MovieChat Forums > Melancholia (2011) Discussion > The boy didn't had the right to know he ...

The boy didn't had the right to know he was gonna die?


Was he?

Yes, we all know that parents are very protective if it concerns their children. But common! You can overdue it! What is the point to protect them if you all going to die anyway?
Is it that important they don't feel fear, in this last moments?
More important then the chance to say goodbye to everything and everyone?

Marius

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Common? Lol, you can't spell.

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Perhaps English isn't his native tongue. :)

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It's understandable that parents would want to protect their children from fear/panic. But I suppose that you are right in that they have the right to know things are ending so that they can say goodbye, do things they've never done, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAIJ3Rh5Qxs

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I think the kid would have to be a moron to not understand he was about to die. It's a plot hole as far as I was concerned. I was intelligent enough at that age to know what was going on. His father even showed him how to use the "device", so presumably he could have used it at some point.

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You guys are silly. Pay attention. The kid had a pretty damn good grasp of the situation.
"my dad told me there's no where to run and nowhere to hide."
He just allowed himself to be comforted by his family and his imagination- as a child might, with the "magic cave" of protection.

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Kind of like adding insult to the impending injury, no?

He just allowed himself to be comforted by his family and his imagination- as a child might, with the "magic cave" of protection.


This, agreed.

I can't really imagine Justine sitting Leo down and be like: "...So, Leo, in case you haven't already guessed, we're all going to die in a few hours, which is why your mom has been so anxious and erratic lately and your dad disappeared...".

First of all, patronizing. Not only for the child, but also for the audience.

Second, pretty redundant. As pointed out, I think he had a grasp on the situation, and every character in the movie has own way of coming to terms (or not coming to terms at all) with death.

Claire clearly wants to eliminate the discomfort of the inevitable, dull it; John's world fell apart when his illusions of control crumbled; Justine felt justified and had come to terms before the others did, she'd been through the terror and sense of meaninglessness through her depression.

Leo is a child, he picks all these things up in their behavior, and I definitely think he had an understanding of the disaster. He doesn't have the nuanced conceptual language, nor is he able to understand from the behavior of adults around him what is expected of him or others when it comes to meeting death. Neither Claire nor John were ready or knew how to meet death. Justine had come to terms before it hit anyone else. She had a sense of stoic calm, and at the end of the day I think that's what Leo chose to follow as well. As a kid, I think he intuitively considered her to have more insight than her parents - who at that point were both acting out of character, while aunt Justine Steelbreaker was the unafraid and balanced one towards the end.

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[deleted]

Reading your post I wish they had all lived, especially Leo. It had to have been too much for Claire to come to terms in such a short time with not only her death but even worse her young child. She didn't have the words or actions to be able to be a productive parent in such an extreme and bizarre moment, which is why Justine's return to innocence with the cave was such a beautiful goodbye.

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Well as others have said, he did know, but he had hope that it would be ok. So did the boy have the right to know he was going to die, or did the boy have the right to die with a little hope and without fear?

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Maybe he could have stopped it, if only they clued him in.

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