Between the Lines

The whole purpose of this page is to look at what lies beneath the surface of the story line of a particular movie, at what hidden messages and sub-stories lie there, or what films were secretly based on real life characters. For instance there is a popular belief that L. Frank Baum's story The Wizard of Oz is a political and social satire of the time period it was set in. The character of Dororthy from the midwest is supposed to represent the middle class American who meets up with a brainless scarecrow said to represent farming , a tin man with no heart who represents industry, and a cowardly lion who represents politics, a flashy but ultimately powerless wizard who represents changing technology (he is also rumored to represent the American president), and the wicked witch of the east was said to represent communism . Although the munchkins keep telling Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road which represents the price of gold, in the end it's her silver (in the original story) slippers which represent the price of silver that help her get back to the good old days.

In the 1950's when censorship was at its worst, there were many things that could not be clearly stated on screen, one of these things was homosexuality. Many movies, such as Rebel Without a Cause, could only hint that one or more of the characters were gay. The films screenwriter Stewart Stern said that there was no intention to have a homosexual relationship between the James Dean character Jim Stark and the Sal Mineo character Plato in the story, but the script was designed in a way that would allow people to make their own interpretation of it. Plato however was definitely gay, this was hinted at through his infatuation with James Dean and his keeping a poster of Alan Ladd in his locker. Of course since homosexuality was such a taboo subject back in the fifties, Plato had to be killed of at the end.

Another hidden gay relationship existed in the 1959 movie Ben Hur between the Charlton Heston character Ben Hur and the Stephen Boyd character Messala. The screenwriter Gore Vidal and the director William Wyler made the characters hate each other during the movie because as young men they had been lovers, and once reunited Messala wanted to start the relationship up again. Ben Hur however rejects this as he has other plans, and his rejected affection is what leads Messala to want to kill him.

If you have seen both Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs and thought you saw some similarity between Norman Bates and Jame Gumb you would probably be right. Both of these characters were actually modelled from a real life serial killer of the 1940's and 50's called Ed Gein. Ed it seems liked to keep souvenirs of his victims in his house, and made ornaments with the parts, this is obviously where the idea of Jame Gumb's suits of skin came from as well as Norman Bates keeping his dead mother in the house. Another movie that is said to be have been modelled on this real life weirdo was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.


Between the Lines Page
Last Updated October 24, 1999
Web Page by John Princiotto Murdoch University
All clip-art provided by clipart.com Graphics courtesy of www.filmsite.org and debbytraywick@ussvoyager.com
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