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In Reply to: Re: Despicable? Daniels' character? I didn't find him so at all. Please posted by PdL on April 10, 2006 at 17:48:46:
He treats his opinions on art as though they are facts, not opinions. He is contemptuous of people who hold other opinions. He is pompous. He is sarcastic and basically mean. He is self-centered and ultimately completely selfish. There is nothing admirable about him, except that at some level, he loves his sons. But since his actions harm them, what good is his ineffectual feeling of love.
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Follow Ups:
..... although I do agree with most of what you wrote. If you take away his 2 sons and his (ex) wife, he's got nothing. Sure he's an arrogant, selfish prick but w/o those 3 people, all his saracasm and snobbery hurts no one but himself. Even though he fancies himself as an intellectual, he is unable to recognize that brain power is not all that important when it comes to connecting with people, and ultimately being happy. One thing I really liked about the film is that it doesn't make it clear that he does (or doesn't) come to grips with this fact by the film's end. I think the eldest son does, but Bernard? I don't know. Certainly Bernard is not an admirable man, and its very likely that he inflicted some psycholigical wounds on his sons, but I think that the kids' mother contributed a few as well.
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In fact, perhaps he deserves more sympathy as a flawed human being, still I felt his behavior made him a pretty corrupt and generally lousy person. Perhaps "despicable" is too strong; the word I used in my mini-review was "reprehensible."I would have to say however that he is hurting more than just himself. You can see in his older son that, by emulating his father's attitudes and behavior, he is quite possibly headed in a bad direction himself. In fact, this is part of the point of the movie, the reflection of the parents in the children.
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