I very much felt the same way after seeing Paris, Texas. [spoilers]The film is so empathetic towards Travis, and I felt very much on board with that until the final confrontation with Jane in which it's revealed that he was profoundly abusive to this teenage girl who had to flee him in the dead of night with their baby. After that, it was hard for me to see him as anything less than a monster, and it totally recontextualized his absence from Hunter's life and the way he treats his brother and Anne. I was so angry and disgusted that I no longer cared about his attempt at making things right or achieving some level of redemption.
I'm not one of those bring-back-the-Hayes-code lunatics that needs the narrative to punish bad people, and I have no qualms with movies that portray irredeemable characters. A lot of my favorite movies are about real pieces of shit! And like you said, I still found a lot to appreciate - the use of color, the cinematography, the nontraditional structure. But there was something that I found really unsettling about it in a way that I don't think the film necessarily intended.
This may be a reductive take, but I know many more men than women that are huge fans of Paris, Texas, and I've often wondered if it's because men watching it never shift to identifying with Jane in those scenes the way that (I would guess) many women do. I also think the depiction of Travis as having done what he did, but then having the capacity for remorse and restitution, is ultimately a male fantasy. The very psychological framework that enables men to treat women and children as their property in domestic violence situations makes that level of self-awareness inaccessible to them.
Wow, you really articulated exactly what I was thinking approximately 1000x better than I did, and then expounded on it, so thank you for that! Beautifully put. I talked about it with my husband afterward, and while he understood my criticisms, he definitely wasn't as critical of Travis as I was, and I think that kind of tracks with what you're saying.
Thank you! I'm always eager to talk with other smart film fans about this movie, because I feel so out of step with the consensus. My husband was also a lot warmer on it than I was.
I'm not one of those bring-back-the-Hayes-code lunatics that needs the narrative to punish bad people, and I have no qualms with movies that portray irredeemable characters. A lot of my favorite movies are about real pieces of shit! And like you said, I still found a lot to appreciate - the use of color, the cinematography, the nontraditional structure. But there was something that I found really unsettling about it in a way that I don't think the film necessarily intended.
This may be a reductive take, but I know many more men than women that are huge fans of Paris, Texas, and I've often wondered if it's because men watching it never shift to identifying with Jane in those scenes the way that (I would guess) many women do. I also think the depiction of Travis as having done what he did, but then having the capacity for remorse and restitution, is ultimately a male fantasy. The very psychological framework that enables men to treat women and children as their property in domestic violence situations makes that level of self-awareness inaccessible to them.
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