Bull, -1, Sam, 0 ... or something like that ... total spoilers, btw

This chilling tale of betrayal, like another tasty little Australian movie I just saw, "Wish You Were Here," seems to lay fault at a lot of people's doors, not just one. Although I was terrified of Bull as the movie progressed, when I went back and watched it again, I saw him as having been fairly reasonable and perhaps a victim, too, which, I suppose, might be the case with all villains, even the psychopaths. At the very least, something made them that way. And, often, they make a critical misstep after having wallowed into something that may have been over their heads.

Here's my delineation of how guilt could fall in the movie, across the lines of the two main antagonists, Bull and that woman women love to hate, Sam. The list isn't exhaustive so please feel free to add anything.

Bull

1) Bull defuses a hostile situation with the natives ... +1.

2) Bull asks Toobs why there are girls on the trip. Perhaps Bull knows his own weaknesses, but he is right that the rules are there for a reason ... +1.

3) Looks like Bull might have taken a dump and/or watched Sam sleep. Bad Bull ... neutral Bull? Why on God's green earth was Sam sleeping with the door open? Because Toobs and Alex did? Seems though as if she might have been inviting trouble. I tend to think that Bull shouldn't have done this anyway ... no one else did. But no one should have tempted him either. I'll mark it Bad Bull, but hesitantly ... -1

4) Gets mad at the surfer encroaching on the Butchery ... -1

But was egged on by Rob, who is supposed to be so decent ...+1

5) Someone throws Bull's harmonica into the water ... +1

6) Bull tells Archie that the best way to handle rejection by women is to hate them. We think this is bad Bull but the truth is, that might not be such a bad strategy if you are you're talking about a woman who judy dumped you and not women in general. We are left to decipher what Bull meant ... 0

7) Bull takes liberties with Sam ... yes, that is bad. But hold on a moment ... even if she had had only one interlude with Rob, don't you think she would have known those weren't Rob's hands? As Bull says very pointedly later, "You knew that was me on the beach." When she spots Rob, could her reaction not be so much horror that Bull was touching her but that Rob might think she knew? I'm inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt on this one but she's kind of a sly one. However, even though she lowered the bikini line again for the application of oil, Bull should not have touched her without letting her know it was he ... -1

8) One wonders if Bull actually did what Sam accuses him of ... except that the footage seems to show she has a hard time getting away from him, and -- sorry to be gross -- Bull seems to smell the fingers of the offending hand. So it seems Bull did do something besides oiling Sam, although he could have rationalized to himself that Sam was letting him ... -1

9) On the boat, the skipper's helper accuses Bull of having killed the fisherman who stranded him on the island. Bull says that that was never proven. Sounds like it might have happened. On the other hand, it may be one of those he-said, they-thought situations. In legal terms, this would probably be ... 0

10) Bull gets rid of all the knives on board. This may be more in self-defense for the little scenario he has planned than aggression. He takes them out back and hurls them at the skipper ... but they're not meant to hurt ... 0

11) Bull strands the skipper ... very bad ... -2

12) At some point along here, Bull cuts radio power ... -1

13) Bull ties Rob to the anchor and drops it. Well, he feels he's pretty in control here, but that is putting someone in terrible peril ... what if those plastic ties broke under Rob's weight? What if sharks began feeding off his toes? I thought for sure Bull was going to throw the sashimi in the water to encourage that ... -1

14) Bull tells Toobs he's not going to kill Rob ... +1

15) During the docu session, Bull explains that he has never actually won a competition because he has never actually competed. I'm not sure how he could have become so famous under the circumstances, but he has apparently been living a bit of a lie. Goes to underscore a harmful ego ... -1

But at least he was truthful ... +1

16) When surrounded by the hostages to the little truth session afterwards outside the cabin, Bull does not attempt to tear anyone apart. He becomes the victim, beaten down and unconscious ... +1

15) Bull holds the truth session in the first place ... by intimidating people, putting at least one in grave peril, and brings things out some people might not have wished to have had mentioned. Yes, he's apparently kind of psycho ... -1

16) Bull still wants Sam ... now that is psycho! ... -1 :)



Sam:

1) Sam is introduced early on as sympathetic in that when she dumps a guy, she likes to make him think he is dumping her. That's nice, serial dumper that she may be ... +1

2) Sam is worried that a child was run over. Yet she knows how to get along with her cronies and not rock any boats. Fortunately, we find out it was a goat ... +1

3) Sam is a bit of a flirt and waves her feet and legs around enough to do a little damage. When you look like that, though, it probably would be hard not to attract attention ... 0

4) Sam sleeps with her door open. What? Well, maybe the rooms are too stuffy otherwise ... maybe she's just being like everyone else, and it's a sign of trust. Can't tell here so we'll have to call it a wash, unfortunately ... 0

5) Sam has been in a naughty online video. Toobs says she has been through a hard time; Alex is apparently in her camp no matter what. Rob sees it as the ex-boyfriend's fault ... Sam says no one has ever seen it that way before. This is not an admission of innocence, though -- it just means no one ever gave her the benefit of the doubt before. We should, too, technically, but I'm going to mark this as Bad Sam because she was in the thing at all, and you have to know how something like that could go. I think she was a little bit of an exhibitionist while acting the angel about it all the time and even possibly fooling herself ... -1

