Sydney Explanations

Started by filmcritic, August 16, 2003, 01:08:16 PM

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Pubrick

Quote from: Find Your MagaliSo, are there people out there who think Sydney DIDN'T kill John's father??
yeah, ppl who were watching a different movie.
under the paving stones.

filmcritic

Sydney went back to the coffee shop at the end of the movie out of possibly sadness. He misses John and Clementine, leaves town and goes back to where they met at the beginning. It's just like what the tagline says...

"If you stay in the game long enough, you'll see everything, win everything...and lose everything."
"You're too kind."
-Richard Roeper

"You're too cruel."
-Roger Ebert

Cecil


AlguienEstolamiPantalones

Quote from: Link
Quote from: Crash... i clutched my heart and gasped.

LOL!!!

That's actually what I did when I found out "All about the Benjamins" referred to Benjamin Franklin on the face of a bill (this revelation came to me a week ago during a Dawson's Creek episode).

you  didnt go to high in the 90's thats for sure,  that phrase is as old as " young rich and famous with money shooting out my anus "

cowboykurtis

my theory about sydney all surrounds the fact that he has some african american blood running through his veins -- if you hear in the beginning he whispers in reily's ear "my mother was a slave, if pickin' cotton made her bleed, the pain your about to experience will be of no worries." -- i feel that this is subtly hinting at the fact that jimmy is his father --- pure brilliance.
...your excuses are your own...

Link

But wait, Jimmy said Sydney KILLED John's father, so maybe Jimmy was referring to John's Sugar Daddy!!

mr_boz

sydney is looking to pay for his sins, and most of them seem to revolve around family.  he seeks redemption for taking away a young boy's father (john's, back in atlantic city), and he needs to be redeemed for abandoning his own children - namely, his daughter (who is roughly the same age as clementine).

i've always thought the circular nature (returning to the coffee shop where it all began) reflects some sort of 'coming home' for sydney - meaning that his mission has been accomplished.  he feels worthy of forgiveness.

as far as your original questions are concerned, i think a lot of them are rather peripheral:  they're interesting if you want to study the film or it's characters, but not necessarily essential to the enjoyment of the film.  i mean.... "is sydney a racist?" - come on.

an interesting question for me is this:

"did sydney seek out john because he wanted to pay for killing the guy's father, or was their meeting entirely a matter of chance?"

- personally, i would have thought that it was the former until i saw MAGNOLIA.  after learning a lot more about PT ANDERSON and getting a few ideas of my own about what interests him, i am left to think that sydney and john met by accident.  when sydney realized that this was perhaps his last opportunity to pay for his sins, he simply went for it.

- ccb

AntiDumbFrogQuestion

If it was chance, then how did Sydney even know it was John? Either way, I think he had a plan and was looking for John beforehand anyways. Although I love the idea of coincidence and chance, I think in some ways their meeting might not have been completely unplanned.

markums2k

I think a lot of the world's problems would go away if people stopped referring to Hard Eight as 'Sydney'.

Find Your Magali

Also, even more of the world's problems would go away if:

1. Philip Baker Hall was president
2. Samuel Jackson was secretary of defense
3. "Clementine's Loop" replaced "The Star-Spangled Banner" as our national anthem
4. PTA had his own cable network to show whatever he wanted
5. Gwyneth Paltrow moved in with me

That's all

Alethia

Quote from: markums2kI think a lot of the world's problems would go away if people stopped referring to Hard Eight as 'Sydney'.

what was the point of that?

filmcritic

Find Your Magali, I love your solutions to our world's problems! They should be enforced immediately! :-D
"You're too kind."
-Richard Roeper

"You're too cruel."
-Roger Ebert

Pubrick

Quote from: ewardwhat was the point of that?
stating the obvious, which sadly is still not understood by most.
under the paving stones.

IHeartPTA

i'm sorry, hard eight is an awesome, and yes it's character study...but some times things are left unanswered. pta left some of these "holes," if you will, open for a reason. if a man has no past, then he's more mysterious. it's like magnolia, pta wanted people to react in it in different ways (i.e. the frog sequence), and they did. i just said to myself, it just happens. there can be explanation, but i say, fuck the explanation, that's not important.
"I want to confess as best I can, but my heart is void. The void is a mirror. I see my face and feel loathing and horror. My indifference to men has shut me out. I live now in a world of ghosts, a prisoner in my dreams. " -Antonius Block from The Seventh Seal

filmcritic

It's true. I like how a lot of things are left unanswered. It doesn't matter to the story or to the movie. But it is fun trying to think of different things of what might have happened. But it's one of the greatest movies ever anyway!
"You're too kind."
-Richard Roeper

"You're too cruel."
-Roger Ebert