MovieChat Forums > Låt den rätte komma in (2008) Discussion > The crotch shot was necessary *spoilers*

The crotch shot was necessary spoilers

posted 11 years ago by jacksakes
27 replies | jump to latest

This just hit me. And I know the book goes into much more, but I just want to focus on the movie. I remember when it first came out, the IMDB board was rife with controversy showing Eli's emasculation. Many posters said it was unnecessary and just put in there for shock value.

But, NO. That scene had to be in there. Because that's one of the aspects the entire story revolves about. Let me prove it to you.

This story is so beautiful because it is about two lovers who are right for each other no matter who or what they are. Hence the double entendre of Let the Right One In. Let Me In was adapted for American audiences and I think while still a good movie, lost some of its meaning by putting the vampire plot more in the forefront. Even by shortening the title.

But the vampire stuff is kind of background to what is between these two lovers. It is still highly necessary because it is saying no matter what these two are, creature or human, boy or girl, they belong together.

I hope that someday our society will evolve enough to recognize love in it's purest state. I consider myself quite evolved because I opened the spiritual door 15 years ago and it has made me ahead of my time, for better or worse. But even I live by my identity as a hetero male. Maybe my soul mate out there is female and that's why, but what if--I will dare ask--what if I fall in love with another guy because we're perfect for each other? I already am a person androgynous in nature, being the sensitive caregiver guy and I'm into women like Caity Lotz (google her) who has an urban street vibe, knows martial arts, does Parkour, and talks a little bit like a dude. Yet she's still feminine enough to dress up and be sexy beautiful. I love dynamics in people so I get bored when I date just a girly-girl who is locked in that role.

So there you have it. The reasoning behind the crotch shot.

[–] jidici 11 years ago

Oh I agree. Our genders are here for reasons of reproduction, something that true love may have no use for, if only because our true spiritual selves may not be gender based at all. And though I myself see LTROI in a more old fashioned way, one reason being because I didnt know there was any other way to see it at the time, but also because Im more comfortable thinking of gender in the more conventional way, I appreciate you stating your case in such a thought provoking, and positive manner.

[–] jacksakes 11 years ago

because our true spiritual selves may not be gender based at all

Totally agree. We are either not gender-based or both genders in spirit. And that's the theory I have on transgenders and homosexuals. That we experience past lives in order to explore everything we can. Some of us might be a man in this life, but a woman in the next. And therefore it is up to us to decide our identities, not some book or someone else.

And yes, I saw LTROI the same way at first. It just clicked when I watched it again recently what that title truly means (to me). There's definite layers to this story. Such an organic vampire tale that all the fantasy parts become so intertwined and believable. It's the closest story that makes me think if vampires were real and around us, they could be just like this.

And there's nothing wrong with you thinking of gender in a more conventional way :D.

[–] liketearsintherain 11 years ago

Never saw it that way.

[–] dongregg-953-168798 11 years ago

As I asked on another forum, “How do two people who don't seem to be made for anyone bond so quickly and completely?" By "don't seem to be made for anyone" I mean that Oskar has so few social skills that he not only hasn't got a "girlfriend," he hasn't got any friends at all. And Eli...well, she's an almost feral predator--dirty, poorly dressed, and just about always relating to people as her next meal.

It's clear to me that the story is about unaccountable and unconditional love. That said, I can see the gender element as just adding one more thing that Oskar has to accept unconditionally about his beloved. Otherwise, the gender element is just an artifact from the novel, one that is merely puzzling. If I see the gender element in the light of how love triumphs over seemingly insurmountable conditions, it fits. It adds significantly to what unconditional love means.

[–] AfroGeek 10 years ago

Wow, I don't see how anyone calls this a love story. The main is a weird kid who got his first taste of companionship. He basically covered for murders for a creature from hell. Eli traded in her old, incompetent familiar (killing out in the open for example) for a younger, impressionable model who was equally infatuated with her.

How anyone thinks that an old cursed soul taking a 12 year old boy from his family is The Notebook is beyond me.

---
Call them ISIL. Isis is an overloaded term that has many other legitimate uses.

[–] Jameron 10 years ago

"How anyone thinks that an old cursed soul taking a 12 year old boy from his family is The Notebook is beyond me." - AfroGeek

Nobody has ever said that.

You'll have to try harder if you want an angry reaction, sorry.

4/10.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e3tGxnFKfE

http://tinyurl.com/LTROI-story

[–] AfroGeek 10 years ago

Read this board more. Lots of posters think this is a love story...between 2 boys. Even the OP says:

But the vampire stuff is kind of background to what is between these two lovers. It is still highly necessary because it is saying no matter what these two are, creature or human, boy or girl, they belong together.

