they always use first names

Everyone calls Matt Damon's character Steve, never Mr. Butler. In some parts of the movie I bet he gets called Steve more than 5 times per minute. And, all the other characters go by their first name most of the time. Sue, Frank, Jerry, Alice, even Justin. They call each other by first name so much, it's easy to forget any of the characters even have last names.

Does anyone think this was an important part of the movie? Maybe Gus van Sant was trying to make a comment on the informality of small town people? Or maybe it has something to do with trust? Somehow, if you use someone's first name, it's almost like letting your own guard down, and theirs too... Maybe it's about setting up the characters as equals??? They are so informal, they sound like equals... They all have something at stake in the wheeling and dealing, so they are equal in that way. Except Dustin... he was just a total con man who had no character arc at all. He never had any sort of epiphany, or grew in any way. But, most of the other characters had to let their guard down at one point or another, and therefore had to let the outside world in, in some way, and either be changed by the world or insist that the world change.

Also, I liked the way the people in the town seemed to expect a certain amount of BS from Global. They were cool with a reasonable amount of BS. But, they never expected the extent of the crap that Global was willing to dish out.

Interesting movie.

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