Pity For Mike (Pepper)?


Was it me, or was I the only one who felt a bit sorry for Barry Pepper's character? Yes he shot Melquiades but he was in fear of his life and he didn't know that Mel was shooting at a fox. Especially when he gats bitten by the rattlesnake and the resulting treatment, anybody?

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Yep, you're the only one. The guy was a redneck thug who deserved to be taught a lesson. He's not even worthy of sympathy at the end when he's seen the error of his ways because by then the books have only been balanced. The thing is, I think he knows it too. Which is why he asks if Pete will be all right.

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for Mike in the end, than Pete. I think a lot of that was Barry Pepper's performance, though. And the fact that Tommy Lee Jones just annoys me more than anything. I know I was supposed to feel sorry for Pete, but he just irritated me.
The shooting really was an accident, and you can tell when Mike is sitting outside smoking, the night after it happened, that it is bothering him. Yeah, he was mean, and liked to beat the illegals up, but beating them up and killing them are two separate things.
I don't know if his character really "changed", so much as he had an awakening and had to face the fact that his carelessness took a human life. I felt his remorse at the end was real.

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No way. Norton was a selfish, arrogant fool the whole movie. The selfishness of moving his wife out to an place where she doesn't know anyone, with nothing to do, cutting his toenails in the middle of the living room and letting the clippings fly everywhere and what he did by the sink. It's all about Mike, no one else matters.

I don't even have to mention how he beat up Mariana for no good reason.

Personally, someone like that is unlikeable, no matter what. No room to feel sorry for him.




No two persons ever watch the same movie.

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As a woman I can't watch anyone suffer without wishing I could stop it. This aside, Mike took his ordeal ok, to say the least. The journey changed his spirit without breaking it. Maybe deep inside he realized he deserved this and more. Maybe he was ready for it. I just wonder about what was going to happen to him 'after the movie'.



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I would've felt sorrier for him at the beginning if he hadn't tried to hide the body.

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...or essentially raped his wife. It was pretty hard to have any feelings for him other than animosity after that scene.

But the scenes of Mike being a dick were in there to cause these emotions in the viewer, at least IMO, at the conclusion of the film. As someone previously said, Mike wasn't a bad guy per se. I know of a lot of soldiers that went to Iraq and did some pretty gnarly stuff and they aren't bad people (different circumstances, I know, but you know what I'm getting at). Placed in a stressful situation, there is no telling what anyone will do. Now should he have tried to cover up the Melquiades killing? Hell no, that was where it all went downhill for Mike. The real version of what happened wold have been enough to get him off the hook legally.

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That was not even remotely close to rape. Rape indicates that she resisted, or otherwise indicated that she didn't want to.

They were husband and wife. He came up and started to undress her and she just stood still and let it happen. Of course she didn't enjoy it, but she freely allowed him to do it.

There's a huge difference between rape and reluctant married sex.

To call that rape is disrespectful to those victims who have suffered a real rape.

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marital rape.. look it up.

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i wouldnt say that in the movie was spousal rape. it is more up in the air as to what it is. but from the definition even looking at the wikipedia page. there is more to marital rape, those things werent shown. as they are in other movies were it is clear it is marital rape.

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I'm reluctant to call it rape because even though she said no, she didn't really stop him. Then again, we don't know what their history is and perhaps she tried to fight him before, he beat her (that's not hard to believe considering what he did to that Mexican woman), and she just gave up trying to resist. It was uncomfortable to watch, that's for sure because she certainly wasn't enjoying it.

I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.

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rape.. look it up.

Yeah Mike was kinda a jerk and selfish at times but then lots of men are like that, doesn't justify what he went through, almost dying or in danger of having his legs cut off due to gangrene..

Pete thought Mike was guilty of killing his friend because he slept with his wife but in reality Mike didn't even know his wife had cheated on him and the shooting was really an accident.
If he was taken to court though, he would no doubt have been found guilty by Pete's and his wife's witness. Covering up was actually a wise decision of Mike although morally wrong of him at the time, since he didn't know the relationship between his wife and the dead guy then.

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watch Whats Love Got to Do With it and you will see marital rape. This was not even close.

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Or the episode of Mad Men (somewhere in the first season I think) where Joan gets raped by her husband in an office--she clearly tells him she doesn't want to do it, he clearly forces the issue, she clearly has a look of fear on her face as it's happening.

The sink thing with Mike and Luanne, that's more like "well here he goes again, another 30 second wonder"--she might have even rolled her eyes a bit. More a "yeah, whatever" reaction at any rate, while she's still watching the soaps on TV, is how I read that, lol. Wouldn't call it rape, but would call it pathetic on his part, that he can't satisfy his wife, and doesn't seem to have a clue, or maybe just doesn't care. Well, that's the kind of thing that can make wives wander.... (It wasn't the only thing, but it sure didn't help matters.)

Not that she seemed that much of a prize to care much about keeping, although he probably did think he'd keep her. I was kind of surprised how quickly she decided to have a little fling, although perhaps she has cheated on him before.


Understanding is a three-edged sword.

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Yeah, he was a hot-headed jerk, but got dumped on himself by a worse character.

His wife cheats on him with a total stranger because she's a once-popular high school twit who is now a bored, pathetic housewife with no ambitions, no job and no hobbies.



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Thank you, scockery. Exactly my thoughts. Mike wasn't the only selfish one in that marriage. Clipping his toenails in the middle of his own living room? What a beast. How long did the "bored" little trailer queen hold out before she was out running around with the town floozy, knocking boots with Melky? Oh, and Mike banging his wife without a peep of protest at the kitchen sink is marital rape??? Unromantic, insensitive, and about as subtle as a broken chainsaw, sure, but hardly rape. Give me a major break, please.

You're right, no human being would stack books like this.

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That's my thoughts, too. Brutish, but rape? Nope.

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yes the whole time i am hoping he would take tommy lee jones out

Angel : In 243 years I've loved exactly one person.

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