Jeanine Basinger argues that Captain Gregg is merely a figment of Lucy's imagination, that Lucy dreams up Captain Gregg to give herself strength to do tough things like write a book and keep a household together and defy her inlaws.
I just don't buy that -- the movie depicts Captain Gregg as existing outside of Lucy's mind -- for example, he sees her while she is asleep, and her inlaws and the landlord experience Gregg.
Your thoughts?
Jeanine Basinger is a film critic, and, like most film critics/students, is an aspiring/frustrated intellectual who subscribes to the principle: the clever few and the stupid many. Heartwarming populist films like TGMM are to be treated with particular suspicion.
All that said, there is a case to be made for a Lucian Freudian interpretation, if only because the 1940s were the highwatermark of Freudian influence in Hollywood and I suspect that screenwriter Philip Dunne threw in a couple of boners to that effect. To wit, at the publishers, Miles Fairley asks Lucy whether she's written a book of dreams, and Lucy herself informs Martha that 'This is the twentieth century, we must rid ourselves of the old fetishes and taboos.'
i met him, he was real like real for real.. :P
shareMore Jungian than Freudian.
Captain Gregg is the personification of what Jung called the Animus: the complementary, masculine aspect of the inner personality of a woman. Both Lucy Muir and her daughter Anna "see" him, (day)dream him, because he is part of the collective unconscious. He is an archetype, and that's why he is so stereotypical, old fashioned and unvarnished.
But not only does he symbolize archetypically masculine power, which enables Lucy Muir to be a strong and independent woman. As Lucy Muir's Animus he also functions as a helpful guide, giving advice in her career and love life, if only she were willing to listen to him (him: as in that aspect of herself).
So, sure he is "real"... he exists in the subconscious, which is symbolized by the sea. Hence he is a seaman. By pointing the telescope to the sea, Lucy Muir is able to look into her subconscious and come up with a successful book, containing experiences which lie way beyond her conscious life and the inhibitions of her upbringing. After finishing the book she says: "I've never understood the sea before." In other words, she was never attuned to her subconscious.
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Oh, he was definitely a real ghost! Anyone here read the book? Interestingly enough, in the book, she never sees him. Basically she hears him talk to her in her head, and never sees him. Not like in the movie and TV series. She doesn't truly see him until she dies. The other big difference between the movie and the book is in the book, her romance with the other guy comes sooner, but ends the same way... he's an artist, but it ends the same way. They fight after, DG leaves, and does not return for ten years. It's after the captain comes back, and the mine fails, and her son wants college and daughter is training as a dancer that they write the book.
How sad, that you were not born in my time, nor I, in yours.
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No... I had no idea...
( pardon my typo btw). Having being raised on the show, then the movie, I read the book twice before I figured it out.
The original script has a few differences too... as in the book, Lucy apologizes to Martha for snapping at her before she dies.
How sad, that you were not born in my time, nor I, in yours.
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Jeanine Basinger is one of those people who sees things incorrectly, and then wrongly convinces herself she's deep.
The captain was real. That wasn't even left ambiguous. It was clearly defined. He was real. Other people heard him, and were aware of his existence before Mrs. Muir even came along. A figment of someone's imagination can't have a past of its own, or have interacted with irrelevant people during that past.
Regardless, great lengths were taken to over explain the fact his spirit actually existed, and truly interacted with Mrs. Moore. Jeanine Basinger still couldn't comprehend that. She likes to take a minority stance, however foolish, and then feel as if she sees what no one else can. In reality, others don't see it, because it's not there to be seen. People like her are a real pet peeve of mine.
Was Mrs. Muir's spirit also dreaming? Jeanine Basinger's nonsense isn't even intelligent enough to warrant a maybe. She clearly missed the entire movie, including the ending.
Jeanine Basinger's nonsense isn't even intelligent enough to warrant a maybe. She clearly missed the entire movie, including the ending.