The age of the lead should be the strongest clue that's not right.

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<i>Call them ISIL. Isis is an overloaded term that has many other legitimate uses.</I>

[–] Jameron 10 years ago

"Read this board more. Lots of posters think this is a love story...between 2 boys." - AfroGeek

It is a love story that features two boys, although their gender is irrelevant. That is not the same as "an old cursed soul taking a 12 year old boy from his family", neither is it "The Notebook".

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- - - - - - - - - - -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e3tGxnFKfE

http://tinyurl.com/LTROI-story

[–] AfroGeek 10 years ago

I love story between a 12 year old and a vampire? No, it's the story of an old soul who exploits a vulnerable kid when his/her familiar becomes too incompetent to keep her fed.

You might want it to be an androgenous love story, but the movie at least isn't. I haven't read the book.

---
Call them ISIL. Isis is an overloaded term that has many other legitimate uses.

[–] Jameron 10 years ago

" No, it's the story of an old soul who exploits a vulnerable kid when his/her familiar becomes too incompetent to keep her fed." - AfroGeek

Cite what led you to believe this.

The logic involved in your claim is broken, you're implying that Oskar could be used to kill people and drain their blood ready for Eli's next feed, this is patently absurd.

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- - - - - - - - - - -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e3tGxnFKfE

http://tinyurl.com/LTROI-story

[–] AfroGeek 10 years ago

He's not going to get sent out to start whacking people immediately of course. But, he sealed his fate when he warned her and allowed her to kill the man who'd entered her apartment.

---
Call them ISIL. Isis is an overloaded term that has many other legitimate uses.

[–] Jameron 10 years ago

"He's not going to get sent out to start whacking people immediately of course. But, he sealed his fate when he warned her and allowed her to kill the man who'd entered her apartment." - AfroGeek

That is a huge assumption which is not supported by anything in the film, merely your own imagination.

Distracting someone that is about to kill the person you love is not the same thing as killing them. It also does not automatically lead to you committing murder for the person you love, later down the line.

If that is your reading of the film, great. But don't claim that it is the objective truth as intended by the creators of the film, and supported by the film. It is not. However, if you watch Let Me In you will find that Reeves has made a film that deliberately caters for those that, incorrectly, see this possibility within the story.

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- - - - - - - - - - -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e3tGxnFKfE

http://tinyurl.com/LTROI-story

[–] treejam555 10 years ago

Read this board more. Lots of posters think this is a love story...between 2 boys. Even the OP says:

But the vampire stuff is kind of background to what is between these two lovers. It is still highly necessary because it is saying no matter what these two are, creature or human, boy or girl, they belong together.

The age of the lead should be the strongest clue that's not right.

Of course this is a love story, not about lovers, but about first love. Plenty of coming of age stories have 12 year old leads, so I don't know why the age of the lead would be a clue that's not right.

People who get the evil manipulating vampire angle takes it from Let Me In, where the vampire is actually what you say: a cursed soul taking a boy away from his family. But the remake has two cruical differences from the original: in the remake, the photo strip shows that her previous caretaker was with her since he was a boy and in the remake, Abby does not cry over killing the jogger.

With these two differences, we know that Abby doesn't care about killing and doesn't really care about Owen. In Let the Right One In, Eli cries over killing Jocke, which is a really important moment, because during that time, Eli is alone, he has no reason to act or lie or manipulate. The only people that sees the killing is the audience (and Gosta, but Eli doesn't know that). So Eli only cries because he is really sad, and that shows a capacity for sympathy and with a capacity for sympathy comes a capacity for love. Which brings us to the next difference, there is nothing in Let the Right One In to show that Hakan was with Eli when he was a boy. Therefore, if we take Eli's actions at face value (and there's no reason why we shouldn't) it means that Oskar is special to Eli.

The implication of your view is that vampires are evil no matter what they do. Show me one scene in the movie where it shows ELi scheming or being "a cursed soul." I don't think there is one. So either Eli is so good at manipulation that he keeps up the act flawlessly, even while alone, or Eli is really a lonely 12 year old who found a friend for the first time in a long time.

The whole story is about finding the right one and looking past appearances, it is Oskar learning to trust a vampire and Eli learning to trust a human. There will always be people claiming that Eli is evil just because of what he is. But Oskar sees who Eli really is.

Now if you're talking about the remake, I agree with you 100% that Abby is an evil, manipulating bitch that needs to die for the good of everyone, but that's just the remake.

