Insane?
I saw this a few weeks ago and am asking if anyone else has noticed that Allie Fox is TOTALLY INSANE.
shareWell, I'm still not convinced that he's insane. I think he's just stubborn and egocentric more than anything. Although, he certainly does lose his grip on reality at the end.
For some reason, strange as it may be, Allie Fox is something of a hero to me. He's a flawed hero but that just makes the character all the more realistic.
At one point he says, and actually believes, that the USA has blown itself up. That's proof he's lost it.
shareThere's no question about Allie's being insane at the end. When his vision was destroyed, this was the last straw. When he says something like, "I'm glad," when his wife tries to comfort him after the disaster, you know he's had it. Before this, to say he was eccentric would perhaps be an understatement, but he did not, to me (a psychiatric nurse), seem COMPLETELY over the edge.
In any case, I believe this film to be one of the best of the decade, and this to be Harrison Ford's best acting job, no question. I know a lot of people are put off by his at times unlikeable, obsessed, boardering on and soon to be--nut case of a character, but I love it.
"THE SPOTS!!!"
derekaxe,
I think that his saying that the US has blown itself up is meant as a metaphor. He uses the concept of an explosion to explain it to his younger children who would likely not understand the concept of a civilization falling apart, which is what Allie was really getting at.
--P.
I think he was just flat out lying to manipulate his kids. His wife says "why are you doing this to us" or some such to him after he claims America has been nuked.
shareUhhhh, setting the church on fire should have been enough to show you that Allie has lost his mind!
"I still get free gatorade, right?"
JayDeath,
Allie's burning of the church made total sense, given his totally justifiable hatred for organized religion. Seeing the tv screen with the evangelist merely showed him the extent that the church had gone to in order to indoctrinate the natives. This made him angry, as he quite rightly believed that the missionaries were negatively interfering in the lives of the locals.
--P.
Also when he gazes inside the church, I am pretty sure he identifies some of the people from his former town as the brainwashed - so I think - that burning the church was largely a payback to the reverend/church for stealing his people and leaving his own town vulnerable to the three gun men that ultimately destroyed it.
I also love his wise crack about the incident ("I have some kerosene for the boat, I must have spilt some on the way").