Did Sarah sleep with Burt? (SPOILER)
Before her suicide I mean.
"People scare better when they're dying"
Frank , OATITW
I wondered that too. It kind of seemed like she did.
shareYes. That's why she felt worthless enough to kill herself, and why Burt was so defensive when Eddie came in. Great, classic movies, like this one, used innuendo to make a point while modern films must clearly show the act in progress.
shareYes. That's why she felt worthless enough to kill herself, and why Burt was so defensive when Eddie came in. Great, classic movies, like this one, used innuendo to make a point while modern films must clearly show the act in progress.Sexual innuendo was sometimes borne out of necessity rather than artistic choice....it was a different time in filmmaking. But I think the point clearly comes across so it's largely irrelevant. share
It sure seems like she did - for money. But WHY did she sleep with Burt?
Because Burt would have destroyed Eddie, so she sacrificed herself by sleeping with him in order to destroy the Eddie/Burt relationship since she was unmatched in the power of persuasion against Burt for Eddie's soul.
Either that or she was just a nympho tramp.
But I go with the former.
Interesting theory, joedonato234 - the first one, that is. But it seems to me that she misjudged her position. Eddie hadn't abandoned her, and probably had no plans to.
share<<But it seems to me that she misjudged her position. Eddie hadn't abandoned her, and probably had no plans to.>>
Burt had told her that Eddie wanted her to leave (as well as leaving money on the bed, saying it was from him). This was what she had always believed would happen in the end anyway - it was only a question of when. I think it's also possible that she slept with Burt as a way of getting back at Eddie, but then, once she had done so, she felt ashamed at what she had done and was probably talking about herself as much as Burt and Eddie in the message she left on the mirror. There's certainly a very strong self-destructive streak in her throughout the film.
It does leave one wondering. First of all I believe Sarah did sleep with Burt, as you see in the scene when Eddie walks in Burt is disheveled and if I recall so is his bed. She must have been in his room after the fact (and not sneak in there while he slept). But I'm not sure it matters since Eddie knows that Burt is responsible for her suicide anyway. He saw the money on the mattress.
The question is whether Eddie would have left her anyway. You want to believe he would have stayed with her but she certain believed he would eventually leave her... that whole restaurant scene explains it well. She was crippled and led a depraved solitary and imaginative life. Eddie was on his way to the same sort of life after losing to Fats, but he had a talent that he could exploit and escape that life of depravity. Burt Gordon was depraved in another way, manipulative and controlling and after the game with the southern gentleman Eddie wanted to walk home (why?), Burt tells him to just be direct and cold about breaking it off with her. The next scene is Burt giving her the money and saying its what Eddie wants, and she believes it is what Eddie wants. We want to believe it is not what Eddie wants, but we just don't know. It is certainly possible and maybe even likely that Eddie would have eventually broken it off. She knew he had a way out and lets face it, at least thematically those situations almost never end with the hero taking a depraved cripple with him on his triumphant March. Was there an easier way to break it off? Yes, and maybe that is why Eddie is so mad. In the last scene Eddie and Burt go at it and discuss how they both let her down and it didn't need to go down that way. But that sort of suggests it was going to end with them apart anyway.
I thought the same thing when Eddie wanted to walk back. Bert knew Eddie and I think thought Eddie wanted to think about how to break it off.
shareWhile Eddie may have been somewhat torn when he walks back to the hotel, his reaction at seeing her dead and later when he defeats Fats suggests that he was NOT likely to leave her - and that Burt misjudged Eddie.
As for Sarah, I'd guess she slept with Burt to get back at Burt rather than Eddie.
I don't think male writers can write characters like Sarah. Yes, she was complicated and damaged but we are never told how and why. Her role is the poorest writing even though she plays a pivotal role in Eddie's arc of quasi epiphany.
I found the film to be half realized. It portrayed denizens of pool halls but surely some of them had marriages and children. None of that was part of the film. Was Sarah previously married. Did she want children. Most male writers aren't up to the task of writing compelling female parts. In 200 years this film may seem very odd and fake- along with 99% of most cinema.
True we are never told what the whole deal is with Sarah, but I don't believe the writer/director along with the actress didn't fully discuss the circumstances of her character. And if by chance they didn't, Piper Laurie was the kind of actress that would have filled in the blanks, because it's written in her eyes there's a LOT going on with this woman.
shareHer character was more intriguing to me- All the characters had moments of course. I did not see the follow up to the film. It was a cheap way to write her out of story . Maybe Fast Eddie rruefully eferences her in The Color Of Money. In
ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW Shelly Winters played a similar type of somewhat independent woman who couldn't pick a partner wisely. Earle Slater was pretty messed up but some women are drawn towards such types.