MovieChat Forums > Affliction (1999) Discussion > Have you CLEARLY understand it?

Have you CLEARLY understand it?


It was captivating but the ending is so confusing that I was furious to have watched it! I mean, what happens? And never mind the 'spoilers'... It won't spoil anything more... Has he or hasn't he killed Jack Hewitt? And what happens also to him? Was all this going in his own imagination? The acting is superb but... where does it leads us???? Anyway, waste of time... Good acting or not!
(I hated his daughter's attitude, for instance...) I thought the guy was so misunderstood all the time by everybody... Too bad...

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It was captivating but the ending is so confusing that I was furious to have watched it! I mean, what happens? And never mind the 'spoilers'... It won't spoil anything more... Has he or hasn't he killed Jack Hewitt?


Yes, he does kill his father and Hewitt. In the case of Hewitt, Wade was convinced that Hewitt got away with murder, even though all of the evidence suggested that the conspiracy theory about the union boss's death was all part of the Whitehouse brothers' imagination.

And what happens also to him?


He drives off to Canada in Jack's truck and is never seen or heard from again.

Was all this going in his own imagination?


No, otherwise why would his brother be narrating the story.

The acting is superb but... where does it leads us???? Anyway, waste of time... Good acting or not!
(I hated his daughter's attitude, for instance...) I thought the guy was so misunderstood all the time by everybody... Too bad...


That's the whole point. Wade Whitehouse was not a bad man by any means - just somebody who snapped after a long losing streak in life (abusive drunk for a father, b*tch ex-wife, obnoxious daughter, and a boss whose business associates walk all over him).

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they couldnt have wrapped it up any neater. go watch lord of the rings you idiot

This Bellini is starting to look like a real Kapuchnik.

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[deleted]

Ok, if it's so neat who killed Thwombley?

My issue with the movie is they suck you into this murder twist for most of the film, then just end it with a family moral lesson. Both are fine, but you can't say that the murder plot didn't steal the film in the beginning, only to fizzle out and get lost.

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Well, the problem is that the movie's not really about the whole Jack Hewitt thing. It's about alcoholism and families etc. That part of the movie is a classic Mcguffin.

(Mcguffin from wikipedia: The MacGuffin technique is common in films, especially thrillers. Usually the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act, and then declines in importance as the struggles and motivations of characters play out. It may come back into play at the climax of the story, but sometimes the MacGuffin is actually forgotten by the end of the story.)

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I thought that whole aspect was pretty weak. The events that lead to Nolte snapping are way too damn convenient for me.

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I don't think "convenient" entered into it at all.

For those of us who have had close relationships with "Wades" in our lives, we know that they believe themselves to be pursued by misfortune at every turn -- and in a sense they are. But more importantly, they feel powerless to change the course of their lives, and this leads them to behave in ways that have still more destructive consequences.

Then, on any given day, when one or two or three separate crises come to a boil, they blow up in a big way.

Another part that rang true for me was Wade's tendency to see phantom conspiracies operating against him. It inflates the sense he has of his own importance, like he has a cause or a crusade to fight for, and only he can do it -- because only he can see it, despite trying to convince those around him.

Also, because drinking.

I'm no member of the temperance union, but it was pretty clear that given Wade's volatile personality, in concert with the circumstances he was faced with, picking up that bottle towards the end was a sure recipe for disaster.

Personally, I think this is one of the truest, most devastating representations of a regular guy on the way down I've ever seen. It's all the more powerful because -- even though we're rooting for him -- his downfall feels like an inevitability (and I don't mean because the narrator tells us at the outset).

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