MovieChat Forums > Mean Creek (2004) Discussion > So... are we supposed to feel bad for Ge...

So... are we supposed to feel bad for George?

posted 10 years ago by DevelopmentHell92
11 replies | jump to latest

Great movie, don't get me wrong. But I really don't understand its message. Oh, poor poor misunderstood obese child who beats up people smaller than him, makes fun of a guy with gay fathers, hits that same kid's head with a baseball bat, and whom laughs and spits in the face of a dude's father who shot himself in the mouth. I'm not going to say he DESERVED to die, but how are we expected to have sympathy for someone like that? I'm usually quite an empathic person, but I just did not feel bad for him in the slightest. If he wasn't such a dickhead, he'd still be alive... should be easy enough, yea?

[–] TheDarkDuchess 10 years ago

I don't think we're meant to necessarily feel bad for the guy. He's a dick, plain and simple. I think the movie is more trying to make us see how people are complex, and there's more than meets the eye.

[–] ZacPensol 10 years ago

I feel like a lot of people are missing (what I feel like what was) the point of this movie. Another poster said it too: people are deep. George was a bully, yes, but that doesn't make him an inherently BAD person. I think the idea behind this movie was to show that people aren't just absolutely bad or good, they're just people. George was a jerk, but we saw the reasons behind that. Not only that, but he made genuine attempts to fit in - buying Sam the gift, lying about smoking and stuff so he could blend in with the 'cool' kids.

He was clearly a lonely kid, and lonely kids get angry that they're not understood. Angry kids can act out, become violent. This doesn't justify any of the mean things he did or said, but it explains them. George was a tragic character who really just didn't know how to have friends and his first instinct was to lash out because it was in doing so that he felt like he had a little power and control.

[–] DevelopmentHell92 10 years ago

I see your point. I guess I would've felt bad for him if not for his outburst on the boat. I mean, sure I would be frustrated too after finding out that I've been tricked, but he took it to a WHOLE 'NOTHER level. With the way he reacted, he pretty much proved to everyone as to WHY he was tricked in the first place. Taking your explanation into account, I feel like the film could've executed that whole message a little bit better. Good movie though nonetheless.

[–] ZacPensol 10 years ago

I think perhaps the multitude of ways people have read his character is a really good illustration of what I feel like the movie was trying to say, which is just a further testament to how good a movie it is - that is, that we human beings want to classify other people into simplified, generalized groups, but it's usually inaccurate, based on limited knowledge or observation, and it's not shared by everyone. George is a good example of this: where I see sympathetic lonely kid, you see cruel bully. Neither are incorrect by any means - they're just different facets of the same person that we individually choose to cling onto for one reason or another.

Truly, George was definitely a jerk for those things he said there towards the end and no matter what the other kids said to him the way he acted was in no way appropriate or right, buuuut we also get a glimpse as to why he was like that throughout the movie: he was lonely and misunderstood and socially uncomfortable. I guess what I'm getting at is that people often confuse "understanding" with "acceptance" and George is a prime example of how that's fallacious - we can *understand* why George was the way he was without *accepting* (/*justifying*/*forgiving*) that he did it.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] rockinpink90 10 years ago

That is probably the best interpretation I've seen. I completely agree.

[–] jmaybay 10 years ago

I don't remember them pushing him in the river. I remember Marty charging him but then the other boys held him back and George fell in... so it all seems like a case of reaping what sew. God don't like ugly and George was being super ugly.

I think death was a big leap but I'm trying and I can't feel bad for the kid. Do I think he deserved to die? No. Am I sad about it? Negative. In

[–] IMDB_Vits 10 years ago

Understanding and justifying aren't the same thing.

If he wasn't such a dickhead, he'd still be alive

You're saying it like his death was his responsability.

[–] katiefanatic-791-306918 9 years ago

i felt bad for him because he was so young. all kids are dicks at that age. these kids were very short sighted thinking he wouldn't grow out of it eventually. furthermore, the 'he did it to me so i'm going to do it to him' mentality is very juvenile and immature.

[–] jeremyganoo 9 years ago

Yeah you missed the point (maybe there's not a specific 'point'). I felt bad for EVERYONE. George (who by the way had mental and emotional disabilities) lost his life, and the other kids' lives were ruined forever. The characters were deep and complex; and the emotions were realistic.

[–] HarveyManfredSinJohn 9 years ago

The kids set him up to humiliate him, they placed him in a vulnerable position, and they effectively let him die. Of course he deserves our sympathy.

Plus, as mean and cruel as he was, he was clearly a kid with his own problems. He wasn't operating from a position of power, like the worst bullies in life do. If the kids had been older and had more insight they would have ignored George and just chalk his bullying to the fact that he was just as vulnerable/sad as them (due to his learning difficulties and his obesity and the fact that no one liked him).

Of course, as an adult it's easy to say 'ignore bullying' but in reality it's hard for kids to do so. But like I said, if the kids had the benefit of perspective, which often comes with age, they'd have ignored him.