Leaving Lloyd Dobler Because of Biko

[megapulse]

(warning: this is an essay not really a movie or music review)

Leaving Lloyd Dobler Because of Biko

Yesterday, I had my first date in a long time, I can't really remember how long because I just stopped caring about dates. I don't know how a person stops caring about dating, but I did. And after my first date in a long time I didn't figure out how I stopped caring about dates, but I did understand why.

My date was very nice, we had an in house day, meaning he rented some movies, bought me some beer, stayed all afternoon, and cooked me dinner. Most of it was nice, but really I think the thing that got me started thinking was the movie; he rented Must Love Dogs. He rented it for several nice reasons; nice reason number one, I do love dogs and nice reason number two, I did love Lloyd Dobler, I mean John Cusack.

But it was actually painful to watch. For one thing the female character was a divorced school teacher named Sarah. Every time she was in a terrible scene, saying terribly stupid things, and doing even dumber ones, I cringed. Really as my name is Sarah, I am a school teacher, and I was on my first date in a really long time, it made me uncomfortable.

For another, the acting and script was bad. With the exception of Stockard Channing, Dolly-Rizzo, who is always weird and funny, everyone else was boring and terrible. There was absolutely no reason to believe that Sarah, divorced whiney school teacher would be the constellation of normal women's quirk's that caught Lloyd Dobler's eye. I mean Lloyd Dobler had now found his vocation, it was not owning a record store, as I had once thought, it was now creating art, and apparently having some kind of anonymous patron as he never got paid. But anyway, it was a movie, and in Lloyd Dobler tradition, John Cusack stream of consciousnessed his thoughts as Sarah sat staring in confusion. Obviously she did not understand or even come close to appreciating the soul of Lloyd Dobler. Every scene they were in was one of confusion, not connection. And then at the end of the movie I sat staring in confusion when Lloyd Dobler's friend told this woman that she had broken Lloyd Dobbler's heart. Then I thought, Really? This is the best Lloyd Dobler can do? For all the profundity found in his mental ramblings on screen, Lloyd Dobler must be dumb or desperate, this is not Diane Court, this is Diane Lane as Sarah and she's not all that great.

At which point I began to re-think Lloyd Dobler.

Several years ago, a friend of mine and I sat discussing men, and we both came to the conclusion that she and I and many other like-minded women of a certain generation had been ruined on men because of Lloyd Dobler. We theorized that all of us had been waiting around for the sensitive, a bit confused, poetic soul who would come to our windows, Romeo style, and serenade us to “In Your Eyes“. It was sort of Lloyd Dobler, Lloyd Dobler where for art thou Lloyd Dobler life for us.

We were rather stupid, I think, as was Lloyd Dobler to be waiting around for this. Another friend of mine explained ten years ago after I'd told him what a great scene the serenade one is, that it was actually a very weird scene for him to watch because of who sang the song.

I thought he was trying to discredit Lloyd Dobler, but now ten years later, I think he was trying to explain something important to me that he couldn't quite articulate. For him it was a weird scene. As he explained, the song “In Your Eyesâ€￾ in his mind had always been about Stephen Biko, a man who did something to change the world for the better. In his ears, it was not a sappy love song about a teenage boy who's just had sex and lust for the first time. It was a song about a deep appreciation for a person who has sacrificed for a greater thing.

And now I think, I understand what he meant, and I don't really care if Lloyd Dobler gets his heart broken. There are greater things to work on.

[marky]

That was a great assessment, Sarah.

Of course it reminds me of Peter Gabriel.

[mccutcheon]

Must Love Dogs is the worst film of 2005. It is a barking piece of shit.

[megapulse]

thanks. i thought you'd like it.

yes, it howled! barffffk