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One thing changes the whole idea behind the character of 'Karl'...

posted 9 years ago by MikeDopeLess
32 replies | jump to latest

Karl is portrayed to be this simple, slow, but good-hearted human being who has had a sad and rough life. He committed this horrible crime when he was a kid, but the murders that happened were a result of Karl walking in on a disturbing situation (his mother having sex with another man). So I took it as Karl reacted to what he was seeing and he he immediately took action and murdered his mother and this man.

Now fast forward to the end of the movie **Spoiler** where he has made a distinct decision to kill Doyle. That means that he took the time to think about it, whether he wayed the pros and cons, played different situations out in his head or not; he eventually came to the conclusion that he MUST kill this man in order to save the people he loved. To me, this just changes the character of Karl a little bit. If he had walked in on Doyle beating Frank or his mom, then I would have understood his motivation a lot more, it would have just made more sense to me. I know earlier in the day Karl saw Doyle put his hands on Frank, but Karl took action there and told Doyle not to do it again. There was no other event that sparked Karl's rage and violence.

I just always thought Karl reacted to a horrible situation when he was young, but he later learned that it was a "bad" decision and that he shouldnt have killed them. Maybe Im wrong, but it's just what I felt while watching it for the first time front to back...

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[–] kid_Green 8 years ago

I just got through watching it after a long while and picked up on some things that I hadn't noticed before that contribute to this.

I had always accepted as a fact that what Karl did was right or "heroic". He saved Frankie and Linda from a life of abuse from Doyle. But murder is murder. We know what Karl did is wrong. It's one of the key elements that makes this film so intriguing.

I noticed in this viewing that Karl understands Biblical morality purely from the punishment side of things. He always talks about his Biblical lessons in terms of whether something will result in you being sent to Hades or not. Although he says he understands a good deal of the Bible he seems to have missed a huge part of Christianity; forgiveness and redemption. His entire understanding of Christianity is purely about punishment and avoiding those actions that will result in it so him committing pre-meditated murder is forfeiting any hope he has of avoiding hell.

I think that's important because Karl's murder of Doyle can be either interpreted as a sin that will condemn him to hell or an act of sacrifice that will lead to his redemption. Was the omission a sign that he is unambiguously guilty or is the omission a sign that he has redeemed himself by punishing someone who was truly evil; acting as an agent of divine justice.

When I was younger, I felt that Karl was justified in what he did but now that I"m older and understand the kind of fallout his actions will have on those he loves, I'm not sure what to think. It's great that this film has so many layers to it!

[–] ratherbebocce 8 years ago

Maybe he was reading the old testament ?

Good post, BTW.

I had to crash the Honda....

[–] lcplthomasc 8 years ago

Well remember in the interview at the beginning, after all his therapy was done and he was being released, he said he'd still do the same thing if he had it to do over again. That's a special kind of rage only a person like Karl could rationalize.

It could also be said though that through his studies of the Old Testament, his understanding would be "bad people" deserved to be killed. IE, he "knew" homosexuality was wrong, but he never wanted to kill the moms friend, but he saw Doyle as just pure evil, deserving of separation from the living. Killing is the only option Karl understood could do that.