This film is not for everyone because the ending is sad. I bet if you see it you will agree with me. Terrence is mean and horrible to Samantha because he can't get her to be his girlfriend. And why should she be his girlfriend when he locks her up after taking her against her will. It's not right.
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I'm not sure it's a great but forgotten film. It's certainly a great film, but everyone I've met who's seen it, says they'll NEVER forget it! They simply don't ever want to see it again.
Possibly the problem with this film, like the book it was based on, is that once is enough. You don't want to own it, or rent it, or even reccomend it to a friend. It just sits, like a bad memory, in your mind forever.
It's giving me the creeps just thinking about it...
you guys are feelings to sorry for mirianda... i guess thats what the movie makes you do. but i finished reading the book and the sad disturbing thing of the book is actually how hypocritical and utterly stuck up miranda with her superiority complex is. Yes clegg is disturbed and sick and had no right to do this, but the author also intended one to see the whole class struggle here and there is much more to learn from this story then what meets the eye at first glance.
shareYes, Daveeh, that's my point exactly. People need to stop and think. This movie is an intelligent adult drama and people should get the "and they lived happily ever after" slapped on fairy tale ending that they are accustomed to out of their heads.
Today's film goers are so used to the kiddie stuff they can't take this film, "The Collector" for adults.
The author meant for us to feel sad. Its a tragic story. The pitiful collector and the girl both inspire pity.
People should see it again with an open mind.
I agree the movie and the book are both unforgettable, but something was missing from the stories IMO. Putting myself in Miranda's place and realizing that I couldn't escape my captor, I'd start having thoughts about incapacitating, even murdering him. Freddie was so confident that his control was absolute, which would have been true if he always confined Miranda to that little basement, but he didn't. He was a sadist, and stupid one I thought. He allowed her into the main house. There was opportunity there. She should have taken it. In the movie, didn't she bludgeon his head with a shovel once? It seems I remember thinking, don't stop. Keep hitting him!
Say what you really mean.
What you want is akin to rewriting the story, giving you and just about everyone else who feels for Miranda, the outcome he/she wanted. I hated Freddie: he was just a repugnant human being. I liked Miranda because she was nice and pretty. I felt so sad when she tried to "offer" herself to him to try and gain her freedom; she didn't want to do it but she was getting so desperate. The musical score underscores the depressing mood of the movie: it was soooo melancholic. I just felt so sorry for Miranda and I just hated Freddie -- a real loathsome person. He's a weeping sore on the face of humanity. I just hate him for what he did to the lovely Miranda.
You can't hold a candle to Gulbenkian.
What you want is akin to rewriting the story, giving you and just about everyone else who feels for Miranda, the outcome he/she wanted.It would also have given Miranda more depth of character, and I admit that it would have been more satisfying to me if Miranda was less a victim and more of an aggressor. This was a woman who probably thought herself incapable of murder. Who of us really knows what he or she capable of when it comes to life or death?
Of course we would've liked to have seen Miranda bash Freddie's brains in but, sadly, the author of the story neglected to imbue a strong sense of self-survival into Miranda's chracter. And, if he had given her the fortitude to inflict a good ol' fashioned pounding on that maggot then, well, Miranda wouldn't've been Miranda, and our sympathies and the pain we felt for her predicament would not have been so acute.
You can't hold a candle to Gulbenkian.
You say you want her to keep hitting him?
No, I don't think he was sadistic. Once she is explaining to him that "The Catcher in the Rye" is about someone trying to fit in. I don't think the guy is evil, but he has problems. He thinks that she will love him in time. Wasn't that the agreement? That she could go if she didn't fall in love after a time?
No, I think there is much more going on in the story than just a nut who holds a woman hostage. Freddie is also a tragic character. At one point the woman weeps when she thinks she may have killed him. I put the story above many others because it is complex.
I only viewed it once, but if I see it again I'll bet I see deeper meanings.
It seems to be saying a lot about society, different classes in England, and individuals.
