Does anyone else think this was not necessary for the movie? Sid showed no signs of mental illness throughout the movie - and then he just kills himself out of the blue?? I am sure he could of cancelled his DOR and went back or he could of gotten another woman rather than Lynette. He could of talked to Mayo.
shareYou missed the point of the movie. Mayo's mother killed herself because his dad abandoned her. Sid was trying to be what Mayo's mom would have wanted Zack's dad to be, but this time it was the woman who abandoned the man.
Paula and Zack find in each other what Sid, Zack's mom, and Paula's mom wanted for themselves but didn't get.
During basic training, the sargent had strongly warned them of the Debs who would do anything to snare a man simply because he's in the Navy and in spite all that, she did it to Sid to the point of inventing a baby and he realizes that very thing he'd been warned of happened to him
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He lifts me clear to the sky, you know he taught me to fly.
in the directors commentary taylor hackford clearly states that the suicide is a character piece for zach mayo who connected with his own mothers suicide drives him to fight foley but ultimately realise u have to live ur own life and forget about the dead, so he then decides to run to paula!
share
Nicely summed up ex250
You don't have to be mentally ill to commit suicide, and quite frankly A LOT of suicides seem out of the blue. Mental illness has nothing to do with it.
shareI haven't seen this movie in a while, but didn't Sid talk about having a deceased older brother and how great he was? It seemed like every life decision Sid made was to please other people and to emulate his brother. Because of that I have always thought Sid had issues especially when he mentioned being engaged to his deceased brother's fiance. But when he finally decided to do something *he* wanted to do (marry that blond chick, DOR), it blew up in his face and pushed him over the edge.
shareBut when he finally decided to do something *he* wanted to do (marry that blond chick, DOR), it blew up in his face and pushed him over the edge.Good observation. I hadn't thought of it that way.
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Perhaps Sid got really drunk in the motel room and hung himself while in an alcohol-induced depressive breakdown. I've heard of people getting drunk and ending up killing themselves. But then when he checked in he did seem like he had a plan to carry out (why else would he go there?) and he didn't seem drunk.
shareAnd also when Zach and Paula arrive, Zach checks the office and as he is knocking on the door told her the motel manager said that Sid had just arrived. Well gosh he sure did get naked and hung himself pretty quick then so there was no time for him to have gotten drunk.
I know that I did some reading up not long ago on people who hang themself and I thought I had read that hardly anyone ever hangs themself nude for they still have a sense of modesty and dont want people to find their body nude. I may be incorrect on that now but if not why do you think Sid hung himself nude.
Since he hung himself in the shower, maybe he was about to take a shower (that would explain the nudity) and then decided to hang himself in a spur of a moment decision? The suicide was not a long thought out process.
shareI think the fact that he swallowed the ring in front of the hotel manager showed that he planned the suicide.
I don't know why Sid would hang himself in the nude, I think the director's intention was to show to the audience how humiliated Sid felt about what had just happened in his life.
Sid has a lot of contributing factors to his suicide. But he didnt' necessarily show signs of illness.
1. he couldn't hack it in that gas chamber thing..so he decided he must not be as good as the other candidates...that's why he DOR'd.
2. He thought Lynette loved him for himself...not because of his status.
3. He had no where to go, and no one to love once he DOR'd. He felt his family and Lynette only would love him if he were an aviator- and when Lynette didn't love him and he didn't have a baby to love, he lost it, and couldn't find anything to live for.
Also, it's a pivotal plot point for Zach...Zach needs to understand that he was abandoned by everyone else because they were selfish, not because he was undeserving of love.
where all other couples have failed, Paula and Zach want to try anyway and see if they can beat the odds and accept love instead of a fling.
It's also Ironic that Zach telling Sid to follow his own heart ultimately led to Sid's suicide.
It's like when Sid runs off Zach realise "Oh hell, he's doing all this because of what I've said"
It's a deeper film than it appears at first eh?
>But when he finally decided to do something *he* wanted to do (marry that blond chick, DOR), it blew up in his face and pushed him over the edge.<
What does DOR mean?