[–] przgzr 9 years ago

it is Oskar learning to trust a vampire and Eli learning to trust a human

It is easier to believe that Oskar will trust (and love) a vampire after his experiences with humans, than that Eli would manage to trust a human after 200 years of experiences with them. In fact, Eli doesn't seem to have good experiences with vampires either, so she has no reason to love neither them nor humans...

For Oskar it is chosing anybody who doesn't belong to his species, while Eli has a more difficult task to chose someone who doesn't fit into any of both species. Maybe if the story included aliens Oskar would have no chance...

[–] treejam555 9 years ago

that's what's so great about Eli though, even after all that's she's gone through, she's not cynical and she doesn't hate humanity. She identifies as human and still retains enough humanity to love Oskar.

[–] gargarie 10 years ago

You got it.

[–] Marionj3 10 years ago

Yes, love is love. But I haven't seen anyone here suggest the simplest concept - that Oskar, young as he is, actually is gay, and that Eli recognizes that.

Also, Eli, who has been an unwilling predator all her/his life, has found somebody who needs protecting - that's worth a lot.

[–] lazarillo 10 years ago

I think it can be a LOVE story without being a sex story. Sex implies a stirring in someone's genitalia, but Oskar is probably prepubescent and Ellie is prepubescenr AND a castrated male (made more clear in the book) AND a vampire. I don't know if you can say Oskar is "gay" or not since he is drawn to Ellie when he thinks he/she is a girl, but also not repulsed when he finds out otherwise. Hakan in the book is clearly an adult pedophile who wants to have anal sex with Ellie, but it's obvious in both the book and the movie that Oskar and Ellie's relationship is a lot more PURE than this previous one.

AS for the "crotch shot", it seems like that was only "controversial" with one guy here who didn't know what was going on. It's not only thematically important but also simply necessary to the plot like a similar shot in "The Crying Game". It's also not really a "crotch shot" since it's not the REAL crotch of the actress (she's about 20 now and a Swedish actress, so there may have been some verification on this in the years since?).

[–] dongregg-953-168798 10 years ago

I think it can be a LOVE story without being a sex story. Sex implies a stirring in someone's genitalia, but Oskar is probably prepubescent and Ellie is prepubescenr AND a castrated male (made more clear in the book) AND a vampire. I don't know if you can say Oskar is "gay" or not since he is drawn to Ellie when he thinks he/she is a girl, but also not repulsed when he finds out otherwise. Hakan in the book is clearly an adult pedophile who wants to have anal sex with Ellie, but it's obvious in both the book and the movie that Oskar and Ellie's relationship is a lot more PURE than this previous one.

AS for the "crotch shot", it seems like that was only "controversial" with one guy here who didn't know what was going on. It's not only thematically important but also simply necessary to the plot like a similar shot in "The Crying Game". It's also not really a "crotch shot" since it's not the REAL crotch of the actress (she's about 20 now and a Swedish actress, so there may have been some verification on this in the years since?).

Your post, along with Jacksakes original post, really zero in on what the film is about. I would add that it's about two isolated kids who are not likely to ever connect with anyone but who nevertheless bond fiercely and go off to have a life together, in spite of formidable obstacles that both of them have to overcome.

BTW, the crotch shot was of a mannequin.

Oh, also BTW, that is not the only peak at nude Eli that Oskar takes. When she disrobes in his bedroom and tells him to look the other way, he takes a quick look anyway and then quickly acts as though he hadn't. 

[–] packro 9 years ago

So, you read the book. Can you tell us "why" Eli got chopped off? And maybe how he turned into a vampire? The movie makes is damn confusing.

[–] dongregg-953-168798 9 years ago

I adore this film and give it a 10, but I have questions about how the backstory was handled. I mean, Eli is so obviously a girl (Lina) in the film, why bring in the emasculation at all unless giving it more detail? Of course, Tomas Alfredson may have shot more scenes than we see, and JAL's script was three times longer than what got filmed.

Still...

[–] awsmith 9 years ago

It's probably one of the weaker aspects of the film. A lot of people apparently did not understand what they were seeing or why it was included. I guess TA did not want to weigh the film down with a lot of explanatory backstory.

Death tugs at my ear & says: Live; I am coming.

[–] drakkar 9 years ago

Yes, it was sort of unfinished, and Alfredson explains why in the dvd comments. He backed out when he realised the close-up castration shots would involve cutting the skin of a living, sedated pig.
Personally I cannot see why would need a real living pig, but I believe him when he says it.

For the heart life is simple. It beats as long as it can.

[–] dongregg-953-168798 9 years ago

Well, whodat, you have piled on a lot of stuff that just isn't there. If it's not in the film, then I can see where people would assume it's in your head.

Or are you just joking about it to get a response? I think some posters do that.

[–] 9 years ago

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