Obvious, but some of you missed it: Fred is a sex victim of his father.
Like the title says, Fred was sexually abused by his father.
shareIt was obvious.
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MovieChat Forums > Palo Alto (2014) Discussion > Obvious, but some of you missed it: Fred...
But what was Emily's history?
shareThere was a scene where Fred's voice in the background was saying how she had guys lined up outside her bedroom, and how she took in 2 or 3 guys at a time. How he went in, twice I think, and then left. I didn't understand the purpose of this though (along with several other things in the film), if it was true, if he was just making up stories, or if it was even directly about her.
shareIn the book Fred uses Emily and pimps her out basically to all of his male friends. Gets pretty graphic. And she does it all I'm pretty sure because she's in love with him.
shareHis discussion of sexuality near the end might have been a clue, as well as his dad coming on to Teddy.
Was there something else? How was it obvious to you?
He's abused by his father so that means he's gay?
Or his father's gay and that makes him gay as well?
Sorry, what are you saying here?
If you'd read my post, I am asking the previous poster what evidence in the movie suggests he was abused.
I am not saying he is gay and I don't believe he is. You thought of that without my help.
I think Fred was confused and just messed up in the head because clearly his father is not a good father. I actually felt bad for him rather than annoyed. The ending scene makes me wonder if he ended up dead that night. Probably.
sharethe ending made me feel like someone was going to end up dead, but i kind of felt like it was going to be emily
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Have a heart. Please spay and neuter your pets.
How was that obvious?
>> there. i said it. <<
I missed that completely, but it fits. During the last scenes, I found myself wondering what had Fred so messed up. Everyone in the movie got into all sorts of mischief due to boredom, but setting a girl up to be gang raped and playing chicken on a highway is above and beyond. I felt there must be some kind of trauma in his past and thought it was weird the movie didn't hint at it, but it did. I thought the scene with his dad just meant the dad was gay and Fred was referring to that during his breakdown with the drug dealer...everything comes together more clearly if he was abused, though it's also very tragic.
shareWas it that obvious? It's certainly implied, but like a lot of things in this movie, Coppola did leave some ambiguity. I thought that Fred's father was a pedophile who seized an opportunity to have his way with Teddy. But not all pedophiles have sex with their own kids, some target strangers or their kids' friends.
shareIn the book his father is hardly mentioned so I don't believe that this is true
share