Because he was caught dealing off of the bottom of the deck.
\
"base dealer: Also called a bottom dealer, or a second dealer, this relies on two related methods that manipulate the dealing of cards."
I thought his right hand was broken punching the guy or guys about to kill him, defending himself.
shareLike when they broke Paul Newman's fingers in The Hustler so he couldn't play pool any more, they broke Brad Pitt's right hand to symolize that he would not fly fish any more as fly fishing is all in the wrist. It was also probably to send a message that he was killed because he was cheating at cards, using his right hand to deal from the bottom of the deck or from the second card in the deck.
jtb01
Ah, no. Fly fishing is not "all in the wrist."
In fact, you shouldn't break your wrist at all when casting.
They broke his right hand because he was caught cheating or owed money to the wrong people.
I highly doubt that a booky or loan shark would know about or care about his passion for fly fishing.
No. If he'd been cheating, he wouldn't have been in debt, and he would have been disposed of far more quickly. Also, his eternal optimism wouldn't drive him to cheat, just to try harder to beat the odds.
I realize some people have ideas that his hand was intentionally mangled, but I'm among those believing that the significance is only that he went out fighting. Cheating is a totally different matter.
Edward
I have always thought it was because he was dealing off the bottom of the deck, but today I pulled out the book and looked. Very near the end of the book is this paragraph: "From time to time Paul's right hand had to be reaffirmed; then my father would shuffle away again. He could not shuffle in a straight line for trying to lift his feet. Like many Scottish Ministers before him, he had to derive what comfort he could from the faith that his son had died Fighting."
shareI always took it as he broke his hand fighting. Not that uncommon to do (hence why boxing gloves are used). Basically he got in trouble and went out fighting, which was Paul's nature in the first place.
Someone stated they broke his hand for fishing purposes, but meh... that seems implausible considering they killed him and you could probably still fish with a broken hand that was mended. Or learn with the other hand.
In the hundred times I've seen it and seen his father make a fist, it's been pretty clear to me that Paul broke his own hand going out fighting.
I could be wrong obviously, but I thought they made it clear.
This is taken directly from the original text: "From time to time Paul's right hand had to be reaffirmed; then my father would shuffle away again. He could not shuffle in a straight line for trying to lift his feet. Like many Scottish Ministers before him, he had to derive what comfort he could from the faith that his son had died Fighting."
You're all forgetting that, after their Mother goes upstairs to grieve in private, his Father asked Paul if there was anything else he could tell him about Paul's death, Paul said "They broke every bone in his right hand". That was intentional and well beyond fighting damage.
We can guess why but it wasn't the pride of going down fighting. He had totally pissed off the wrong people at the Lolo -- with his arrogance and penchant for accumulating gambling debts -- over a
very long period of time. They'd finally had it with him and they were sending their message to those who tried to behave in that manner. No question.
Sorry. I inadvertently used Paul's name where I should have written Norman's name as the son speaking with his Father about Paul's death. It's tough to review a post on this site before sending it. I usually write my posts using the "EverNote" App, so I can review them for content, spelling and grammar before pasting them back into IMDb but got lazy on this one. So fallible am I -- hence the value of editing tools.
By the way, his primary cause of death was from being beaten to death by the butt of a revolver. The last thing his Father asked was "Which hand?", to which Norman replied "They broke nearly every bone in his right hand". The fact that it was his right hand had further significance and was additionally painful
to his Father as he believed Paul was an artist in his fly-fishing technique -- which depended largely on the use of his dominant right hand. I don't know that that had anything to do with why his murderers had also crushed his right hand. Probably that was more relevant to his
gambling problems, much like Paul Newman having both his thumbs broken in
"The Hustler". Either way, he was right-handed and it was a message to others to avoid screwing around with gambling at the Lolo, at leastl
Hmm, I disagree. It's never made clear that his parents even knew about his gambling at least in the film anyway. I thought the relevance of the broken bones was because he died fighting, not as a consequence of base dealing or anything like that. Norman had no reason to tell this in front of his mother to not upset her further.
Also, the line is "Nearly all the bones in his hand were broken" not what you quoted.
Yeah, I think you're wrong too. Everything about the way Norman says and the Dad receives it lends it to being a positive.
share