it was more honourable to fight? Was it for an own wish of his to get his room quiet? Or maybe he was just bored and wanted some fun?
Similarly, I was not sure about Arthur's motives in the woods. Revenge? Educating Peter? What for? A cruel cat-and-mouse-game of a cruel man? Other motives? Which ones?
In some phase, Arthur turned to Bud the manager (and tortured him), away from Peter, whom he obviously despised as a coward, despised him so much that for him, Peter just seemed not to be around. This does not sound like the "spiriual guide" theory to me!
Otherwise: When Arthur seemed to drown in the end, he sank down in the water, holding eye-contact, but gave no air-bubbles: this is more like the ghost theory.
What a pity that I cannot remember the beginning of the movie (people said it would give clues). What (exactly) happened?
Did anybody read the novel? That would make it all clear, I guess!
Any way: a great movie - and worth more than just 6.2 points! (I give it 8))