MovieChat Forums > The Stepford Wives (1975) Discussion > Am I the only one...

Am I the only one...

posted 9 years ago by gutrumblesblog
6 replies | jump to latest

who didn't take Carol's walking away from her husband in the beginning of the movie (after they unwittingly perform their "soft-core porn" in front of Joanna) as her refusing his advances?

I didn't see that as a refusal at all.

She accepts his kiss, as well as his opening the top of her shirt, then smiling, begins to remove the gardening gloves she's been wearing while pruning the trees and heads toward the house. To go have sex with him.

Were she refusing him, I'd think she'd go back to her gardening/tree pruning/own activity instead of dropping what she was doing so easily.
Plus, Joanna didn't tell it to Walter as if even she took it as it being a refusal.
Plus plus, the "cooks as good as she looks" (Walter seeing the end result and agreeing it's good and worth doing) happens before the "I don't think she was refusing him" scene.

What was Carol-bot supposed to do?
Bump uglies in the front yard in broad daylight?
In a neighborhood with neighbors within eyesight?

lol...

I know it was the 70's but, I b'lieve that "sex in broad daylight in front of God and everybody" stuff mostly happened at Dead concerts and such places.
Not on the front lawn in Suburbia.
And not by the Junior League-er types these women were supposed to be.
(Too many 'thank you' notes, maybe. Love you, Lewis Grizzard...)

Erma Bombeck would've definitely mentioned it had that been the norm.

As for Mr Van Sant looking sad after the "refusal"... He didn't look overtly upset, like a man who'd been refused, to me. If he looked a little sheepish, I vaguely took it to mean he realized how forward he had been and where exactly and he then fiddle-farts around with whatever he picks up off the lawn to "cover" his actions and/or give Carol time to prepare herself for sex.
(This assumes that what the men want are beautiful packages or presentations to partake of while all they (the men) need to do to "prepare" is get nekkid. This mindset seems to prevail on a lot of levels in Stepford...)

Okay... gotta go recover and rescue more of my dishes and towels from the 18 yr old (step)daughter's pig sty... oops, I mean bedroom. :)
(I watch The Stepford Wives for inspiration to not murderize people and for tips on how to behave in a lady-like manner. I often need all the help I can get! :) )

Peace

[–] kaskait 8 years ago

She refused him. Which shouldn't have happened. Not if she was a ROBOT designed to cater to his every whim.

Robot

1) Refuses advances of it's keeper. Why? That would be a huge waste of money for the husband. If she was a robot, she should taken his hand and pulled him into the house or made out with him on the spot. The man is king of the house in Stepford, the garden can wait and so can the housekeeping.

That leads to...

2) The Robot is malfunctioning. This doesn't make sense either. When tech malfunctions. It reallllllly malfunctions. Requiring a lot of repair and upkeep. But we don't see Carol disappear for any amount of time.

That leads me to see this film as something more sinister. The robots are just placeholders. We are seeing the real wives who have been brainwashed.

That leads to the scene becoming more complex. Carol is brainwashed into serving her husband's needs. But she seems to be fighting against it. BUT the husband does not protest nor does he run to the Men's Association. This is before we see Carol get into a car accident or get drunk. So how long has she been coming out of it? Why doesn't the husband seem to mind? Does he want his old wife back or does he want just enough of her old personality until he chickens and send her back for reconditioning?

Really, the women are better off dead than being tortured prisoners of war in a little CT town.

[–] juleereeves-891-550333 8 years ago

For me it seems clear the real wives are killed and replaced by robot wives. This is the way the story is told in the book and I don't believe they tried to deviate much. In the goofy 'Revenge of the Stepford Wives" we do see the wives taking pills and being controlled and they are the real women, not robots. But in this first brilliant movie, the wives are killed as shown in the end when robot Joanna calmly approaches real Joanna to strangle her as Dis looks on as he cuddles Fred the dog. After the little car fender bender in the grocery store parking lot, there did seem to be a malfunction of Carol robot. Repeating her words are the Garden Party. Bobbie malfunctions after Joanna sticks a knife in her. I don't think the robot wives can malfunction in an emotional way (refusing sex) because they don't have emotions. Thats why Dis uses them to kill the real wives.

[–] kaskait 8 years ago

The movie seems to imply that but watch how the wives act.

They eat and drink. I'm sorry, why would a robot be designed to eat or drink? Just the enormous cost factors for these acts alone would be beyond the wallets of all involved.

They do show emotion but just can't properly express it.

Proof - the consciousness raising session. A programmed robot would have no need to show empathy at all. They just should have been happy or blank. But Kit in this scene begins to complain about housework (in a round about way). But she has been so psychologically altered that it comes out as frustration with floor polish.

The wives looks.

Besides obvious boob jobs, nothing else has been changed about the wives. They still look the same. If all these men were really interested in Playboy Bunny types, they would have tried to make their wives look as young and slutty as possible. Even change their facial features. It's possible on robots.

But that doesn't happen. Instead, aside from the aforementioned breast enhancements, the wives remain the same even made to look a bit plainer. The film shows the women starting out as sexy free spirits then ending up as proto-victorian ladies.

But in this first brilliant movie, the wives are killed as shown in the end when robot Joanna calmly approaches real Joanna to strangle her as Dis looks on as he cuddles Fred the dog.

We don't see the robot kill Joanna. In military experiments on brainwashing (what was called MKUltra) a premium form psychological change was torture. Mainly strangulation than revival. Listen to Walter talk about women at the Men's Association. He states women would be let in after 6 months. The robot duplicate only takes 4 months to complete and put in place? So what happens in those missing 2 months? The real wives are made into the perfect wives.

After the little car fender bender in the grocery store parking lot, there did seem to be a malfunction of Carol robot. Repeating her words are the Garden Party.

Carol only hit her head. It could have knocked some sense into her. IF she was robot or brainwashed, she would have been taken to the Men's Association regardless, NEVER to a local hospital.

She got drunk at the garden party. Again, tell me the reasons why the men would need robots who can get drunk?

Bobbie malfunctions after Joanna sticks a knife in her.

Bobbie's placeholder robot got stabbed (something that never occurred in the book, the book never reveals if the robots actually existed). If Joanna tried that at the end of two months...she would have seen real blood.

Thats why Dis uses them to kill the real wives.

Contrary to popular belief, Dis no longer makes Robots (Disney or otherwise). Joanna's early joke about his company making sleeping pills was all too true, ironically enough. The film shows the company name..Coba Biochemical.

Nothing robotic about Biochemistry.

Think on that company name and why the last shot of Joanna focuses on her pain filled eyes.

[–] pamela22 8 years ago

I agree with you, I don't think she rejected him. I think she went into the house to have sex with him and he just took his good ol' time, because he could. His nonchalance is boredom-the boredom that comes from knowing you can have what you want whenever you want it.

I think this was one of the most interesting scenes because it shows that maybe everything isn't so wonderful for the men. Not that I feel sorry for them.

[–] sage2112 8 years ago

Who is thinking it was rejection - or why would anyone think that? The whole point is that it wouldn't be, and it wasn't.

[–] InherentlyYours 8 years ago

'I know it was the 70's but, I b'lieve that "sex in broad daylight in front of God and everybody" stuff mostly happened at Dead concerts and such places.'
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The "it was only the 70's" is, in itself, a dated-term., We lived, breathed, had sex like we do today. We did not have sex on front lawns then