MovieChat Forums > Streets of Fire (1984) Discussion > Weird Timing Issue

Weird Timing Issue

posted 11 years ago by crood
5 replies | jump to latest

The film begins with Ellen being kidnapped. We then get a shot of Tom's sister typing a letter asking him to come home. We then get scenes where Tom comes home and Raven tells Ellen that they're "going to fall in love for a few weeks", which is clearly a rape euphemism.

So my question is this: The letter is written, received, read, and Tom makes the trip home and during this time Raven doesn't touch Ellen? Other than the letter, everything else makes it seem like everything takes place in a day or two. In the U.S. it typically takes about two days for a letter to get from one place to another. Ellen was kidnapped at night, so it's unlikely the letter got picked up until the next morning.

Was Tom close enough (e.g. zip code under the same distribution center) that the letter got to him then next day and was able to travel quickly? If so, why a letter and not a phone call? Heck, why not a telegram?

It just seems like Ellen didn't have the kind of time it would have taken to get Tom back to town.

[–] sisterdebmac 11 years ago

Been a while since I watched it, but I thought she sent a telegram.
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[–] crood 11 years ago

I just watched it last night. She's typing a letter on an old style manual typewriter.

It's actually even worse than I thought. It seems like Tom arrives the same night. When he enters the diner, he's followed by some punk gang that harasses his sister. She's not taking it and told them The Bombers just pulled something.

Then Tom kicks their asses in the requisite "show how tough the hero is" bit. THen he takes their car.

[–] StrongCarl 11 years ago

No; it was definitely a telegram. The hands doing the typing were a man's hands. The brevity of the message "Come home. I need you." is very indicative of a telegram and not a letter.

He still gets there very fast, considering.

To fix IMDB's display https://secure.imdb.com/register-imdb/siteprefs last option (ref)

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

No; it was definitely a telegram.

Yes!

He still gets there very fast, considering.

Yes!

And yes, Raven hasn't yet raped Ellen. He seems to want her "to fall in love with him" ... as you do after you've kidnapped the girl of your dreams and tied her down to a bed.🐭

[–] mpaulshore 11 years ago

crood: A manual typewriter is one in which the typist's fingers provide all the power to make the type strike the paper. In the beginning of Streets of Fire, the keyboard that we see a pair of hands typing on--whether it's the keyboard of a typewriter per se, or perhaps of some sort of telex device--is visibly electric, not manual. That is to say, the keys are electric buttons that, if it's a typewriter, actuate the electrically powered movement of the type bars (or a type ball or a type wheel); or that, if it's a telex or similar device, cause an electrical signal to be transmitted.

In brief, not every non-computer keyboard is "manual". They can be either manual or electric, and this one is clearly electric.