MovieChat Forums > Mean Creek (2004) Discussion > George showed his true colors after the ...

George showed his true colors after the truth...


They were all right he was only pretending to be nice.

Even I'm surprised I'm not gay.

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Agreed. That's what I loved about Marty. Unlike all the other apologist nitwits of the crew, he saw right through George and knew the game he was playing. Just because someone's acting nice doesn't mean that the person is (psychopaths for example). His true self also came out at times even before the "meltdown" on the boat. Kid was way better off dead. I don't see how anybody could feel bad for such a scumbag like that.

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I do agree George had no good manners and did in fact deserve an ass whooping, but the thing most people fail to see is that he is a KID. Growing up, I knew plenty of spoiled fat boys who were only children with single moms who had nice toys and nice everything. The single mother gives everything her child asks for and doesn't take the time to teach them how to speak to people and to learn the error of their ways.

George tried to be nice at first, he bought Sammy a stream machine gun, he even told him he can return it if he wanted. He tried to help the crew with whatever he could, but as soon as he started getting comfortable he began to call Sam, Milly, and Clyde wet "Cats". He tried to fit in with Marty by smoking cigz. Its obvious that he had no, friends and just wanted to belong. As soon as he saw how the older kids were acting he thought he could be excepted by Rocky and Marty by bashing on Clyde, Sammy and Milly. He was just a misguided fat kid with a temper problem, A.D.D. and anxiety issues. He did deserve to get beat up, but the group did NOT need to go through all the trouble for some petty revenge. They could've just pranked him at school or something instead of basically kidnapping him.

What he said on the boat before his death was uncalled for and did not need to happen. Remember what Clyde said? "Nobody talks to people like that, George!" I blame George's mother for the way he turned out. I had my share of bullying as a kid, now I am 23 years old, grown and in great shape to the point where I'd like to see anyone bully me. Know how I handled bullies who were not worth my attention? By standing up to them at school! not outside of school.

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Well said, mate. I think the problem with school bullies nowadays is that their aggression mostly stems from their sense of self. Mostly, they unconsciously think they're weak and worthless themselves, so they act bad-ass and tough just to hide those insecurities of theirs. More specifically, they tend to project for the most part, because they attribute their own hostile nature to others and assume that everyone's out to get them too. And they also tend to pick on people smaller or more pacifistic, such as how George was picking on Clyde the most. And he knew Clyde would put up with his *beep* so that was an opportunity (as you just said) to get Marty and Rocky's admiration. And yea, it seems like every only child has this like "center of the universe" syndrome; it's all about them.

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Exactly. You already know how it is. I honestly wish kids who were victims of bullying today just let it go and realize they are better than them. The best vengeance against a bully is growing up into a good person and watch how the bully grows up to ruin his is her own life. Never fails.

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Disagreed. I've always hated the phrase "so-and-so showed his true colors..." because it takes the idea of a very complicated human being (which we all are) and reduces their feelings, emotions, thoughts, and self down into some tiny absolute, which just is not how it works.

As another poster pointed out, George was a KID. Frankly I thought Josh Peck did an amazing job giving the kid some depth; he wasn't your run-of-the-mill one-dimensional movie bully, but he was a real human with layers upon layers of what made him tick.

Think about what your parents always told you about bullies as a kid. George was the perfect example of this - he was a fat kid who'd been held back in school with clear developmental and social issues. He was mad at the world, didn't know how to fit in it, didn't have any friends, was alone and felt misunderstood... kids like that have a lot of anger. To say he was a "bad" person or a "good" person is completely underselling his character; he simply was A person. And that's the point.

Why did he agree to go out to the river? He probably really thought he was making some friends. It's heartbreaking really. He bought Sam the squirt-gun after all. I don't think it was ever in his plans to be a jerk like he was toward the end - that came as a result of him being prodded and his first, instinctual reaction was to become belligerent (just as it was at the beginning of the film when he beat up Sam).

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I thought it was pretty clear that this film portrayed George as being severely misunderstood. He was just kind of dumb and did not realize that his actions were hurtful. He was not like the bullies of today that lack empathy.

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I'd say he also lacked empathy. He was never sorry nor did he apologize for anything he said or did to others. When brought up the incident with Clyde he was not defensive at all. In fact, he was almost laughing, except until he was told he attacked people for no reason. That showed he never took responsability for any of his actions. Among all his mental issues, that seemed to be some kind of borderline sociopathy to me. He could be nice only as long as nobody bothered him; otherwise, he could be a terrible person.

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Yeah he was a horrible nasty fat piece of shit that deserved to die !

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Like others pointed out, he was a kid trying to figure out where he belonged. When he found out that he was only out there to be pranked, he was hurt...and he lashed out as a result. Its not an uncommon reaction for maladjusted people...I should know...the kid reminded me a lot of myself when I was younger...minus the bully part.

A lot of emotions end up taking the form of anger...the kid thought he was surrounded by possible friends...and yeah, he was trying to act cool and being a bit of a douche in the process, but that's also just being immature...unsure of what it means to "be yourself", so you end up being a follower and stepping on others while finding your foothold within the clan.

And he was following the lead of the older, beer drinking kid, who was himself a victim of childhood, doing his best to impersonate what his idea of "being cool" was about.
They were all kids trying to get by...and I think that the more George acted stupid, the more apparent it was just how desperate he was to fit in and feel wanted. Which is why he reacted the way he did when he discovered it was all a ruse, his anger proportionate to his hurt...and his words proportionate to just how much he wanted the other kids to hurt the way that he did in that moment.

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