6) Sam doctors Bull, and gives him a sort of nice third degree, ready to take his side in the beginning. She seems to want honesty, and disapproves of his bull-headedness. This all seems level-headed and decent ... +1

7) Sam does the nasty with Rob ... or does she? Do we ever really know? Toobs says he heard moaning. But maybe he's teasing. However, as she allows herself to be felt up the next day, then it appears she had done something with Rob. While this is not necessarily bad, it was probably not wise ... couldn't she feel Bull's attraction to her, and his feeling disheartened when his treating her to the neat dolphin run on the anchor didn't set her heart aflutter? Getting caught in any more crossfire would not seem to be wise. Rob and she did sneak off together but on a boat that size, there can be no secrets. I'll have to give it a wash, but I'm not happy about it ... 0

8) Sam gets molested by Bull ... but here is my big question: how could she not have known those were not Rob's hands? Yeah, you're right ... I guess it's possible that she didn't. Still ... do we even know if she was really molested, or if Sam is just coyly stirring up trouble? We think we know for reasons explained above under Bull #8. Nevertheless, it's a he-said, she-said type of thing. But still I'll have to mark it a score for Sam. Even if all Bull did was oil her but below her bikini line, which she adjusted downward for him, if she didn't know it was he, he should not have made the attempt. He crossed a line ... +1

9) Sam sprays Bull with bug spray when he goes to apologize to her. It seems a bit much ... why not just ignore him? That's the best way to deal with stalkers, unless they're really aggressive, then you sometimes have to move, although of course that's not really possible here. Spraying Bull starts a ruckus that upsets the whole ship and possibly the skipper's plan of interviewing Sam. Kind of prima donna-ish although it maybe should have warned Bull to back off for good. Had he only been willing to swallow his pride at that point, everything might have turned out all right ... except for the specter of prosecution, if such existed, though later Toobs tells us it didn't. So because Sam's actions might have saved Bull, I'll have to give it a wash. But I don't want to ... 0

10) After the docu session when everyone has Bull cornered, Sam people to fall on Bull when he's down. Possibly they could have chosen other alternatives but putting him on the boat in back isn't a terrible idea ... well, wait, it is, because of course he could wake up and pull himself back on board. If Sam was really suffering from the trauma of the recent events, though, it is understandable that she would beat on Bull. Obviously, though, she seems to be the real power on the ship besides Bull. She tells people what to do ... -1

11) Alex asks after Sam and she turns her unlined, innocent face toward Alex and says she'll be fine. It's such a difference from before when she was "dealing with" the rape and other apparent trauma that one wonders if this whole thing wasn't about something else, a battle of wills and forces of deception so subtle not everyone will even know they have come up against them. One wonders if Sam is simply all right because she now feels everything is going to be all right, or if she was really a lot tougher than she had ever let on. Since we don't know for sure, I'll have to call it a wash. Unfortunately ... 0

12) The ultimate betrayal ... Sam unties Bull. She does so without alerting any of the others. Couldn't she just have awakened someone else if it appeared Bull would try to get back on board? Why, when it was so obvious he could do so once he woke up, didn't they tie him up? Sam is the only one we know for sure so far has murdered anyone, if that is what happens to Bull. And she can reasonably expect that he will die, so that is at least attempted murder. Sam is taking Bull's life in her own hands ... and smiling about it. I'll have to give Sam two bads for this one. Bad, bad Sam ... -2

The argument can be, and has been, made of course that this was the best way to solve everyone's problem, and that Bull could make it back to land, at which point he might become a worse threat, unless he feels he will always be out-maneuvered with Sam. I think we realized though that something was going on in Sam's mind when Toobs said the only way to prosecute Bull was to leave him where he was. Well, maybe he is there, although they have been traveling for quite a while. I just didn't feel there was any justification for what Sam did unless Bull had been a little more threatening. She could have warned him, saying, Stay where you are or I will untie the boat, again, made a ruckus that would have brought the others running. So, very wrong on her part. But the truth is, people out there take the law into their own hands daily. See for instance In the Bedroom as an example of that. It's probably a lot more common than we think. Also, when Toobs said people have to be prosecuted where the crime occurs, Sam might even have applied that to herself when she so very conveniently untied Bull. I wonder what she told the others. I wonder if Rob suddenly got a feeling that he should watch his back with Sam, and if that relationship might have died the death of all the others. Perhaps it wasn't so hard for Sam to get men to dump her.

Lastly, I bet the producers, directors and writers of movies like this sometimes read these things and say, "I never thought of that." They probably get a kick out of how much a movie can be analyzed. For instance, I just saw Session 9, which is a cult favorite and pretty interesting, and people were reading all kinds of stuff into it ... not to say that it wasn't there, but it might not have been meant to be there. Serendipitously, it might have been there and the movie-makers just didn't realize it. But, at any rate, movie-makers might find things being revealed to them by their fans that blow their minds, too. Funny.