Death followed that sleazy guy around. The girl who "OD'ed" at the hospital (which brings to mind: why take her to the hospital? But perhaps there was more to the story than meets the eye ... maybe he got interrupted while killing her? Maybe she "OD'ed" at a party and other people there suggested she go to the hospital), then the girl at the park (though it's never confirmed he had anything to do with it, though the cop SEEMS to know something about it all ... eh), then Mary... it couldn't be a coincedence, most likely, not to mention the guys at the end with the guns on John made it a bit too obvious, too. It's intriguing to think that there really weren't any murders -- I mean, there is no ACTUAL evidence beyond the guy knowing the girls who died; there's no confession, for example -- but I think, yeah, he was killing girls. It was left unexplained because as you said maybe it's not important, and maybe it's more interesting if it goes unexplained.
I think, regardless if it's reality or not, it's still John's way of doing what he feels is "right", to destroy that connection to his former life, to do something he felt was good or whatever. Hence why he finally slept afterwards.
Read the thread "A QUESTION", it might answer you better.
-
Shuji Terayama forever.
reply
share
sixpackrt
11 years ago
Good point! Yeah, that's what I figured. Great film by the way. Definitely one of my favorite of Shrader's. The British DVD is cheap and it's in widescreen.
"I've seen things in this city that make Dante's Inferno read like Winnie The Pooh."
reply
share
Badlands1
7 years ago
SPOILERS*
Great points! I loved the film, but was always bothered by that unanswered murder question.
Another thing that irked me was the end; John is in jail, and reveals an interest in his boss, yet we had no development of that anywhere in the film, then he collapses into her hands.
When we were lead to believe she was going to set him up the whole movie, it was a bit weird.
Also Paul already did that "jail love hand" ending in American Gigolo
reply
share