Comments by
Daniel Thaller
I like the trip because it makes the audience even more surprised to find out it was all a dream…who would ever dream of tripping over a rock while running to their wife after surviving a hanging??
The song in the background makes me laugh because it’s kind of silly, but besides that, I like how the director makes the audience as happy to see trees and leaves and bugs as Peyton is.
This scene makes me queasy because I put myself in the victim’s position right before he is hanged. How hopeless he must feel!
I like how this illusion of his wife makes the rest of the film so shocking, because we’ve already seen him “dream” up seeing her, so we’re even more surprised at the ending.
I like how the noose is a real noose (that’s definitely how you tie one) and how they actually put it around the actor’s neck. I would hate to be in his shoes at this time, even with whatever security measures they took. I also like the shot of the man’s feet above the water. That gives an eerie feel.
I found the shooting impressive, not only with the clarity of the shots, but with the way the director succeeded in expressing in film almost exactly what the author originally wanted his audience to see in their head.
He has indeed become the animal. Replace the word “man” in the first line with any sort of animal (fox, deer, etc.) and the meaning of the paragraph won’t change. That’s creepy.
No, these are without a doubt bullets. They flatten when they hit the water, because they were probably made out of lead which is a very malleable metal. Bullets would either “mushroom” or break up into fragments anyway when shot into water, regardless of the size or material of the bullet. Also, the metal was hot because it was just shot out of the barrel of a rifle. They aren’t spears.
This paragraph is my favorite because I think everyone today takes life for granted. It’s beautifully written and it really makes the reader stop for a second and relate this newfound thankfulness to their own life.
This is yet another example of reflexive action. Before, the author was describing tunnel vision. Now, he’s instinctively trying to free himself as opposed to doing it consciously.
Well put again, Jordan. We know he’s not dead yet, but he might (will) be soon. I also found it funny that he was complaining about being shot at. It seems silly.
Right when I read the part about the soldier going northward in the direction from which he had come, I knew the audience was supposed to figure out the truth about this soldier. It’s kind of chilling when things start clicking.
The driftwood would “burn like tinder,” which is little scraps of flammable substances, such as wood shavings, used to start a fire. Right when the soldiers says the wood would burn like tinder, the reader should know he’s going to burn the bridge. The first thing that popped into my head was Trogdor.
I like the “student of hanging” part because it’s a pretty good pun, but let’s hold on a second. . . why was Peyton the man being targeted for hanging in the first place? I wonder how the Union army decided on tricking him in particular and ending his life. How did that happen?
Well put, Jordan. How could we possibly think that Farquhar would catch on to the trap? Don’t we remember who he was? Why would he think it was a trap when all he sees is a thirsty Confederate soldier? I think the Trojan Horse works best when the enemy is a trusting guy like Peyton.
This entire paragraph deals with color: a rustic bench, gray-clad soldier, white hands. It may not be of as much importance as we would like to think, it certainly is descriptive.
Farquhar should not be judged by the fact that he was a slave owner. What we all must remember is that back then, that’s just how it was. While none of us would say the same about a present day slave owner, the times in which he lived called for a different approach to plantation work.
I agree that this paragraph does seem more “narrated” than the rest. I do, however, think that the first sentence is fairly superfluous; the audience should be able to tell that the thoughts didn’t come into his mind “in words” but rather as flashes of thought.
These are the last thoughts of a dying man. He is hoping (more like dreaming) irrationally about escape from an impossible situation. Wishful thinking at its best.
The author is describing a sort of tunnel vision experienced by the soon-to-be-dead, mainly by soldiers, in intense battle. The language the author uses is amazing, in that he never actually states that the man is experiencing this phenomenon but the audience has no doubt about it.
This paragraph is eerie in that it describes the act of murdering a man in such a nonchalant manner. It is described as more of a mechanical process than what it really is: a very inhuman and most unnatural event.
Wait, a planter? With a kindly expression? About to be hanged? Of course he wasn’t a “vulgar assassin,” this guy was nothing more than a farmer. It really puts a face to the several thousand people hanged in such a way over the course of the war.
And Graham, you’re probably pretty close with that 1863-1864 estimate.
Maybe it’s the Matrix that’s making me think of this, but when I read the word “sentinel” I thought of those soldiers being nothing more than machines of their government. They certainly don’t want to be the ones to execute this random guy, but they have no choice.
I thought the use of the quotations around the word “support” points out how those soldiers were there (again, in a very unnatural position for them as well) to “support” the executioners in the event that they failed in their seemingly simple task of dropping someone off a plank. This sets the stage for the events that happen later in the story in that, at first glance, the reader notices the term used to describe their positions and wonders why the executioners could possibly need support for such an easily executed task.