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In Reply to: Re: The Station Agent - the train finally got here posted by jamesgarvin on January 29, 2005 at 14:07:48:
I don't think that was their intention - to show us a dwarf could be normal or sane. Perhaps it was to show how he dealt with his physical defect while being a subject of constant ridicule.I usually use the word speculation to describe the situation when a subject bound to produce strong emotions is used merely as a tool of achieving success - like in buying and selling a personal story as if it was a commodity on the market. In other words when the artist is not personally attached to that story.
Follow Ups:
Well, let's look at who they surrounded him with: Bobby Canavale, playing a Cuban who runs a coffe stand outside an abandoned train station, and who thinks of nothing more than hooking up, both of which would be better accomplished where there is more traffic. Patricia Clarkson, who plays a wife who is an emotional wreck, going through a divorce, and who, on two occasions, runs the dwarf off the road. Michelle Williams who plays a woman who works in a library, is in a relationship with a "redneck", and who wants to have a sexual experience with the dwarf. These charachters were deliberately placed here. They were not doctors, lawyers, and indian chiefs. Surrounding him with normal people, with no baggage, would not accentuate his normalcy. The goal was to make us watch him because he was the only normal person.Yet the bystanders do not view them as the "oddities", or abnormal. Rather, the dwarf has no such personality quirks or personal issues, yet they view him as the oddity. Consider two scenes: The first when he makes an appearance in the little girl's school. The children ask him goofy questions, as only children can. They are learning, and do not know better. They giggle. Then the other scene in the bar. When the adults, in another "classroom", looking and gawking, acting worse than the children, resulting in his eruption.
Yet the goofballs what surround him gather nary a stare, or a joke. He is their Abbott to their Costello. Yet he is the one they look at. Costello should be receiving the stares, not Abbott.
I also think it more than coincidence that the only other "normal" charachter in the film is a little black girl. In many settings, she would be receiving the stares merely because of her physical appearance, rather than her actions. Not because of who she is, but rather what she is. I think the same applies to him. The people look, stare, and make comments about what he is, not who he is. While at the same time, people whose actions should be talked about go uncommented upon by the townsfolk. I think this was deliberate.
The point was not to show us that dwarfs can be normal or sane. I assume intelligent people will agree to that. The point was that dwarfs who are normal, or sane, still get gawks, laughs, and comments, for no other reason than their physical appearance. His response is to try to get away from them. Not because he is goofy, but because they are. This is also the reason that the only person in the film that he does not try to escape from is the little black girl. In some subliminal way, they have a shared experience.
I cannot say that there were any strong emotions in the film which struck me. I can say that it made me think of the way I look at people who seem to "odd", but who are in other respects average. Which I think was the point of the film.
Your one-before-last paragraph pretty much states what I stated, that it was not about him being normal, it was about his dealing with the surrounding world.BTW - he did try to escape from the black girl, several times, but she kept coming back and eventually won him.
I also disagree with your characterization of the other characters. The Cuban guy was actually a gentle and tender human being and quite likable and human. And so was the divorsed woman, hysterical at times, but mostly showing warm personality. I certainly did not see these two in any way abnormal with respect to the main character. They came to the event with less baggage, and their behavior towards him were full of warmth and human touch. I think their main strength was in their ability to quickly forget his special features. Most of us (all?) would go through a brief period of adaptation in such a case, and theirs seemed perfectly fine and natural to me.
I usually like that sort of movies, and I liked this one, just not enough to make it something truly special.
I'll never forget the horribly hurt look in his eyes when the short guy in no uncertain terms finally rejected him.clark
I did not mean to suggest that the other charachters were abnormal, only abnormal compared to him and his characther. They were likable. They simply had personality traits, baggage, and issues that should have provided fodder, stares, and comment from the locals. The dwarf had none of these things, but he attracts their stares and comments. Why?The major players in the film treat him as normal, because they know him. The other locals who do not know him are, at best, curious, at worst, crude. I think the point of the film was not the dwarf, but those who circle him in this little universe. He is a sort of Sun, trying to exist, while the others are planets, some sympathetic, some not.
I assume that where I would differ from you is that I do not think the film is about how he reacts to them, because he reacts to everyone the same - retreat into his train station (his world). Rather, I think that the film is about the others, and how they think about and look at persons who are different from them, and how they react to him. Ironic that those who know him do not dwell on his dwarfism, while those who do not, do. There is a lesson there.
The problem is that most films about, for lack of a better word, disabled people are mostly about them in the world of normal people, and how the disabled person "gets along." Even though these people have disabilities which make them different, we should appreciate them. Take pity on them. Help them. Hollywood tripe.
I thought The Station Agent turned the tables - it was about how "normal" people behaved in a situation in which the disabled person was perfectly normal. A concept rare in the film industry, which seems to have a politically correct need to make us feel sympathetic. Watching The Station Agent, I did not feel sympathy for the dwarf. I felt sorry for the other locals.
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