One of those movies you have to watch a few times to appreciate. The first time I watched it (in the cinema), I laughed along at the funny bits and It was only now (having watched it again), that I realized he was actually going to kill himself at the end of it. I realize that the director intentionally makes us feel like we are one of the characters in the movie.. Towards the end we really don't care about Josie, we have bigger problems in our lives.
This tragic scenario of the truly gentle, harmless soul being de-humanized and constantly kept at arms-length, never being shown love by the manipulative, cruel and selfish individuals who surround him is so realistic. It's one of those things that's hard to put into words, but we see it every day and we know we see it.
If you listen to the dialog you see that the central character, Josie, isn't quite as dim as he's supposed to be, standing up to the pub bully, and knowing that one of the girls in the village is of mongrel parentage (in other words one of her parents was from a different village), yet he still can't properly relate to any of his fellow humans and the fact that they don't want to relate to him just feeds the vicious cycle.
The ultimate tragedy is that we eventually get the impression that Josie never got the chance to have a relationship, being bullied and manipulated probably since he was a kid. If he had been an aggressive or even just a cocky individual the audience wouldn't feel any pity for him, but then it wouldn't be realistic.
This tragic scenario of the truly gentle, harmless soul being de-humanized and constantly kept at arms-length, never being shown love by the manipulative, cruel and selfish individuals who surround him is so realistic. It's one of those things that's hard to put into words, but we see it every day and we know we see it.
If you listen to the dialog you see that the central character, Josie, isn't quite as dim as he's supposed to be, standing up to the pub bully, and knowing that one of the girls in the village is of mongrel parentage (in other words one of her parents was from a different village), yet he still can't properly relate to any of his fellow humans and the fact that they don't want to relate to him just feeds the vicious cycle.
The ultimate tragedy is that we eventually get the impression that Josie never got the chance to have a relationship, being bullied and manipulated probably since he was a kid. If he had been an aggressive or even just a cocky individual the audience wouldn't feel any pity for him, but then it wouldn't be realistic.