puzzling...


Why is the film titled La Leon? The boat owned by Turu was called El Leon.

Early in the film there was depicted in the jungle two men making out. The film was so dark I couldn't recognize the two persons. Was one of them Alvaro?

I liked it. I also find it puzzling. The people referred to as "missionaries" didn't seem in any way like missionaries. Perhaps Turu was using that claim to incite violence in the others against them.

Turu was typical of many homophobes; a man obsessed with detecting and denouncing homosexuality or "perceived" homosexuality in others while denying this in himself. It's a very destructive and far too common behavior of too many men, especially in puritanically influenced societies. Rigid religions are the primary cause of these characteristics.

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I also wondered why the movie was titled La León instead of El León, both because the boat was named El León and because "león" ("lion") is a masculine noun in Spanish and therefore takes the masculine article "el". Maybe someone who was involved in making the movie or someone who understands the implication in Spanish of using a feminine article with a masculine noun will see this and provide an answer. The only thing that occurs to me is that it may be a subtle hint that the owner of the boat was not really as macho as he acted.

Yes, Álvaro was one of the men making out early in the movie; the other was the rich young man who was lying on the front of his cabin cruiser and then got up as Álvaro passed by, in the scene immediately before the makeout scene.

If Turu was typical of many homophobes, then the primary cause of homophobia is not rigid religion; there was no evidence in this movie that Turu was religious at all. His contempt for both the missionaries and Álvaro was not based in religion but in his own personal fears and in his self-hatred, not in religion. As Turu said several times, the missionaries were a threat because they were outsiders, intruders on the island, not because they were religious. It was very important to him not to allow strangers to settle on the island, which he thought of as his own personal kingdom.

Homophobes sometimes are rigidly religious, but the majority of homophobes are not religious at all. When people are both homophobic and rigidly religious, their religious rigidity - like their homophobia - is a product of their fear and self-hatred. Religious rigidity is not the cause of homophobia; self-hatred and fear are the cause of both religious rigidity and homophobia.

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