Just saw this on the TMC and must say it was great. It did a nice job of exploring human psychology. The two thugs each served to lay bare the insecurities of each one of the passengers. The two dynamic and wild young men came to disrupt their static lives, the result of pathologies and obsessions that slowly congealed into a state of permanent neurosis. The black guys hate of whites, the one wife's ambitions for her husband, the homosexuals self-hate, the old folks hanging on to passing tradition etc. It made sense that Beau's character stood up because he was unanchored like the two thugs. Fresh out the army with not much direction he didn't have much to lose(his friend had dreams of being a lawyer and all, so he thought twice about causing trouble.)This is also why he may have excused their harassment in the beginning and even looked like he wanted to join in. Many people are saying that this movie is unrealistic because no one stood up to them. Well sorry, but thats human nature. First of all, the men who were with their women were in a delicate situation because to stand up to their harassment would be putting them in danger as well. We see this when Brock Peters character(the black guy with the righteous anger) did confront Joe he backed down when the little guy(Artie-Martin Sheen) gets his hands on his wife. He rethinks his position because he does not want to see her get hurt. You see, what each person feared was embarrassment not actually physical damage because these guys weren't going around beating people up. The thugs were pointing out each characteristic that distinguished one person from the other and highlighting it for all to see. This kind of treatment makes people feel very vulnerable and insecure, thus the retreat in their own corners hoping their stop would come soon. These differences also prevented them from joining up to throw the punks off because your not sure if the other folks will really have your back. I reserve most of my disgust for the other army boy who failed to have his fellow service mens back when things finally went down. He was actually in the best position to something. THe gay guy was to far gone into bitchood. The other single guy was middle aged and probably couldn't have handled them and as I pointed out, the men with the women were in awkward positions. And even once his one-armed buddy stood up to fight, he still did nothing. I understand Beau's disgust at the end.
I also predicted that once Joe started messing with the child that is when someone would decide to do something about him. Seeing children in danger tend to trigger unexpected feelings in people, feelings they may not have known they had. The only other person free from hangups and shame was the bum. I like how the director highlighted this at the end by showing that even after all that has transpired he still hasn't woken up, almost like he ignored the whole affair because it had nothing to do with him. And of course at the end everyone walks off without a word because their all ashamed. When you have been exposed bare like that you go run and hide not stand up and make friends with folks. I really didn't get the sense that the director wanted to me think a certain way after seeing the movie. He was simply pointing out some disturbing aspects of human psychology. There really was no "moral to the story". At least not an obvious one. Even Felix, the "hero" pays a price for his actions. If this was a morality tale, I think the director would have tried to make it seem that a particular action would have been the best action to take. I didn't see that.
I also predicted that once Joe started messing with the child that is when someone would decide to do something about him. Seeing children in danger tend to trigger unexpected feelings in people, feelings they may not have known they had. The only other person free from hangups and shame was the bum. I like how the director highlighted this at the end by showing that even after all that has transpired he still hasn't woken up, almost like he ignored the whole affair because it had nothing to do with him. And of course at the end everyone walks off without a word because their all ashamed. When you have been exposed bare like that you go run and hide not stand up and make friends with folks. I really didn't get the sense that the director wanted to me think a certain way after seeing the movie. He was simply pointing out some disturbing aspects of human psychology. There really was no "moral to the story". At least not an obvious one. Even Felix, the "hero" pays a price for his actions. If this was a morality tale, I think the director would have tried to make it seem that a particular action would have been the best action to take. I didn't see that.