MovieChat Forums > The Walker (2007) Discussion > lynn and carter

lynn and carter

posted 17 years ago by trapooblihead
10 replies | jump to latest

have just watched this fim (loved it) but wanted to know what the significance of 2 interactions between carter and lynn were - when he places his hand over hers in the car and she decisively removes hers, and why his pov at the end of the film is of her body in slight slo-mo as she walks away from him. Cater is gay, and although we know he asked lynn out several years ago (on remembering this he cites the 70's as being a very confused time!) at this time in his life there is no suggestion he likes anything other than men. Are these incidents intended to illustrate a sexual intent on Caters part? As the slo mo scene of lynn sashaying away is the final scene in the movie it seems to give such a theory more relevance than necessary - this is not what the film is ultimately about so why leave that as the lasting image?

[–] pogopeck 17 years ago

Saw film tuesday

I'd say the first interaction with here removing her hand is a simple indication that despite all the pretences of loyalty and friendship etc.., none of it cuts very deep. Look at the way she avoids him and he has to track her down even though he is putting himself on the line for her.

As for the final scene with her walking away. I don't see anything sexual in it at all. I'd say that on one hand it is similar to those slow mo scenes where there is a victory/closure/completion of some sort, here being the fact that he finally made his stand and is no longer walking in his fathers shadow. If anything he has surpassed his father who was corrupt.

On the other hand I see it as the turning of a new page. She sashays off into the horizon and he is undoubtedly moving on and is unlikely to enter that world again. Maybe he will with his integrity intact, but I'd bank that he'll drop all the hypocrisy and settle down with his lover?

Who Knows?

.

What do you think?

[–] MurrayAllan 17 years ago

thanks - that makes sense and i agree. Although, i suppose, if i were to niggle i would have said that any allusions to his moving on would have been better served by seeing HIM move away in close up at the end as i left the film thinking about Lynn which is all wrong. but hey? - who i am i?, certainly not an award winning writer and director!!!

[–] nvalentino_uk 17 years ago

This is good debate! - and all good questions. The ending did strike me - decision to focus on Lynne. (def need to see the film a second time as there was so much packed in there). I think there was a little reference to Gigolo? (Lynne was wearing a very similar dress to Michelle's). In Gigolo, the woman was the agent of change and freedom (by giving Julian the gift of her love). In TW the woman is also the agent of change in a way - Carter's involvement in the case shook up the cosy canasta world, her walking away from him and going back to that world that he'll never go back to (we assume?) in effect gives him his freedom (out of that lifestyle and a role he'd outgrown). It's an inversion of the Gigolo ending - the woman not abandoning saves him in Gigolo, the woman 'abandoning' him saves him in TW??

My feeling was that he was going to get out of that world and go to NY with his boyfriend.

The social world there definitely didn't seem to cut very deep at all, I agree. Didn't he say 'I'm not naive, I'm superficial' - but I think that was beginning to wear thin, he was forced to look at himself because of the conflict with the law. The social world definitely worked on a specific 'needs basis'. Definitely not true friendship (whatever that is). Yep, she was offhand with him when he tracked her down and seemed concerned with herself only - could've been because she felt he'd betrayed her a little by reporting the murder at all - but why not just ask him why he did in an upfront way (from what I recall she didn't?). Just shows everyone in 'the circle' was out for themselves really.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] zootie 17 years ago

I was also a bit puzzled. I also thought of a sexual meaning or of a nostalgia or remanant feeling on his part. In the end, I took it literaly. His function was to walk beside them; her walking away w/o him by her side meant he had been left behind, discarded and no longer accepted in spite of his loyalty. He knew it when he went there to give her the photo -and it was said to that effect in the room. IMO the walk just reiterates it visually.

I think he had moved on, had already rejected that world. Leaving the photo was a cavallier way of doing it, a last show of loyalty even the recipient is unworthy, only because you're following through with what you started; and in a way, trascending that world.

[–] tudazwoman-3 17 years ago

I totally agree with Zootie. Lynn and her friends were users. Carter played a specific part in their world WHEN they let him in. He felt more than friendship with Lynn and the "hand" scene in the automobile fortified that.

BTW, this is very typical of Washington life (I've worked in DC for over 40 years for 3 Administrations and have been privy to many interesting incidents. This stuff happens ALL the time.

Great film with great work from the actors.

[–] St_Anus 16 years ago

i agree with the consensus here; while Lynn enjoyed Carter's company, her feelings did not cut that deep; she withheld important information from him, and took off just as the situation was heating up. the 'hand scene' was one example, but after watching it a second time, I noticed that she is cold and short with him on many different occassions.

the reason she is so puzzled why he went to all that effort to protect her is obvious; she wouldn't have done it for him, or probably for anyone, and in the end, she wasn't prepared to leave that social world behind.

the significance of Carter's loyalty to Lynn has nothing to do with her at all; it was an epiphany; a moment of self-realisation. when carter said he wasn't naive, just superficial, he got it ass backwards; it was his naivety that was responsible for his downfall, but it was his strength of character--unbeknownst, even to himself--that allowed him to rise above his surroundings and make that important step towards extinguishing the ghosts of his past.

[–] chester-copperpot-1 16 years ago

No, there was no sexual content in that last slow-mo walk. The feeling I got was more of: "What an ungrateful bitch! What a *beep*ing whore!"

Carter did have feelings for her. But not sexual. More platonic friendship, or affection for a former lover. Somewhere, you will always love the people you have been with, even if it is in the past. It is the kind of affection you have for a child going astray, or a sister you have been growing up with, now turned a beautiful woman, or a former lover with no sexual feelings in the now but with a past history. In short, he thought more of her. He thought she was a real woman, when, at the end, and when the goings got tough, she was just another ungrateful bitch.

"His function was to walk beside them; her walking away w/o him by her side meant he had been left behind..."

Yes. He was 'The Walker', but she was the one who walked away...

And that hand thing in the car is just a foreshadowing. Had he known better, he would have understood the clues...

The new design of the IMDb site sucks big time. Bring back the old design, now!

[–] claypbrown 15 years ago

Yeah, I agree with a lot of the above. I think that the last scene was him finally convincing himself of what he now knew; that someone who he had thought was a soul-mate to him was in fact a coldhearted bitch. And he went there to confirm it and to have a sort of "closure" about the whole thing. And that was one of the reason that the Bacall character was so cold, she thought his need to do that was "common". But he felt it was important enough that he needed to do it. So he was actually happy as she walked away from him because it left absolutely no ambiguity about the situation. She was a total bitch and didn't have any feelings for him. And now he was free to start his new life.

[–] Squeeth2 10 years ago

He was a servant, rather like a governess or companion in a Victorian novel, someone who is with the rich bastards but not of them. Every hint of an expectation of reciprocity by him is rejected.

Notice that before they part he gives her a Judas kiss then steps away, which raises him above her?

A scene or two before that he packs his books and objets d'art away - those women have nothing like that in their houses or heads. Schrader is fair to her though, she's allowed some pride along with the abjection and sterility she returns to. She's a bit of an objet d'art too although Carter's interest is superficial....

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