MovieChat Forums > Shotgun Stories (2008) Discussion > ages of different brothers

ages of different brothers

posted 16 years ago by everybody_is_a_critic
6 replies | jump to latest

The plot of the story made it seem that the father's first family (Son, Boy and Kid) were all born before the father left them and started a new family (Cleamon Jr, Mark, Stephen and John). This would mean that Cleamon Jr. and Mark (the older brothers in the 2nd family) are younger than Kid.

I assumed that Kid was supposed to be apx 22 or 23 years old at the most. That doesn't make sense, as it would mean that Cleamon Jr. (who has 2 young boys) is only 21. Is it possible that the dad was going back and forth between the two families and that Cleamon and Mark are both older than Kid?

[–] allenrogerj 16 years ago

Hard to say- there seems to be a big gap in age between Kid and his elder brothers, which would fit with your suggestion.Perhaps he's the product of a relapse from the path of virtue. On the other hand, perhaps it's because you can't get actors who are- or, more important, look- exactly the right age for the parts. WE know the first family was raised by a "hate-filled mother" and an absent father, so perhaps they were all less inclined to start their own families- if they started them at all- until much later than the second family.

[–] carharttboi 16 years ago

yep i was quite baffled by this myself, kid appeared to be way too young to have come from the fathers first family given that cleamon and mark looked to be older alot older

although ofcourse he could of easily have been a bed hopping wino

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[–] Jess-24 14 years ago

It's quite possible that the second set of children were already born to another man by the time the father came along, and he merely raised them to the point where they considered him to be their proper father.

[–] bejmaf 14 years ago

The father was probably having an affair and making babies while he was still married to the first wife. That's the main reason the ages can seem to overlap between the two sets of half-brothers. Father left his first family after getting found out, but for all I know, all the boys could have been born by then (although probably not - the two youngest half-brothers do seem a lot younger). Then again, that small town seemed like there was always somebody who knew what was going on when things were happening. Either way, I think it works fine within the context of the film.

The first mom actually seems younger than the second mom, but that's OK too. The second mom and the father both had to seek redemption by becoming good church members. I just watched the film and the more I think about it, the better it gets. I like it better than producer David Gordon Green's similar films. But now, he's gone on to The Pineapple Express and Suspiria.

[–] mikesh 14 years ago

This is how I would take it. He had involvement with both families for a time before the abandonment. My grandfather actually did something very similar and had involvement with both families for a time before abandoning my dad's side of the family completely. However, my grandma was a saint and my grandpa never became a good man. So it is very understandable and maybe even as likely. If he had abandoned the family first and then started another family some time later it would have been more associated with him leaving the area. Seeing as he stayed in the area it seems reasonable that something happened gradually. Maybe even having both households for a time.

[–] msgoodwrench29 14 years ago

I didn't think Kid was a young as the rest of you folks do... I placed Son, Boy, and Kid in their mid-late 20s (maybe 29, 27, 25), and the their father's second set of sons in their late teens to mid 20s. The two youngest sons were obviously only 19 or 20.