Weird Timing Issue
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Streets of Fire
crood — 12 years ago(January 08, 2014 07:32 AM)
The film begins with Ellen being kidnapped. We then get a shot of Tom's sister typing a letter asking him to come home. We then get scenes where Tom comes home and Raven tells Ellen that they're "going to fall in love for a few weeks", which is clearly a rape euphemism.
So my question is this: The letter is written, received, read, and Tom makes the trip home and during this time Raven doesn't touch Ellen? Other than the letter, everything else makes it seem like everything takes place in a day or two. In the U.S. it typically takes about two days for a letter to get from one place to another. Ellen was kidnapped at night, so it's unlikely the letter got picked up until the next morning.
Was Tom close enough (e.g. zip code under the same distribution center) that the letter got to him then next day and was able to travel quickly? If so, why a letter and not a phone call? Heck, why not a telegram?
It just seems like Ellen didn't have the kind of time it would have taken to get Tom back to town. -
crood — 12 years ago(January 09, 2014 07:18 AM)
I just watched it last night. She's typing a letter on an old style manual typewriter.
It's actually even worse than I thought. It seems like Tom arrives the same night. When he enters the diner, he's followed by some punk gang that harasses his sister. She's not taking it and told them The Bombers just pulled something.
Then Tom kicks their asses in the requisite "show how tough the hero is" bit. THen he takes their car. -
StrongCarl — 12 years ago(January 10, 2014 02:02 PM)
No; it was definitely a telegram. The hands doing the typing were a man's hands. The brevity of the message "Come home. I need you." is very indicative of a telegram and not a letter.
He still gets there very fast, considering.
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spookyrat1 — 9 years ago(May 20, 2016 03:48 PM)
No; it was definitely a telegram.
Yes!
He still gets there very fast, considering.
Yes!
And yes, Raven hasn't yet raped Ellen. He seems to want her "to fall in love with him" as you do after you've kidnapped the girl of your dreams and tied her down to a bed. -
mpaulshore — 11 years ago(July 28, 2014 10:36 AM)
crood
: A manual typewriter is one in which the typist's fingers provide all the power to make the type strike the paper. In the beginning of
Streets of Fire
, the keyboard that we see a pair of hands typing onwhether it's the keyboard of a typewriter per se, or perhaps of some sort of telex deviceis visibly
electric
, not manual. That is to say, the keys are electric buttons that, if it's a typewriter, actuate the electrically powered movement of the type bars (or a type ball or a type wheel); or that, if it's a telex or similar device, cause an electrical signal to be transmitted.
In brief, not every non-computer keyboard is "manual". They can be either manual or electric, and this one is clearly electric.