There was a reason Miranda didn't try to kill Clegg. The book, which is far superior to the film, goes into much more detail on this. She was a pacifist. She didn't believe in violence and told herself repeatedly that if she attacked Clegg she'd being lowering herself. The one time she tried to attack him she was horrified when she realized she had wounded him. She then later helped him get cleaned up and bandaged. They deleted this from the movie and instead had Clegg going to the hospital. This is unfortunate that the filmakers did this because in the book it helps you to see that Miranda didn't really hate him totally. She felt sorry for him and was curious about what made him tick. Although her main focus was always escape and everything she did facilitated that, there was also part of her that wanted to help him actually. She recognized he had a mental problem. The book also goes into much more detail about Clegg and part of the genius of the book is that you find yourself repulsed and yet understanding of Clegg at the same time. You feel sorry for him and you understand why he is doing what he is doing no matter how insane and misguided it is. Clegg is a square peg in a world of round holes. He doesn't fit in and knows he will be alone forever. What he doesn't understand is that his solitude is self imposed due to the fact that he lacks the proper social ability to meet people. What he's done is monstrous but you feel sorry for him and understand him. At the same time you're constantly screaming for Miranda to get out of there. By the end of the book you're exhausted from being on edge hoping Miranda will get out and then, eventually, mortified and savagely angry at Frederick Clegg. He needs help and his behavior is disgusting. But the genius of the writing in the book was that it was able to make you understand him and Miranda both and not actually hate either of them. Not until the end anyway.
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Spoilers...
This is one of the better posts I've read regarding both book and film, and I would recommend (sort of) the book over the film for the character studies and complexities left out in the film; however, Terrence Stamp is wonderful as Clegg. HIs best scene, I believe, is when he extricates his hand from Miranda's dying grasp; there are both pity and loathing in conflict on his face and in his body language. The saddest things in the story are that neither character will escape; Miranda will die there, and she comes to know that; and Clegg will (likely) never experience a real loving relationship because he doesn't even know what love is or how to reciprocate, and I was never really sure that was his true aim anyway, he may have been much worse than he really knew himself.
but everyone I've met who's seen it, says they'll NEVER forget it!
Strange comment; I own it, would watch it again, and would love to show it to friends. i don't understand your comment at all.
"IMdB; where 14 year olds can act like jaded 40 year old critics...'
It gives you a lot to think about, he is handsome enough but he worries that no one would understand him, frankly after seeing his past, I can see that. He is in love with this one girl and he claims that he has come across her so many times but they never strike up a conversation or made any connection. Maybe she didn't even take a glance at him or if she did but just dismissed him like 'Oh whatever', you know? That is harsh but my philosophy is same 'move along' or 'get over it' because what he did was wrong. He may not have raped her or tortured her with imaginable methods but he did torture her in his own way, he basically deprived her of all her freedom and liberty. He robbed her of her education, her friends, her family and her independences, had she lived with him for years she would have been emotionally and psychologically crippled. That is a crime and he doesn't seem to care, all he cares about is what he wants and not about Miranda. In all words and action, he didn't love her because love isn't about what he did to her, he should have respected her and released her.
He was trying to enforce chemistry to his command rather then allow it to flow naturally, I hope that makes sense.
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"With me, I have my own last act for this film."
Freddie gets bashed by Miranda, and she liberates herself?
You stupid, clumsy labouring-boy.
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I think your ending is cliched *beep* that glosses over Freddie's behavior and actions portraying him as some great wounded hero. I don't think Freddie's situation was far worse than Miranda's as his was one of his own making, his lacking social skills and inability to identify with others, while Miranda's situation was a decision made by another who had all/most of the control.
1. Why does Miranda feel like she owed him something when she wouldn't have even been in the position to if he hadn't kidnapped? If anything Freddie owes her for not telling the cops he kidnapped her.
2. Your letter in my opinion showcases Freddie selfish and manipulative nature:
- he tries to justify his actions (he gives much more clear explanation to her about his miseries and his misery without her)
- he tries to guilt-trip her as if he did some great deed when she wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for him (he also explains that he could have left Miranda at the cellar in misery after all the things she had done to him)
- he lessens her experience as his victim and does some more guilt-tripping (e points out that Miranda mentioned how she was alone all these 3 days. He says that he was alone all throughout his life and she didn't even try to understand him or his collection of butterflies.)
