Schmidt is selfish because he never once shows any sense of friendliness. He is too high and mighty to ever 'lower' himself to open up and show his true colors to people he believes are lower than him.
The movie is all about relationships, and not about work and the more trivial materialistic gains that he is still stingy/cheap with in his old age.
The reason we garner a sense of sympathy for Schmidt is not because of his exuberant character, but rather because he is the 'hero' of this film. However, he is more an anti-hero than a hero, displaying all the qualities of what is not expected in a human being we would want to look up to. This is the beauty of this film. It tells the truth, in a blatant, yet alluring and charming way.
Throughout the film, we can relate greatly to Schmidt and his judgmental state of mind, because we see something of ourselves in him. The story and the writer are thus implying to something that lies within all of us, a selfishness that is exacerbated by our own egoism, a feeling we all garner within us that we are somehow better than certain people. Schmidt is an exemplary human image of this.
"He has the time for a child and he did not when his daughter was younger"... yet even when retired he still fails at closing the gap between him and his daughter.
He isn't not there for his daughter because he is selfless and working too hard, he's not there for his daughter because he simply never cared to reach a level of human understanding that most fathers/daughters should have between each other. He fails at maintaining a relationship with his daughter, while his wife was always able to (his daughter talks about how she would talk with her mother everyday, while Schmidt remains clueless about the wedding). The wedding is never a highlighted event or theme throughout the movie, even though it should be as the movie is seen through Schmidt's point of view and as a father we would expect this event to be very important for him.
No, instead the movie is all about Schmidt. Never once does he center his attention on anyone but himself, except at the end, where he finally realizes how much he has failed, and thus he breaks down in what seems to be a melee between tears and a smile, which is what we, as spectators and people who all have a small part of Schmidt in them, should experience as well.
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belalugosihouse
13 years ago
I appreciate your comment, but my grandmother, mother and I worked all our lives, and no, there is not enough time to spend with children--yes, he he has time now, but it is too late. I agree, he could have tried harder, but in my experience, and many people I know, there just aren't enough hours in the day. Also, the wedding may not have been important to him because he genuinely feels his daughter is making a mistake. (Which I agree--I give it two years--ha, ha.) I'd like to think that after her divorce, she comes to live with her father, with maybe a grandchild, and he's extremely happy. There should be a sequel. (BTW, those tears and a smile are Jack Nicholson's trademark--I don'tknow if he can cry without seeming to smile).
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KnowledgeIsLife
13 years ago
There should be a sequel?
You're completely misunderstanding the meaning of this movie if you think there 'should be a sequel'.
This movie is derived from a book.
This has nothing to do with how hard he worked when he was younger. There is no emphasis on this at all throughout the movie.
Emphasis lies on his inability to create, establish and maintain loving relationships with the people around him. Every single relationship he's ever had has been tainted either by himself or the things and people around him.
His best friend was the one his wife was cheating with, he had become perpetually annoyed with his wife, his daughter remains cautious of her father because of how uncaring and irresponsible he is when it comes to displaying true fatherhood.
He has time now, and throughout the movie he STILL failed miserably at creating any new relationships or mending any of his previous ones.
The ONLY relationship he managed to gain, and the one that thus led to his EPIPHANY, was the one with the boy Ndugu. He cries because he realizes how easy it is to find the true answers he has been looking for by simply being selfless. The small act of donating $22 led him to create something much more valuable then that $22 or any sum of money/materialistic gain...
Those tears with a smile are not trademarks of Jack Nicholson. I've seen him in several other films where he simply cries with no hint of happiness. The smile is imprinted on his face to show the ambiguity behind his emotions, that there is both a happiness and a sadness in what he is feeling: a happiness that he has finally achieved something of importance in his life by helping this young boy, but also a sadness that he has not achieved enough because he has been too selfish to ever realise how self-indulgent he truly was.
Schmidt had 1 child, a wife, and a middle-class job; Schmidt is a very translatable protagonist in that sense. Why, then, does he fail so miserably at finding true happiness and love?
Perhaps the fact that Schmidt is so 'normal' relates to how we are all lost somewhat in finding true happiness and love.
Perhaps, then, in studying Schmidt we can better understand ourselves.
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belalugosihouse
13 years ago
Although you make some valid points, I can venture a guess that you have not worked at the same job for 30+ years. This is my whole point, and the point of the movie, no emphasis HAS to be made about how working hard your whole life does to a person. This is a GIVEN. In order to cope, to survive, it affects your ability to create, establish, and maintain loving relationships with the people around you. No one would understand this unless you've been through it. You work your whole life, and spend almost 1/3 of your adult life without your family. This creates a sort of "robot mentality," (especially if it is not a creative job), which you obviously don't understand. I've never seen Nicholson as you said--can you give examples?
The fact that Schmidt fails so miserably at finding true happiness and love is the obvious answer--he has not had the time. This is the tragedy of the American Dream, which is what this movie is about--give him time--at the end he is beginning! That is why I mentioned a sequel--there is no need to insult others opinions.
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kiwi_ange
13 years ago
You know it really annoys me when people try & tell others that they are wrong about their interpretation of a character or film. The way I see it we can all see these things differently & none of us are wrong. We are all entitled to our own opinions & we can take whatever we want from a film because we all have different opinions & life experience. I agree with some of what you said, but not all, however this doesn't mean that you are right, or that you have the right to call others wrong.
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jakob_cs2
13 years ago
Most movies do have messages they try to get across. That's what people are debating. If you'd ask the screenwriters you'd get a straight answer. That straight answer is what people are trying to figure out. So in the end when all is said and done it's not so much about opinion after all, but about the right interpretation that ties all the clues in the movie together ;) but it's not a competition! :D it's a team effort.
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itsalltears
13 years ago
KnowledgeIsLife wrote:
"There should be a sequel?
You're completely misunderstanding the meaning of this movie if you think there 'should be a sequel'.
This movie is derived from a book. "
the book has 3 sequels.
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