MovieChat Forums > The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) Discussion > How did Sandy know?

How did Sandy know?

posted 10 years ago by Qanqor
4 replies | jump to latest

A poignant point to the movie is that Mary goes off to fight in the Spanish civil war on the wrong side, fighting for Franco while her brother was fighting for the republicans. The implication seems to be pretty clear, that she was such a confused little idiot that she didn't even realize she had joined the wrong side.

But it is *Sandy* who points this out. How did *Sandy* know that the brother was fighting for the republicans? I don't see any way that Sandy could have known other than Mary telling her. But that would mean that Mary *did* know.

Can anyone make sense of this?

[–] jones7418 10 years ago

I don't think Mary was headed for the wrong army; she had been taught by Miss Brodie that the cause of Franco was the noble one. I doubt if it mattered to Mary which side her brother was on. It was Miss Brodie who assumed that Mary had run off to join her brother, as she tells Sandy during that last argument.
Sandy must've learned it from Mary herself or the newspaper with Mary's death notice that she drops on Miss Brodie's doorstep.

[–] Qanqor 10 years ago

Hmmm. The newspaper does seem a plausible notion. Thanks.

[–] ricky_says_hi 10 years ago

Could Sandy have contacted Mary's brother at all? If she sent a letter she could have found out that way.

The situation seems to be that Mary knew her brother was fighting in Spain. But she had heard all of Jean's talk about how Franco's army were the heroes, so she simply assumed that her brother would of course be fighting for the 'heroic' cause.

I'm gonna die of long hair!

[–] rrb_1 9 years ago

OP: is it beyond your imagination that Sandy would have contacted Mary's family and gotten the information about her brother from them?