So many unanswered questions.....

This is one of those movies that never "spelled anything out". Much like Brokeback Mountain (which I liked and which came out the same year as this) there were numerous things happening that I didn't get and was confused about. When I don't understand what is happening in a movie, I'm not afraid to admit it. And the film's Wikipedia article is usually enough to satisfy my inquiries.

I have never had anything against films like these. I am one of those film buffs that are totally OK with movies that have a so-called "feminist agenda", because I at least vaguely understand that women throughout history have had it pretty bad at times. Especially in the context of a factory, mill, or mine job where it is predominately men who are working there. When I first saw it years ago I was appalled that things like this were happening or had happened to these women, it was just a totally alien concept to me that people could treat each other this way on the job. As it said at the beginning, the film was "inspired by, but not "based on" a true story, and I wondered what the difference between the two were. In any case, I wondered what had really happened and what was just Hollywood-style made-up over-the-top melodrama.

Anyway, the rather abrupt and disappointing ending made me wonder several things:

Would Karen's father be allowed to see her any more? Just because he and Josey didn't get along (he did beat her up) would that mean he didn't at least have partial custody of his daughter? Men do have rights as a parent, and the film never explains that whole situation. He just leaves after she yells at him to go away and we never see him again.

Would the now-revealed rapist teacher be brought up on any charges, or would he just live in fear knowing that people knew what kind of man he was? I wonder what the law would be regarding that situation.

What happened to Bobby? Would he still work at the mine or would he be shunned and ostracised by his co-workers now that they know he knew about the rape? Would his wife stay with him after all that?

After Glory dies, what would Kyle do without her? Would he stay or move away?

What about the other female miners? I always thought that none of them were well-written characters, especially Sherry. And the fact that they only stood up for and supported Josey AFTER it was revealed that her teacher raped her and that Bobby knew about it but did nothing, well, that made me not like them very much. You know what I mean?

And lastly, how about Josey's parents? Would their relationship improve or stay the same? Now that her father seemed to actually support her for a change, I wondered how that would affect his marriage. Her mother finally grew a backbone at one point, that was nice to see.

I once worked in a plant where I assembled the inserts for the local weekend newspaper. And in my experience, the men and the women worked just fine together with none of the problems that were showcased in this film. But that was in 2001, and NC took place in 1988. That might explain it. Also, the employees at my job were all decent, civilized, and intelligent. That was another thing.

I guess the message that we were all supposed to be getting from this was "sexual harassment isn't cool, so don't do it." That's just fine by me!