Except for Bonnie Bedelia's arthritis solution and J.T. Walsh's horse game, I didn't really see why anyone would sell their souls so to speak for the items. I mean, a baseball card? A copy of Treasure Island? Don't you think they should've been bigger things, or maybe intangible ones?
shareThat was the point.
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You, Mr Neville, are the refuse of the past. You are discarded!
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The horse race was needful? LOL
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The racing game was supposed to help Buster predict the winners of the real game.
Chaos reigns
An Elvis fan, buys a pair of glasses that when she wears them, she actually believes she is with Elvis, as an example.
Think of your wildest dream, rich? famous? athletic? big shot with the ladies? whatever....and you could buy an object that made you see, think, feel, and experience that. Could be tempting.
As you notice in the movie, not everyone bought the "special" needful things, many bought just antiques. Gaunt, knew who "needed" something else, and who he could use.
I think Mickey had a great response, but I'd like to add: we don't all desire the same things? Something that I may consider needful you may consider to be just silly.
I also think the "big" desires are too easy and more often than not are simply impulses and not real desires. I'd love to go to the moon, but it's not realistic and I have no problem discarding the desire. But my small desires, say to have once again the toys I had as a kid, that's a small desire that I'd be willing to pay considerably to have again. The things that are the most meaningful to us are often the small things. In my own life I have and will always place more value on the small things than I will on the large. Small things matter and that was the key to Gaunt's business: sucker people by targeting their small, secret desires.
Well said, Cap.
shareThis was better illustrated in the book, but it wasn't really the objects that were what the people wanted, but how it made them feel. Every single character who bought something at Needful Things did so for a very personal reason that the particular object meant something to them in their past. For example, Nettie's carnival glass lampshade reminded her of her late husband before she stuck a fork in his neck; and Hugh's foxtail reminded him of his father, etc. This was best seen in the book with the Elvis picture that projected sexual fantasies and the wood fragment that gave the holder spiritual bliss.
shareI think that each item produced such an emotional response from the customer it became their needful thing. The Baseball card represented a really good moment of going to baseball games with his dad.
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thr treasure island was supposed to be an 1883 1st ed signed, which would be about $50k & a big deal to any book collector, but the copy in the film is not a first ed. its the Wyeth illustratrated edition, of 1911 or a reprint, & the signature is fake, because stevenson died 17 years before. the 1911 is worth $500 in that condition.
trashing books is like the Special Olympics even if you win & burn them all you are still a retard.
I think that was the point. In the novel, almost all of the items weren't really what the buyer thinks they were. Gaunt 'glamoured' them to make them tempting enough to a buyer for a trade to be made(the item for a favor/prank) and after that it was all a matter of the various people WANTING to believe that the item is what it's supposed to be. IIRC and for instance, Brian's baseball card, despite seeming to be an authentic and signed by Sandy Koufax card, was really some nobody player. Of course, he doesn't figure this out until after he's already done Gaunt's dirty deed and, iirc, that's what leads him to try and commit suicide.
So, Gaunt describing TI as a signed, first edition and then, we as the audience seeing it as it actually is(something of considerably lesser value), would be a perfect reference to this plot point.
Where are we a-going? Planet Ten
When are we a-going? ...real soon...
Yes, this^. That was the whole point of Gaunt's character in the novel. In the novel, Sheriff Pangborn never gets a chance to meet Gaunt face to face before the climax but the way that people speak about their purchases to him sparks his lawman instincts. He doesn't have all the facts, but he doesn't have to look this guy in the eye to know there is some sort of Confidence Game going on between this Merchant and the Residents of Castle Rock. My favorite detail in the book is how different Customers get a look at other Customers' "Needful Thing" during the course of their "prank" and usually are shaking their head, seeing the trinket for what it really is and wondering why anyone would care about such junk, as their corrupting their souls to retain similar junk.
shareYes, that is quite clear in the book. The Needful Things are indeed junk, but with Gaunt's spell on them, the marks just have to have them.
The restitution of life is no great feat. A variety of deaths may well enter into your punishment
I agree, these things didnt seemt worth "paying the price" at all, they should have used some better things IMO.
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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.
I think the message is that many people lust after things that end up with the buyers realising that they're just so much dross and frippery.
The restitution of life is no great feat. A variety of deaths may well enter into your punishment