I thought of another one.
Another movie where the 'under movie' is more riveting to me than the original story the writer/director is trying to tell.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
I can't STAND this movie.
Ferris has a best friend, named Cameron. And Cameron's father is a beast. He's a seriously horrible narcissistic abusive beast. Cameron is deathly afraid of his Father and wants so badly to get the courage up to tell him to fuck off, Cameron wants to FLY.
I identified with this character so strongly, in fact, that I haven't watched the entire movie EVER. I cannot sit through it. I've seen it in bits and pieces when they are shown on tv. I even looked on Youtube for the purposes of posting a link to Cameron's fear in this blog and my stomach went all clenchy and bathroom-y and I had to just stop looking.
I HATE THIS MOVIE. And it's because of a secondary plot that most people laughed at. The quirky odd Cameron. Being that scared of a parent? HA HA HA! Who DOES that? yeah, well, ME. Being scared TO DEATH <--think about what that means. I would rather have died than have my dad that mad at me THAT IS A SICK WAY TO GROW UP.
Danke Schoen my ASS. I hope Cameron's father died a very painful death. Seriously. DEAD.
Interesting. I liked Cameron's character. Admittedly, I had not thought very deeply about the relationship he had with his father until now, but I will say that I never found that aspect of the movie particularly funny. I always thought the father sounded psychotic - he cared more about his car than he did his son. That was pretty clear to me. The father, (that I don't think we ever saw in the movie) was sort of this omniscient, scary force.
ReplyDeleteyeah, it came out in 1986, so I was 25 and still firmly enmeshed and scared. I knew Cameron was the 'underdog' of the movie, but it just hit SO close to home for me. It was like I couldn't see anything else!
DeleteIt's so weird how things affect one, through the prism of abuse. Well, I'M SO WEIRD. lol.
Gladys, I'm weird too. But that's okay because weird is cool.
DeleteI never thought of him as the underdog, other than maybe in the way that he was kind of a dork. But he was cute and sweet too.
Fear/Terror: One of the most common Natural Consequences of growing up under a NP Regime. It's pretty hard to fit in any where when your have Terrorists for "Parents." Yk how kids would say something like, "My parents would kill me if I..."? They used it as a figure of speech; we said it as a statement of fact.
ReplyDeleteTW
Exactly TW. I'll never forget learning that some kids in high school SNUCK OUT AT NIGHT. it seriously had never occured to me to do such a thing.
DeleteI would sooner have stuck my hand down a garbage disposal and turned it on myself.
It never occured to me. They had me so convinced of the trap they never needed to build one.
I've found that many things I had seen before, I watched with new eyes after learning about NPD.
ReplyDeleteI often find it sad and frustrating how often people effected by abuse are minimized or made fun of or used for humor.
Ferris was a major jerk, himself. He lied to everyone, screwed over his sister, and went his smarmy way no matter who he hurt in the process.
ReplyDelete--LuLoo
Also the "Bad" guy in the movie was in fact the dean of students and just doing his job...maybe a little over zealously but still.
ReplyDeleteI read a interesting article about how its possible the whole "Day Off" was all in Cameron's head, cause face it would Ferris really be friends with a kid like Cameron? said article went on to explain how Cameron finally by in his dream destroying the car destroys his dad's hold on him. trippy shit