MovieChat Forums > The United States of Leland (2005) Discussion > So he killer the retard because he was a...

So he killer the retard because he was a retard


He really is a messed up character because his reason was that their life isn't worth living due to hopelessness and disadvantages but taking his life was not his call to make.

Only Ben Affleck can judge me

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and that's why he said he made a mistake.

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.Leland was wise in ways that most people know, but they don't acknowledge or even think about them,
.Leland seems happy enough when he meets Becky in the store, helps her out and tells her she is pretty..
.Leland has been travelling around and meeting up with the Calderones for years. He has no contact with his father - his mother seems to love him, but she doesn't know what to do with him.
.Leland asks, "Why if someone asks if everything is going to be all right, and people say yes, when they know it isn't true?
.Leland asks Pearl about the new girlfriend. Pearl defends himself by saying he is only human, Leland asks why people only say that when they have done something wrong.
.Leland asks Pearl if he will tell his real girlfriend about his one-night-stand and Pearl says no, she will never find out. Leland asks if she did find out, would that make it wrong, but if she didn't find out that would make it ok?
.Leland does his best not to lie to Becky, and tell her everything will be okay. Becky says she never wants to hurt Leland, and Leland responds "then don't.
;Leland says he made a mistake. He felt sorry for the retarded boy and knew the boy's life would be sad (or thought he knew). He cuts his hand to find out how it felt, not to him, but how it had felt to the retarded boy. He realizes he made a mistake in judgement about what the retarded boy's future life would have been
.Leland seems intent on finding out why people say certain things when they know they are not true.
.A hard and tragic way to approach the subject, but the subject is worth thinking about..

Yodi

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Good points above, but one item is not actually true.

"Leland has been travelling around and meeting up with the Calderones for years."

Yes, Leland has been traveling around the world on his father's dime for a few years, whilst never visiting his father.

But he only visits the Calderones in NYC twice. The first time is at Christmastime, when he uses the first plane ticket his father sent him. He is 12, I believe.

The next time is in the spring of his 16th year, after Becky breaks up with him. He uses the last ticket his father sent him. More than four years have elapsed between those two visits to NYC.

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i got a different point after watching this film:

i felt he was troubled and didn't know what to do.He didn't kill the retard just because he was retard.he killed him (i am guessing) because he was hurt by her sister for being in love with her,then over and over he was not treated well.he didn't have his father's fatherhood.and above all,he was confused for somethings despite knowing the very hard realities about life.so,he killed the retard thinking that he might free him from his sufferings OR taking some revenge because of what his sister did to him.

Remember,there was lapse for certain things which were never shown in the film,they might have been left for us to think.obviously if everything gets explained,then i think we should omit the philosophy subject from earth.

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I think in the last scene when he's telling him everything is going to be OK that is the motive. He felt for people treating him different, and the only way to make it OK was for him to die. I was expecting some scene where he finds the kid already dead instead. He had a messed up perspective on death with guardian angels and some truth mixed in like crying won't bring them back. I'd say a bit of a sociopath.

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Exactly, shay! At least a few of us get it. I swear, the majority of film-viewers are pathetically dense.

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You're not wrong there. Leland does insist a number of times that he's not angry at Becky. He says that he didn't like feeling what he felt when she broke up with him. He protests that he's not angry at her a few too many times for it to be anything but denial.

His motives are clearly mixed.

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Well said.

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[deleted]

To the OP : So , do you think he knew what he was doing ?

Guys , Leland suffers from a personality disorder and many people with personality disorders are actually sick . They sometimes can't see clearly , and sometimes too , they think that the world is in black and white , like Leland , who had a rough time with his feelings and almost everything surrounding him . He was very sorry to see Ryan suffering through this life when he knew that this kid in specific would never be understood in his life and would never be cared for in his whole life , so he took his life away to prevent all this from happening to the poor kid ..

No one said it was right , but you can't blame Leland because he is sick , should see a psychiatrist and probably take drugs at times if he gets any obsessions of any kind . The ones to blame are his father and mother who couldn't care less about this smart and beautiful kid , who happened to be sick ..

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Agreed!

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I agree. He was messed up and thought that playing God was his right. His whole world view was effed up. He chose to look at life in an awful and hopeless negativity talking about people wasting their lives on prayers and tears when his life was a TOTAL waste. When someone says everything will be alright to me, it usually is alright. I also know that 98% of the "bad" things I have worried about in my life have never come to pass. I love every heart beat that the Lord lets me have and I see beauty and happiness EVERYWHERE, every day!!

I don't love her.. She kicked me in the face!!

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Uh, could we not use the "r" word...... just saying

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