I definitely appreciated this movie. I've been wanting to see it for decades, so I was grateful to see it on the DVD rack. But ultimately the quotidian aspects of life in a juvie-penal system and goofs around the house, and the style of film-making are more valuable than its big pronouncement/redemption, that horrible ending.
As it arrived, I was sitting there thinking "Oh please, not the usual dumb, simplistic ending..." but there it was, something out of an eighties teen movie. Tom sabotages his own marathon win as a finger-in-the-eye to both the wealthy and the coaches who are playing him. Gee... you really showed them. It's just exceptionally dumb, hollow and frustrating, even as a dramatic point. The character regards it as a triumph, but that's just a testimony to his mental stagnation; he's exactly where he was at the beginning. In the end all he values is destruction and passive aggression. I hope he enjoys them - it's all life is going to serve him.
He'll have plenty of time to relive this one trifling 'success' in his life, while he's stuck in impoverished Stinkburg for the rest of time. Hooray, you were really true to yourself. ...and now you can get back to beating your wife.
As it arrived, I was sitting there thinking "Oh please, not the usual dumb, simplistic ending..." but there it was, something out of an eighties teen movie. Tom sabotages his own marathon win as a finger-in-the-eye to both the wealthy and the coaches who are playing him. Gee... you really showed them. It's just exceptionally dumb, hollow and frustrating, even as a dramatic point. The character regards it as a triumph, but that's just a testimony to his mental stagnation; he's exactly where he was at the beginning. In the end all he values is destruction and passive aggression. I hope he enjoys them - it's all life is going to serve him.
He'll have plenty of time to relive this one trifling 'success' in his life, while he's stuck in impoverished Stinkburg for the rest of time. Hooray, you were really true to yourself. ...and now you can get back to beating your wife.