At the end, the couple Douglas decides not to ride with. Is it safe to say they are meant to "represent" or evoke the Manson family (out collecting Hollywood's wayward and forgotten dreamers and such)? This is instantly where my mind went. Or am I reaching?
shareThat's where my mind went, too. Hard to say , though. It was a strange film.
shareI saw them as the rising "freak" subculture of late 60s L.A. which Manson ran in so that does sound about right.
share[deleted]
At the end, the couple Douglas decides not to ride with. Is it safe to say they are meant to "represent" or evoke the Manson family (out collecting Hollywood's wayward and forgotten dreamers and such)? This is instantly where my mind went. Or am I reaching?
That is exactly where my mind went; you are not alone.
Stay Gold
Marty
Add one more. I might have gotten in though.
"I'm in a *beep* Cameron Crowe movie!"
bingo
shareBy that year, 1967, I was an acid freak and almost certainly would have gotten in the car. Scary as that looks to me today, then I was stupidly fearless. Or should that be "stupid" fearless? I found myself in a lot of situations then that today I would walk away from, fast. I feel lucky to be alive today considering all the truly idiotic *beep* I found myself attracted by. But then there was this veneer of "love" slapped all over everything. It was a thin veneer and quickly came off. But for awhile there everyone thought it was all just Peace & Love.
ekw
well.....bad ilegal drug such as acid r vry BAD and u shoud nvr do ok...... well huff huff wit good pants and glus will make u feel vry smart and u cud do anything and NOT ilegal ok.....
sharei took it as him dismissing the "acid-y" vibe of LA during those days. he was too "jersey" for these people and didn't belong. went along with his rod serling remark at the party.
but to answer your question, yeah i took it as kind of a manson thing
Honestly I didn't get that at all. Like another poster said, I took it as him finally not going with the lazy hippie crowd and realizing that that part of his life was over and that he didn't belong in it. Either that or he realized how foolish he was being throughout the movie (which I believe was what we, the audience, was supposed to think.)
Not actually trolling or anything, but I'm pretty sure we aren't supposed to like the main character for basically the entire film right? He was kind of an *beep* to say the least.
I agree. It seems to me the scene only has meaning because he merely intuits that that the couple in the car are dangerous, but we KNOW that they are because we "recognize" them. If it's possible that these two are just a couple of eccentrics, what's the meaning of him not getting in the car? He's simply taken a guess and we don't know whether it was right or wrong.
Felt to me like, in addition to the Robert Kennedy pictures (campaign posters?) shown earlier in the same scene, they were trying to throw some more period references at us.
Yup, that was my thought right away. There was definitely a creepy, dangerous vibe to them. I also agree that Douglas was starting to change/grow up and realize he wanted to do more with his life than party. It was a crossroads for him and he chose wisely.
Morse's Law: There's always time for one more pint.
I immediately thought 'Manson' when I watched it for the first time last night.