Re: Strange... maybe you walked into the trap - jamesgarvin - Films/DVD Asylum

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Re: Strange... maybe you walked into the trap

In Reply to: Re: Strange... maybe you walked into the trap posted by Victor Khomenko on January 29, 2005 at 16:13:00:

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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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - The Station Agent - the train finally got here - Victor Khomenko 13:16:58 01/29/05 (8)

Hopefully, dwarf/midget and giant movies will not be the next genre. nt - tinear 10:02:48 01/31/05 (0)

My favorite moment was in the store when he had his pictured snapped . .. . - mr grits 16:21:47 01/29/05 (0)

Re: The Station Agent - the train finally got here - jamesgarvin 14:07:48 01/29/05 (5)

Strange... maybe you walked into the trap - Victor Khomenko 14:29:29 01/29/05 (4)

Re: Strange... maybe you walked into the trap - jamesgarvin 15:26:15 01/29/05 (3)

Re: Strange... maybe you walked into the trap - Victor Khomenko 16:13:00 01/29/05 (2)

Bobby Canavale's was a great, heartfelt character. - clarkjohnsen 10:16:48 01/31/05 (0)

Re: Strange... maybe you walked into the trap - jamesgarvin 17:37:02 01/29/05 (0)

Follow Ups

Re: Strange... maybe you walked into the trap - jamesgarvin 17:37:02 01/29/05 (0)

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