Posted by Josh at ww-tf02.proxy.aol.com on March 19, 1998 at 21:12:30:
In Reply to: I only had one problem with CHASING AMY posted by Kelpie242 on March 19, 1998 at 20:58:15:
: Okay I've sort of posted this before but with a less website emperor-friendly title. I guess the old title made it sound like a flame mail, but it's not. It's a legitimate opinion on one of the only flaws (from my perspective) in CHASING AMY...
: So I'm watching CHASING AMY for the second or third time and something started to sit in my guts like a garlic naan that won't go down... and it strikes me that the end where Holden is shown to be obsessed with "typical guy shit" like Alyssa's sexual past, and Alyssa was in the right and Holden should have been such a knob, it struck me that:
: "Hey, the bitch lied to him."
: Yeah. She "let Holden think" he was the first guy to get into her pants. Now this shouldn't matter much in the sceme of things but surely a successful relationship is built on trust and truth.
: Am I right?
: I don't know... but to me Holden would have been the arsehole had he been told the whole story and THEN acted like he acted. He had to find out from that wacky guy out front of the 7-11 that Alyssa had been fingercuffs and I've gotta say if I found out that way...
: I'd be angry as a motherfucker.
: I'm seeing a chick who's slept with most of the male (and some of the female) population of her last town but I knew this from Day #1 and it's cool. However had I found out yesterday... not so much.
: What I'm really trying to say is that it seems there's a lot of "Holden's such a fuckwit male" subtext going on in CHASING AMY and I think it should be broadened to at least address Alyssa's dishonesty.
: Other than that it was fine fuckin' film and I look foward to DOGMA.
: Later.
: 242
For starters, yes she lied. But the reason that there's a lot of "Holden's such a fuckwit male" subtext is because he doesn't really care that she lied. The only thing that really bothered him that she had done those things and the point that was trying to be put across was that regardless of when he was told, it would have bothered him and ultimately been the downfall of their relationship. Only the most illustrative way to show this was for him to find out the hard way. Any other way would have taken too long to tell the story and this is only a movie with some pretty regulartory time constraints (although Titanic might be the end to that)
Josh