A question for the people who lived in the 70's

saying she is responsible for it is pushing it... her actions and decisions may have brought her closer to an element capable of these actions... but she is not responsible for someone killing her...

unless i'm misunderstanding your post..

(In response to the first comment)
I can't even express how incredibly offensive your review is. Saying it is her fault that she got brutally murdered and raped is a horrible way to express whatever it is you were trying to get across. People that tend to be reckless in the way that Roseann Quinn was have some form of emotional distress causing them to act in the manner they do and to make these decisions. She met her killer when she was at the bar across the street with an acquaintance , the man she brought back was a friend of his. She should not have been so trusting, but seeing as they had a mutual acquaintance, she could never have known he was psychotic. Her mistake was being to trusting. She in know way deserved this and she was probably sexually assaulted sometime in her past, frequently when someone is raped, they become sexually promiscuous, feeling their body is of no value and the pattern frequently repeats itself without getting help or therapy. It very much sounds like you are saying that victims of sexual assault bring it upon themselves. I would be ashamed to make such a comment and so should you.

Sorry if I missed some niceties by skipping all four pages of comments (life is too short), but seriously, rrb is hardly saying the original real-life model for the novel deserved to die. He's saying she put herself in dangerous situations with dubious characters, so her demise wasn't entirely unpredictable. Serial bad judgment or offbeat compulsive sexual tastes doesn't mean you "deserve to die," though it may mean you leave yourself more open to violence from strangers than otherwise. I don't judge anyone's sexual behavior, but if they are promiscuous in a way that invites stranger-danger, then obviously they are at higher risk of personal harm.

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"I thought the film distorted a lot, especially the idea that she was teaching deaf children by day and doing drugs and sex all night."

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Do you know how many people I've known in my lifetime who lived this EXACT kind of life?

"I was a teenager in the 70s but not living in a big city. This film was a shcck to my parents and their friends it came out and made them fear city life and "progress". I thought the film distorted a lot, especially the idea that she was teaching deaf children by day and doing drugs and sex all night. The story was not very well developed at all. I felt it was a bad imitation of what Scorscese does so well. "


Eh, you do realize this movie is based on a true story right? Roseann Quinn WAS a teacher for deaf students during the day and she DID use drugs and have random casual sex after school/by nights.

On New Years Day in 1973 she picked up a drifter at a bar and he murdered her.

Did you read Closing Time: The True Story of the "Goodbar" Murder by New York Times journalist Lacey Fosburgh? I read it many years ago. As I recall, I thought the fictional story was simplistic beside this one. I don't remember if I thought one or the other was better written as a story, and I never saw the film.




What an interesting sig line! I didn't know anybody still read him. Makes me want to read him again.

Dude, where do you get your information? Bette Midler got her start in the very early 70s (before Plato's Retreat existed) in the gay Continental Baths (Barry Manilow was her accompaniest). And the bar was the All State Cafe.

I realize your post is from 5 years ago, but I wanted to reply.

I just watched the movie, and your post is very insightful. I agree completely that the movie sanitized the complex psyche of Theresa/Roseann. My hunch is that some of the behaviors Roseann exhibited in life would cause the viewer to lose sympathy for her.

Thanks for your insight into the neighborhood and culture at that time. I knew of Plato's Retreat as being where Bette Midler's career began to take off, but wasn't aware it was in this neighborhood.

I've seen some photos of the neighborhood at that time, and your descriptions provide excellent context.

Thanks.

I have to say I find a whole lot of this discussion disturbing. I, myself, was a little young for that bar scene in the 70's but I remember well enough. Saying it was a different time or different circumstances does not mean that such behavior wasn't considered dangerous. Yes, there were a lot of people behaving in that manner - there were also plenty who were not.

If I suggested then (or now) that you routinely go out into public and bring 2 or 3 complete strangers into your house (say for "dinner" instead of sex): I would be lectured on how absolutely insanely dangerous it is. What neighborhood is somewhat irrelevant because criminals know to go hunting where the deer are, so to speak. Bottom line, like the rest of the crowd participating in that scene, Theresa Dunn simply chose to ignore the dangers of that lifestyle. I really think that's what Robert Brooks was trying to convey: Miserable people make miserable lifestyle choices that lead to really bad results. In a nutshell, a cautionary tale - certainly. But bear in mind that the culture was starting to fade away by then. I know I didn't make it through that era without losing people I cared about to the negatives of the drug culture and later, aids. And the Theresa Dunn character had just resolved to changer her life, but not in time ie one often doesn't get a second chance.

But use sex and "free love" as motivation and suddenly the very high probability that constant exposure to complete strangers will result in an experience that will cause harm evaporates right along with all other logic. Hmmm. One shouldn't bring strangers home unless your gonna spread your legs for them? Tsk. Tsk.

And - FYI - although I agree that the free wheeling sexual attitude did NOT cause HIV/AIDS, didn't it do a bang up job of making it an unstoppable plague that has claimed so many, many people. That supposedly non-indulgent a-moralist that had to wave HIS little judgmental finger needs to wake up and smell the coffee. It's certainly been the mother of all hangovers after a very long party, huh?

Sexual promiscuity has consequences. Always has, always will.

Deal with it then simply admit the double standard.

Or continue to ignore the fact that 1 in 4 women under the age of 30 has genital herpes. And most will die early because the drugs used to "control" that disease destroys the liver before the age of 50. Didn't know it and don't see that on the Valtrex commercials, do you? NIMBY always applies. If it were measles instead of herpes, people would actually ask questions.

One of the reasons my generation wentso "Alex P. Keaton" was that, even as a young children, we couldn't ignore the destruction of that culture. And, maybe that generation couldn't see it because of all the brain damage from routine drug use. LOL. If you were participating, might you just have a little bias in your memory of the experience? Your food for thought from someone who had to watch that same generation become the managers and CEO's and make business decisions stoked on cocaine through a lot of the 80's and 90's.

So I'll add this to the answers to the original question is this: Yes, it really was like that in the city. But also bear in mind that even more people moved out to suburbia as a result. In part to get away from that culture, and in part due to other prominent social afflictions of the time, such as race riots, cults and gangs. Theresa Dunn's choice to work and live there, given her roots, would have been considered risky and brave for a young woman of that time. (Considering she was helping inner city deaf children).

You know what? I like your theory. Yes, as we saw in the movie, Theresa did come from a family with extremely conservative parents, so her picking up complete, unsavory strangers may have been her way of rebelling. In that sense, she went from one extreme to another. Never a good idea, of course, but when you're too sheltered like Theresa was, it's very difficult to make it on your own.

Here's WIKI on Rosann Quinn..Interesting reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseann_Quinn