MovieChat Forums > Flesh and Bone (1993) Discussion > why did arliss lie about having other wo...

why did arliss lie about having other women to break up with kay?


i didn't like that they broke up.i know arlis would have never told her about what his father did. to me there was no reason to break up with her. good movie though and very underrated.

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Anybody who has seen this film from the beginning shouldn't be challenged by attempting to follow and grasp the reasons why protagonist: Arlis Sweeney might be a little skittish, and - among other things, has difficulty negotiating the various inter-personal hazards associated with intimacy.

Add to that, the horrific revelation he quickly recovers his composure from, upon realizing how the first girl with which he has cultivated this fragile yet tentative relationship, happens to be the infant survivor of his father's 30-year-old misadventure, to which he was made an unwilling child accomplice.

The word ambivalence comes to mind, since Arlis most likely registered several emotions at once; not the least of which would be a measure of guilt - despite his unwillingness to participate in the family's murder, which he was coerced and abused into. Consequently, his second reflex might be to distrust himself around Kate.

This in turn is why he abruptly splits from her. Since Arlis and Kate essentially fell in love - practically at first sight, it wasn't any leap, considering his father's sadistic nature, to intuit what villain Roy Sweeney's next move was going to be, after discovering this amazing coincidence, when Arlis first glances at Kate's photograph.

So Arlis's third reaction was to register a sense of urgency, as evidenced by following his father's "trail of crumbs", in order to extricate Kate from his father's deluded clutches. Why else would Arlis have brought his gun along with him?

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[deleted]

Yes, I agree. Arlis is in a classic lose-lose situation. He doesn't want to tell her the truth, because he wants to save her the pain, but that would mean basing their relationship on a lie. If she ever finds out, the pain would be even worse.

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i agree with everything you said.

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Well basically he doesn`t lie about having other woman couse in one scene early in the movie he is in the same motelroom with another woman talking while she is laying naked on the bed.

Besides that he also gets a call from someone telling she is waiting for him ( after he has met Kay ).
So to me he didn`t lie about having other women, though he makes a choice to revert back into the life he had before he met her.

He did however I believe lie about telling Kay that he was starting to miss them.

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While I do not advocate lying, sometime the truth is not the best route. The truth, in this case, would have only brought Kay pain for the absolute rest of her life. Period. That is the only purpose it would serve. This is one of those judgement calls where stretching the truth to save the other person's sanity Or innocence is justified.

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There's no possible way Quaid could have stayed with Ryan knowing what he did about her family's demise.

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