Post by queensgirl on Jan 28, 2006 23:29:44 GMT -5
When Sam comes to the door at the end of “Blonde on Blonde,” I can’t help but thinking of this as a visual that’s symbolic of a few things.
First of all, the obvious. The belief (in David’s mind, anyway) that Sam and Maddie had already been together. If the house represents Maddie’s presence, then…
And Sam is literally between David and Maddie now. Sam is the person standing in the way so that David can’t go in the house and talk to Maddie.
“I can go get her if you want. If it’s important.” Implies David is not important. Also, that David is not a good enough reason to go wake her up. In other words, not really a potential sexual rival.
It carries some connotations of Sam wanting to be “the man of the house.” We see with his proposal a few days later that Sam would like a permanent place in Maddie’s life. His quick appearance at the door, and the fact that we don’t know who he is when we first see him, makes it clear that everything he does in this series is a matter of rushing in and taking over. Also, it hints that despite his alleged pretense, he can’t be sure of his place after all.
(Interesting quirk here: in the script, Sam is not addressed with his own name at all. He's just referred to as "Man." He says his lines, but his actual name is not given anywhere in the draft version. This would seem to lend credence to the idea that for the moment, we are supposed to think of him as the random guy Maddie threatened to drag home....However, in the one you see on t.v., while he also doesn't say who he is, Sam's name is the first one to flash in the credits. It's a directorial stroke of genius, because it immediately set up in the viewers' minds, "Who the @%&? is Sam Crawford?" I mean, that's all we could talk about the next day, with my friends in school. Speculating on this.)
There is the eerie setting: the rain, the lights from the house, everything is confusion.
Then when David turns around, he drops the flowers. (They had represented his hope to tell Maddie he loved her and the potential to finally be with her.) In the original script, they specified that he ‘threw’ them ‘into the gutter,’ having walked a little back down the block. Here, he just drops them in front of the door. It makes him look like he feels useless, even more so than being angry. Total defeat, emotionally and as a potential lover. He had finally tried to be honest and he got crushed.
When David walks towards us, in what is eventually a direct stare, a fourth-wall moment, he at first turns his head sideways, so that the light hits his face. Light of truth? Brutal honesty? Or is this merely to provide contrast with the darkness, a mood which will grow in him over the next few days?
Surely, however, one of the reasons is also so we can see he is crying—so much so that you can’t tell the rain on his face from the tears.
First of all, the obvious. The belief (in David’s mind, anyway) that Sam and Maddie had already been together. If the house represents Maddie’s presence, then…
And Sam is literally between David and Maddie now. Sam is the person standing in the way so that David can’t go in the house and talk to Maddie.
“I can go get her if you want. If it’s important.” Implies David is not important. Also, that David is not a good enough reason to go wake her up. In other words, not really a potential sexual rival.
It carries some connotations of Sam wanting to be “the man of the house.” We see with his proposal a few days later that Sam would like a permanent place in Maddie’s life. His quick appearance at the door, and the fact that we don’t know who he is when we first see him, makes it clear that everything he does in this series is a matter of rushing in and taking over. Also, it hints that despite his alleged pretense, he can’t be sure of his place after all.
(Interesting quirk here: in the script, Sam is not addressed with his own name at all. He's just referred to as "Man." He says his lines, but his actual name is not given anywhere in the draft version. This would seem to lend credence to the idea that for the moment, we are supposed to think of him as the random guy Maddie threatened to drag home....However, in the one you see on t.v., while he also doesn't say who he is, Sam's name is the first one to flash in the credits. It's a directorial stroke of genius, because it immediately set up in the viewers' minds, "Who the @%&? is Sam Crawford?" I mean, that's all we could talk about the next day, with my friends in school. Speculating on this.)
There is the eerie setting: the rain, the lights from the house, everything is confusion.
Then when David turns around, he drops the flowers. (They had represented his hope to tell Maddie he loved her and the potential to finally be with her.) In the original script, they specified that he ‘threw’ them ‘into the gutter,’ having walked a little back down the block. Here, he just drops them in front of the door. It makes him look like he feels useless, even more so than being angry. Total defeat, emotionally and as a potential lover. He had finally tried to be honest and he got crushed.
When David walks towards us, in what is eventually a direct stare, a fourth-wall moment, he at first turns his head sideways, so that the light hits his face. Light of truth? Brutal honesty? Or is this merely to provide contrast with the darkness, a mood which will grow in him over the next few days?
Surely, however, one of the reasons is also so we can see he is crying—so much so that you can’t tell the rain on his face from the tears.
