Shoe story
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — August: Osage County
aaron42o — 11 years ago(September 07, 2014 10:46 PM)
Don't y'all think Julia Roberts was kind of a bitch when she goes "Please don't tell me that's the end of the story." I mean, sure her mother was a monster probably her whole life to her and her sisters, but that's a pretty damn sad story.
Thoughts? -
tmaj48 — 11 years ago(September 18, 2014 07:54 PM)
I think she was hoping there was a happy ending to the story, since she didn't
want to believe that someone could be so venomously cruel to her own child. That
there wasn't one suggested to her that some people are beyond redemption.
I m not crying, you fool, I m laughing!
Hewwo. -
ruffian82 — 11 years ago(December 12, 2014 08:26 PM)
And this is what I wondered when I watched that part of the movie.
If Violet's mom was not only cruel but making a point.
"That boy you like may be wearing those boots now, but these are the shoes you'll be married to if you choose him."
Still cruel. -
khruzek — 11 years ago(December 18, 2014 03:57 AM)
I think it was symbolic. What Julia's character realized in the movie was she was turning into her Mother, and just up and left before it was too late.
There are Mothers out there like that, unfortunately. This was one messed up family. -
ms-trixi — 11 years ago(December 20, 2014 11:24 AM)
I agree that Julia Robert's character reacts quite bitchy. I think she is so bitter and doesn't want to acknowledge that her mom had it so terrible. There is a similar theme at the dinner when she is told that she doesn't know what a real attack is (claw hammer).
But Meryl's monologue, about the boots, is brilliant! Her performance gave me chills. She seems such a mean character before that speech. And then you realize why she is so mean. And her delivery of those lines is PERFECTION! I think she is a goddess and the best actress I have ever seen!!!! And I watch A LOT of old movies, as well as new ones- I am a movie lover. But Meryl is simply the best (in my humble opinion). -
cpoet — 11 years ago(January 11, 2015 08:39 PM)
I think the whole point of the story is that Barbara suddenly realizes that she's well on her way to becoming part of a generational pattern.
She demands that there must be more to the story because she wants to hear that her grandmother relented or her mother somehow had a happy ending with the boot situation. But, no. The grandmother was just cruel. Period, the end. Violet is bitter and cruel, too, and there won't ever be any redemptive warm embraces coming Barbara's way.
At the end, she has to cut her mother loose and go work on damage control with herself and her own daughter. -
matrixflower — 11 years ago(April 01, 2015 12:21 PM)
Life on the plains. was tough.. and made people 'hard'. (As Bill accused Barbra of being).
In between family illnesses, the wars, unrelenting hard grind of work and staving off starvation .. I would assume there was very little time out to have anything resembling even remotely joy or contentment, by Violet's ancestors.
Vi no doubt tried to be a fairer mother - but then her head-space was blown out of the water by her husband having an affair (and a baby) with her sister.
And then came the pills - the Band-Aids. The price Vi paid for holding the family together - her 'taking the high ground'.
The boot story was an example of how that 'grandparent generation' made a point - "choose the rough boy just for his boots and that's what you end up with - rough".
No time or wherewithal to have talks or analysis or a better understanding of anything. That's the point Vi was trying to make at the funeral dinner. The younger generation didn't have a clue - they took so much for granted - and that hurt Vi. She was tolerated, she was viewed as ditzy, problematic, she was being left behind . just as her and Beverley were left alone to rattle around in that big old dark house all on their own - despite that they had given so much to their girls having advantages they didn't have.
Vi was ornery at the dinner as she knew she was about to face a new type of lonely after they all left this time. She couldn't stop what was coming.
'Life is long' .. life is cruel.
This movie is a prime example. Every character is suffering . and probably about to suffer even more heavily. We are able to glimpse the workings of it from an inside vantage point - the ripples from a dysfunctional family and how that evolved, how it goes on to cause poor decisions, desperate acts, in vain clutches at happiness and freedom, insanity, suicide, addiction .. disfigurement..
It's a delicious study .. a Work of Art . IMO
The boot story was very specific in its demonstration of the nature of many of our ancestors in how life mangled and moulded them. Pulled off masterfully by a Legend.
Matrix
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ronnoco28 — 5 years ago(January 05, 2021 02:11 AM)
Yes, and maybe Violet actually did her daughter a favor by telling that story, although it may have been unintentional. Maybe in spite of all her bitterness and cruelty, she was subconsciously warning her daughter to wake up and leave before it's too late, or you'll turn out just like me. And Barbara understood, and heeded the message.