He was obviously very confused, and was at any moment thinking of just getting drunk, going back home, trying to win Lynette back, cutting off his ****, swallowing the ring, pooping it out and getting his money back, killing himself, or maybe even killing Lynette.
So any inconsistency would not only be acceptable but expected.
I have done alot of reading on suicide lately, and one of the things it said was that "The person who commits suicide is not necessarily mentally ill, although he is at least temporarily deeply disturbed. Actually, only a small percentage of those who commit suicide are really mentally ill." And I have thought of suicide myself recently, and I know that I am not mentally ill, and do not have a mental illness at all, but am often very disturbed and down. As for the movie aspect, you are 100% right, he seemed fine throughout the movie, and then did this out of the blue, but it was because of what just had transpired: DORing so near the end, then spending his whole savings on a ring and Lynette then not marrying him. But that was due to all these things suddenly hitting him so hard, it had nothing to do with mental illness.
"I happen to be a vegetarian". Lex, from Jurrasic Park
Sid had no sense of identity. Zak's words in the mess hall - about his not being able to take responsibility for himself hit hard. He admitted during his escort by Foley off the base that he had done everything his whole life for the sake of others or what they expected of him. Lynette's rejection was devastating - especially after he said that he never felt more loved for who he truly was. Having that love dissipate in the blink of an eye forced him to confront the fact that he had no idea who he was. We had seen him panic in the low-oxygen simulation, we had seen him cower in his parents' presence. There were warning signs.
shareSo, what do you think of the movie overall? And I hope you'll be okay and everything. I'm sorry about how you've been feeling.
Jennie
Thanks for the response. I liked An Officer and a Gentleman overall alot, it is one of my favorite movies. And I stayed at a place for three weeks in July, and have recently got some things taken care of, and do in fact feel a good deal better than I did in June and early July.
"I happen to be a vegetarian". Lex, from Jurrasic Park
Yeah, it's a great movie; one of my favorites as well. And that's great to hear. You are very strong for doing what you did. You did the right thing for yourself!
Jennie
Lets looks at what happened to Sid:
*** He quits on his dream of being a fighter pilot when he didn't have to.
*** Instead, he's going back to work at JC Penney, where he hopes to be a floor manager in two years or so.
*** He rejects his fiance from Oklahoma, the woman his parents and "everybody" adores.
*** He puts all his savings into an engagement ring to marry Lynette, the woman he loves.
*** Lynette excitedly agrees to marry him but then immediately rejects him on learning he won't be a fighter pilot, making it clear that a naval aviator was all she wanted all along.
*** At the same time, he learns that the kid he thought he was going to have was just a ruse to ensare him, and one not even motivated by twisted, insecure love.
So in one swoop, Sid loses his dream job, a kid and the woman he loves (who turns out to never have loved him at all) and now faces the prospect of explaining all this to his family.
I don't think that there is ever any reason to kill oneself other than a certain and extraordinarily pain-filled end, but Sid had a pretty good trifecta going there.
hereminton, I'm so glad you are doing better. Your second post was on the last page of the thread and I was so happy when I saw it was you posting two months later and that you didn't make a bad decision! Depression is very real and people who have never had it cannot understand it. I've been there too, years ago, and I feel so much for someone going through depression. Here's to you for getting help!
everything that could go majorly wrong at once did for sid, he would have looked like a fool when he went home
share[deleted]
Can you imagine how absolutely emotionally devastating it would have been for Mr. and Mrs. Worley to travel back up from Oklahoma to claim their son's body in Washington (especially after having lost their older son during the Vietnam War)?
And, I wonder if anyone (Sgt. Foley, any of the officers on the base or perhaps even Zach or one of his other classmates if they were still stationed at the base) informed the Worleys of their son's brief but tragic romantic relationship with Lynette?
I can only imagine how "joyous" a meeting between the Worleys and Lynette would be. However, somehow I don't think that Lynette would display either the decency or personal integrity to agree to a meeting with Sid's bereaved parents...the loathsome slattern.
sorry sid is basically an idiot...did he not realise that lynette wasnt interested in non-army guys??
"He's in town with a few days to kill"