I hated and pitied Clark.
He's one of the few characters I hate, but also pity.
sharethat guy was far from pitiful. he deserved everything he got & then some.
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& the dog says woof woof & the cat says meow.
I strongly disagree. I have seen the film and read the stage play. Clark Davis is a very pitiable character. I have no love for kiddy diddlers, but Clark was genuinely disturbed by his own behaviour and sincerely repentant. He wanted to get help, but didn't really know how to get it without getting locked up in either prison or a mental hospital. You're looking at the mental health system in the 1970s. As bad as it is now, it was worse then. Most shrinks still thought being gay was a mental illness.
If Clark had the same attitude about his sexual proclivities as Omar had about is being "a dope fiend", then I could see your position. Gods know there are loads of men who DO feel justified in taking what they what from whomever and not caring about the consequences. That, however, is not seen at all in the character of Clark Davis.
In the story, we learn that Clark was wrongfully accused in the specific assault for which he was incarcerated. Knowing that, would you still feel as you do if he had NO history of pedophilia? If his confession to Juan was never made because there was nothing to confess, would you still hate him? If so, why?
If you're not creating beauty, then you're creating nothing.
I think Clark was indeed guilty, but someone must have made a deal with the authorities or had mercy on Clark and cleared him of charges.
Clark was also very socially awkward and had such a poor self-image, which I think is what fueled the hatred of his fellow prisoners even more. If a convicted child molester looked and acted like the other prisoners did in this, they would have probably left him alone for the most part
I think Clark was indeed guilty, but someone must have made a deal with the authorities or had mercy on Clark and cleared him of charges.
As far as I know, that simply doesn't happen (thank God).
As far as the film goes, there is no reason to doubt the warden's statement that the child witness was mistaken and that Clark is innocent of that one offense. The point is that if Clark had not (coincidentally) been guilty of the other offenses, these men would have killed him anyway. Juan recognizes this: he's our "moral center," and he chooses not to tell Clark's murderers about his confession because he doesn't want them to feel justified in having taken the law into their own hands. He wants them to suffer remorse (if they're capable of it) and grow a little.
I do find Clark pitiable, because he seems so much like a child himself: weak, stupid, (probably) emotionally arrested, but not an outright monster. And--like you suggest--if he had been a hardened sociopath (a "tough guy"), cunning and evil, he would have commanded more respect from the other prisoners and would probably have survived. As it is, his childlike qualities make him an easy target. In prison, your "innocence" is always a liability.
They kill him because he's a wimp just as much as for what they think he did to that little girl. share
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I agree; sure, he probably felt vulnerable and terrified at the end. Just like his little victims did when he took their innocence. He was stuck in a hellish jail; his victims were probably jailed by a lifetime of pain and fear. If, on the other hand, he had been an innocent man thrown into jail as the result of mistaken identity, then yes I would have felt very sorry for him.
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Wow. So you think people should be held down and have their throat cut with a box cutter when they have done something wrong?! Lol
You think MURDER is okay?
Holding a guy down and murdering him is much worse than anything that guy ever did.
You're an idiot.