MovieChat Forums > Eyewitness (1981) Discussion > Seemingly Pointless Characters

Seemingly Pointless Characters


Someone in the User Comments section pointed to Aldo's sister and Daryll's father as pointless characters. While this may be true, the scene where Daryll and Linda break up with each other because they realize neither is in love with the other, is still one of my favorite scenes in the movie, as is the scene where Daryll carries his father up the staircase. Kenneth McMillan was such a great charater actor of the 70's and 80's (sadly he's no longer with us). No, these scenes are not pivotal to the movie, but I still think they add something to it.

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I didn't care for the scenes with the father -- I found the actor a little hammy. I liked the bits with Pamela Reed, though, and I think these 'pointless' characters add a bit of depth. It's a strange little movie, really, but I think it pays attention to the quirky characters more than most recent thrillers.

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Creating character depth is "pointless"? I totally disagree. The point of Daryll and Linda is to give insight into Daryll's life, Aldo's connection to Daryll. I can't see how anyone would consider these insights "pointless".

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I suspect tracytrollinger meant they weren't relevant to the main plot thread about the murder. I appreciate character development, even when it doesn't advance the main plot, but this film seemed to meander quite a bit.

When a screenwriter develops characters, they should be interesting characters, and this film could have used more of those.

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either way, I disagree. I think the film had interesting characters and I appreciated the sparse load of characters. It was a lean and mean movie, I appreciate that.

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I agree the characters were interesting, especially Aldo's sis and her relationship to Hurt. The thriller elements were poor, as was the cinematography (feel of tv movie) and sound...

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Morgan Freeman and Steven Hill's characters should have had their own movie. I think I would have enjoyed that more.

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I think I get it that Christopher Plummer's character murdered Mr. Long in the beginning because they were paying him smuggle people out of the USSR, I think. He wanted more and more money to do it and threatened to report them if they did not pay up. However, who was the lady shooting at William Hurt in the stable? Where did she come from and where did she go? I had to run it back a couple of times because she looked enough like Sigourney Weaver that I wondered what was going on here. I think I get it that her parents were involved with Christopher Plummer and they were being blackmailed by Mr. Long. I guess I will have to watch it again sometime to see what I missed. Can someone enlighten me please?

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