Does anyone know why Lester's ear occasionally bled? I don't know if I'm a moron or what, but I do not recall this being further addressed in the film. Can anyone help me?
shareI don't know. I was wondering what's wrong with his ear, too. Maybe it was just to make him more interesting
shareI'm not 100% positive on this... but I believe that his ear bleeding was supposed to be an indication of his mental illness... sometimes if there is something wrong with your brain you leak blood or other fluids from your ears eyes or nose...
shareIt's a shame they didn't dig into Lester's past. That character was fantastic - brilliantly portrayed by Vince. But he would've been even more fascinating if we'd known something about him!
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the ear could have been from previous abuse from his mother. when clay makes a comment about his mother not loving him after lester kills amanda, lester goes crazy one him.
shareIt could be that he has a tumor and that is part of the cause.
shareCould be any of those reasons, but expaining it would have been boring. Un-answered questions make a movie more interesting.
shareI had read this post several months ago. When I watched the film again last night, I was reminded of this unanswered question.
The scene is when Clay and Lester are on the lake, "fishing." Lester has a cotton ball in his right ear, and when Clay asks why, Lester says something like, "My ear bleeds once in a while." (Paraphrased, obviously)
Clay had just dumped off Gloria's body the night before -- chances are, Lester was aware of that fact, either because he'd been watching Clay, or he was at the lake himself, so...
I see a couple of possibilities. It could be that Lester had been in the water -- maybe he fell in while dumping a body, or when he saw Clay approach in the middle of the night. No way of knowing of course, but it's possible that he has swimmer's ear.
Of course, once the body is found and the pair are driving into town, Lester takes the cotton ball out, looks at it, and throws it out the window. Now, I didn't pause the film to scrutinize each frame, and I'm not a medical pathologist, but I didn't see any blood on the cotton ball. And Lester doesn't really act like he has swimmer's ear.
Could he be using the cotton ball as an ear plug? I think it's reasonable to assume that Lester 1) knew Clay had dumped a body, and 2) wanted to set up Clay to find a body on the lake. Wearing an ear plug means that Clay is more likely to hear a body surface, bump against the boat, or whatever.
I somehow don't think he's "just crazy" and wears a cotton ball from time to time, since that's like, the only time in the film where he references bleeding from his ear or wears a cotton ball.
Anyone else have any insight?
Hmm, I honestly really do not know, since they did not go into detail about it in the movie but here is my take.. I think Lester had some type of head trauma and needed a shunt for the liquid. Many of the serial killers(I know, morbid, but I read a lot of true crime)have had prior head trauma and were not the "same" afterwards. You sometimes get "leakiness" with head trauma(hence the need for a shunt, a lot of times). I got into a nasty accident, had many operations to my skull and I dealt with the same thing, ecept, I didn't leak too much from my ears, I did my nose, though(TMI, I am so sorry about that)and after me being too sleepy all the time, my husband went to the Neurologist and spoke with him and the doctor decided to give me a shunt. They also had a needle they inserted in my back to drain the fluid, it hurt and it did not work for too long, so I ended up with a shunt. Nah, I am not a crazy killer, in fact my progress has been excellent and I am lucky not to have any lasting mental issues with the injuries I sustained.
Just my take on why Lester's ear would leak(or bleed as he said, but the fluid can have a bloody tinge to it, making it look like you were bleeding when you really were not). But who knows? Lester was a psycho...
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Interesting theory, thank you. No, I don't think it's TMI ~ if you're comfortable sharing it, it certainly adds to the conversation! A head injury would explain the "leaky ear" more than, "Oh, he's crazy."
On some level, I'm wondering if it was thrown in as an unexplainable, "who knows why" kind of thing. In the outstanding Shaun of the Dead, one of the characters - Ed, a lovable, foul-mouthed loser - has a square of hair shaved away on one side of his head. No big deal, just this one little detail. It's never explained in the film, no one comments on it, but it's definitely there. In the DVD commentary, they explain that it's just one of those "weird" things that the character would have, for no good reason whatsoever.
Anyway, thanks for sharing!
It could have been thrown in as unexplainable. But as soon as he said it bleeds sometimes from the ear, the first thing I told my husband is he must have had some type of head trauma(just my take on it, since the doctors were concerned and kept asking me if I was leaking from the ear as well when I was in the hospital)and more than likely needed a shunt to drain fluid. But many serial killers usually had some type of past head trauma(I am into true crime). IDK..
Yeah, I am comfortable talking about it. It was a horrid thing to go through, but I am here, I survived!! I had numerous surgeries(not fun being cooped up in the hospital for weeks at a time)It took 4 months for me to come home from the hospital after my accident. I was at one of the best hospitals in Florida(even though the trip to Gainesville is a 5HR Carride from where I live)but I was lucky to have gone there and been assigned to my neurologist(who is absolutely a genius and excellent!!)..
Ok, enough of me going on and on.. I hope everyone had(or is having)a great day :)
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"Lester Long never forgets a friend."-Lester--Clay Pigeons
maybe it's just bad editing. they cut lots of stuff and the thing with the ear may have been cut, but they needed the scene to advance the plot, so they just left it in.
sharehe got the leaky ear because he was in the room when Gloria got shot. He was too close when the gun went off and it burst his eardrum.
shareLester wasn't anywhere near the scene of that crime. He told Clay it sometimes bleeds. No other explanation was given.
"a malcontent who knows how to spell"
I remember that John Goodman in Barton Fink had a similar problem. He was a seemingly easy going traveling salesman who had a cotton ball in his ear.
But he complained that he had terrible headaches and apparently had a brain tumor.
SPOILER
He was also a serial killer.
I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else