I'm not sure if this has already been cleared up but I thought at the end Jerome thought he was in jail because of the fire, not because of the whole strangler thing. Did he know that he was being accused of that?
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He was arrested because of the killings, because they thought he was the strangler, but he actually killed the strangler with the fire the cigarite caused.Someone else also died in that fire. So he actually is guilty of killing an innocent person.
shareHmm, I thought the whole point of him being in jail was to be the martyr for his art, the whole idea of being in jail was so be could get be noticed in the cut-throat industry of art. Isn't that the whole idea of the parable in this movie? The lawyer expresses that he has sufficient evidence to get him out of jail, nothing is alluded to us about being prosecuted for the fire. But i think it is pretty much irrelevant what he is in there for, it's the twisted idea of him actually being in there (and wanting to be in there) that forms the satire in the movie...
(insert movie quote here)
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yup, yup, yup
that's why the other lawyer said that Jerome can get out of jail and yet he does not want to...
There's no way Jerome would have been prosecuted for the fire, which itself seemed poorly staged/written. A cigarette falling on bare carpet isn't going to start a fire unless the carpet is soaked with flammable liquid; while it's possible the carpet could have gotten some alcohol on it, most beverages would not ignite with a cigarette (what proof were the liquors in that movie); further, if flammable liquids had played a major role in the fire, they would have received more notice than the cigarette.
The reason the guy was in jail is that the police thought he was the strangler. In fact, he almost certainly would have a solid alibi for a number of the killings (especially those that occurred before he arrived on campus!) but he may have felt that his notoriety was enhanced by his being in jail. Since the state would have wanted to bring the case to trial eventually, it's unclear what would have happened then.
Much of the evidence that would acquit Jerome would have been destroyed in the fire, but if a DNA sample was taken of the real strangler it could probably be matched to some material on his paintings. Jerome would of course have to admit to being a plagiarist, but since his own work was better than what he was plagiarizing, he could probably come up with some excuse that he was simply trying to see whether anyone would notice.
Curious ending, deliberately left ambiguous.
Yeah, i understood that he was arrested for the killings because his paintings made it seem like he was the killer. His paintings, the killings, and the fire all led up to the importance of him being a martyr for his art
Baby I'm about to culminate so get over here!!!
~ Van Wilder
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taddictedangelt: "Did he know that he was being accused of that?"
Of course he knew. The police would have informed him of that when he was arrested.
In addition, almost any police investigation and interrogation of the suspect would have quickly made clear that he was not the killer.
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In a way, Jerome going to jail worked out for Vince because he became the famous director he wanted to be. If it hadn't been for Jerome getting arrested and being accused of being the strangler, Vince may have never been noticed, because he would have never made the movie that made him noticed. It was bittersweet.
R.I.P. Heath Ledger
(April 4, 1979 - January 22, 2008)