Why was Johnny so nice to Maggie?Why doesn't he abuse her like all the other women he meets,what's different about her?
shareActually he was also fairly nice to the girl from the cafe. He certainly didn't physically abuse her anyway (even when he throws him out onto the street without reason).
shareHe didn't abuse the café girl either, did he? and he didn't directly abuse Louise either, apart from of course saying mean things to her and taking advantage of her having a place to stay...
See, Johnny isn't a misogynist. the only women he allows himself to treat like *beep* are the people he thinks of as weak, like Sophie and the woman in the window.
It seems that many people think Johnny is just an out and out abuser and I don't think it's that simple.
We don't know enough about the first scene in the film to make much of it but it looks like he's raping someone. But I also had the feeling that she was a prostitute and he got too rough with her.
It's been awhile since I've seen the film so please correct me if I'm wrong but in the scene with the woman in the window I believe it was she who seemed to welcome abuse and Johnny wanted nothing to do with her once he saw her tattoo.
I think this film demonstrates that there are victims and abusers who feed each other. Sophie didn't seem traumatized by her encounter with Johnny but she was traumatized by the one with the landlord. I find the men and the women equally pathetic and sympathetic in this film. No one can relate properly to each other (except Louise). Johnny is a product of a f-cked up world and he's not at all alone in being f-cked up.
That's right, SheBear. I watched the film with English subtitles on (because some of the characters slur so much, you can hardly hear what they're saying) and in the first scene, the woman in the alley says things that indicate that she was really in on it at first, but when he starts to get rough with her she's all like "what the *beep* I think Leigh wanted to raise the question whether Johnny is a rapist or not by not keeping it entirely clear whether the first scene depicts a rape or a case of casual sex gone wrong, maybe to get the audience to think for themselves in stead of force-feeding them every ounce of information like most filmmakers do. "Naked" is rife with subtlety.
Getting into the thing with the woman in the window's tattoo..what was that all about? Did she have AIDS or something, is that it? That part was particularly bewildering.
The character was quite deliberately named to give the director and his cast a bit of fun.
The "Maggie's gone" line is political humor, a veiled reference to Maggie Thatcher, who Leigh and most of the actors he worked with despised.
I believe Johnny is nicer and more polite to women he hasn't slept with.
I mean, he's not very nice to Louise at first, but then we realize he really loves her.
Then he's nicer to her.
I just think he's more respectful of women who don't hop in bed with him at the first meeting.
-Amanda
"She will remember your heart when men are fairy tales in storybooks written by rabbits"
I think, above all, Johnny felt sorry for Maggie to a degree, and saw that she was a nice, decent person underneath her despondent, hopeless exterior (she certainly projected herself that way). Also, while not educated, I think Johnny acknowledged that she wasn't as stupid, tragic or as unbalanced as her boyfriend, Archie.
Btw, if Archie and Maggie hadn't found each other again, do you think she would've left him for Johnny? Do you think she cared about Archie?
Johnny isn't a misogynist to women who won't let him be? FFS...
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