He doesn't thank her for not telling the cops he kidnapped her. He doesn't apologize for kidnapping her taking her away from everything she loved and everyone who loved her because he appreciated her beauty and wanted her for his pleasure. He shows more of his "my way or no way" mindset of how only what he wants matters by saying she didn't even try to understand him or his collection of butterflies because she came to a different conclusion that he didn't like.
3. Why did she decide to go to him after how he kidnapped her?
4. Why does she begin to like him more when going by his letter he's still the same selfish manipulative hypocritical guy who stalked her, kidnapped her, and when he finally did the "right" thing by taking her to the hospital acted as if she owed him.
5. How did she misunderstand him? If you're going on your claim that she misjudged him by calling him a madman that's laughable to me as sane people don't stalk a person and kidnap them in an attempt to force them to love them then make a routine of it.
Your ending simplifies a very complex situation. Freddie is not in love with Miranda. He is obsessed with Miranda. There is a difference. Obsession is not love, it is pathology. Freddy is mentally ill. He kidnaps and emotionally tortures a young woman and calls it love.
Freddy has a script in mind for Miranda and when she does not act according to the script it enrages him. Hence, his punishment for her attempts to escape and her attempt to seduce him. That was not in his script. He created an idea of who she was, what she was like, and how she would respond to him. He had never spoken to her, so of course he did not love her. He saw her, fantasized about her, and fixated on her.
When Miranda betrayed him by dying without playing the role he ascribed to her, he revised his criteria and locked onto a different victim, this one he viewed as more attainable. He had a script for the new woman, too. Again, he was fixated, not in love with the new woman.
He was very sick and no doubt would continue to abduct women throughout his lifetime as none of them would act as he imagined.
I agree with the last parts of the film's as it showcases Freddie selfish manipulative nature as he doesn't and didn't love Miranda enough to let her go or respect her freedom and he refused to take her to a doctor one out of fear of losing her and two, being arrest and so on. He's incapable of a real loving relationship because he can't empathize or relate to others as he only thinks about himself. He justifies what he does, refuses to take responsibility for his actions, seems to believe that the laws of society do not apply to him and blames the inevitable tragic conclusion on the victim herself, all of which are characteristics of psychopaths.
Miranda did "really" talk to Freddie her secretly judging him as a "madman" doesn't mean she didn't "really" talk to him as often times when talking to someone you form a judgement or further your judgement about them based on that interaction. More likely what drove Freddie angry was her not acting how he fantasized as shown by his reaction when she sexually propositioned him.
I don't think Freddie trying to find the good side of Miranda while Miranda tries to find the bad side of Freddie is some in depth character reveal. He likely tries to find the good side because he's obsessed with her and has this fantasy of her while she tries to find the bad side because he kidnapped her taking her away from everything she loved and everyone who loved her (and loved her enough to respect her freedom).
Freddie also has superior feelings such as how he thinks what he wants matters most. He noted that if he approached her normally she would have likely rejected him hence why he kidnapped her because he wanted to get what he wanted regardless of how it affected her.
It's a bit amusing how you think Miranda is a troubled person because she's attracted to a man who looks old enough to be her father but your rewritten ending of this movie has her in love and willing to marry a guy who stalked her, kidnapped her, and put her in the position to die.
"Through Picasso painting, Freddie proves how Miranda was wrong".
The only thing that particular scene proved, was that the guy was not just deranged, but also a total philistine.
"She secretly sees him as a madman".
Yeah, wonder why that is...
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
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The ending is sad? I think the entire movie is sad. I'm not sure how else the course of those events could end. At some point Miranda came to realize it but 'Franklin' was so deranged, not in touch with reality, that he couldn't. He kept envisioning some fantasy ending in which Miranda falls in love with him.
People like him engage in fanciful thinking. They imagine everyone else in the world in wrong and that those people are to blame for their unhappiness. What they fail to see is that they cause their own unhappiness.
Franklin, as he refers to himself, never made any attempt to engage Miranda in conversation all those times he used to see her; yet he calls her a snob and says she and her friends would not want anything to do with him. It may be true because he behaved like a kook. He didn't see the lack of effort on his part; he blamed her.
Later, after he's taken her hostage, he can't understand why she won't befriend him, love him, want him and why she takes every opportunity to escape. That, in itself, shows why he can never fit in with other people. He doesn't get it.
Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]