Would Hakan's pedophila hinder the film?

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ltroifanatic
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Re: Would Hakan's pedophila hinder the film?

Post by ltroifanatic » Sat Apr 01, 2017 2:18 am

Even Lina in a recently posted interview when asked what sort of character Eli was said "she's kind and I'd like to have a friend like that"or something to that effect.Eli is certainly withdrawn but only because she/he is basically a good and kind child trapped in a nightmare and not psychosis.A sublime tragedy for everyone involved.That's the way I like to see it anyway.
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Re: Would Hakan's pedophila hinder the film?

Post by gkmoberg1 » Sat Apr 01, 2017 2:50 am

Håkan's general clumsiness in both murder scenarios shows off that he's young at the task. That as well as the worried förlåt! he gives her when he returns empty handed (didn't even bring the dog!) backs this up - as Jameron pointed out.

I'm glad the movie sheds to little light on their relationship and its history. Revealing more only leads to more questions. The result is a distraction from the core messages of the movie.

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Re: Would Hakan's pedophila hinder the film?

Post by dongregg » Sat Apr 01, 2017 4:23 am

gkmoberg1 wrote:Håkan's general clumsiness in both murder scenarios shows off that he's young at the task. That as well as the worried förlåt! he gives her when he returns empty handed (didn't even bring the dog!) backs this up - as Jameron pointed out.

I'm glad the movie sheds to little light on their relationship and its history. Revealing more only leads to more questions. The result is a distraction from the core messages of the movie.
It's why I wrote When I Am with You. The movie came to me as a seamless whole. Trying to explain the movie in terms of the book just muddled everything.

I don't need to know more than TA shows us in order to get the core message.
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Drakeule
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Re: Would Hakan's pedophila hinder the film?

Post by Drakeule » Sat Apr 01, 2017 9:17 pm

I'm pretty sure everyone noticed that TA had Håkan fail in the movie rather than succeed in the book just to avoid the whole pedophile scenario.

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Re: Would Hakan's pedophila hinder the film?

Post by a_contemplative_life » Sun Apr 02, 2017 11:13 pm

gkmoberg1 wrote:Håkan's general clumsiness in both murder scenarios shows off that he's young at the task. That as well as the worried förlåt! he gives her when he returns empty handed (didn't even bring the dog!) backs this up - as Jameron pointed out.
To play devil's advocate, though, Richard Jenkins' character in Let Me In fumbles, too, because he's been with Abby so long and has burnt out. So I'm not sure incompetence is a sure sign of recency.
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Re: Would Hakan's pedophila hinder the film?

Post by dongregg » Mon Apr 03, 2017 12:02 am

Making Håkan's pedophilia explicit might have attracted the pedophiles to the film.

But what would it have done to our lovely forum? :think:
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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Re: Would Hakan's pedophila hinder the film?

Post by sauvin » Mon Apr 03, 2017 12:57 am

dongregg wrote:Making Håkan's pedophilia explicit might have attracted the pedophiles to the film.

But what would it have done to our lovely forum? :think:
Nothing permanent. :twisted:
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Re: Would Hakan's pedophila hinder the film?

Post by JToede » Mon Apr 03, 2017 2:14 am

a_contemplative_life wrote:
gkmoberg1 wrote:Håkan's general clumsiness in both murder scenarios shows off that he's young at the task. That as well as the worried förlåt! he gives her when he returns empty handed (didn't even bring the dog!) backs this up - as Jameron pointed out.
To play devil's advocate, though, Richard Jenkins' character in Let Me In fumbles, too, because he's been with Abby so long and has burnt out. So I'm not sure incompetence is a sure sign of recency.
His character seem to be tired living his life, burnt out was a good way to put it. 35-40+ years being a caretaker, having a secret he can't share, living secluded, lonely harsh life. I think he is almost ready to leave. It seems he is living in conflict between his obsession with Abby and a more "normal" life.
In the book, Håkan had his conflict between a life with and a life without Eli. I didn't get this vibe as much from the movie, but I could be due to a loss in translation.
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Re: Would Hakan's pedophila hinder the film?

Post by cmfireflies » Wed Apr 05, 2017 6:05 am

I understand the choice to skip over Hakan's backstory for the film. Because you can't just show Hakan's pedophila in a vaccum, you have to show Hakan's "recruitment." If you don't a portion of the viewers would blame Eli, thinking that Hakan's been with Eli since he was a kid and THAT was why he's attracted to her. But Hakan's recruitment is tricky-and kind of glossed over in the book-because it was an act of manipulation on Eli's part and arguably, a pretty terrible thing to do to take a broken man who's drinking himself to death and turn him into a killer. To balance that out, you'd have to show that Hakan was just as manipulative as Eli in their relationship, literally starving her in exchange for some sort of contact. That would open up a whole other can of worms and definitely would detract from Eli and Oskar's relationship. It worked for the book because there was beautiful passages depicting the inner thoughts of the characters, but imagine the bedroom scene in the context of Eli rebuffing Hakan's offer.

Reading about LtROI online outside this forum, it appears that a significant portion, if not a majority, of people believe that Eli to have ulterior motives in pursuing a relationship with Oskar. Adding in Hakan's backstory in the film would really take that interpretation in distasteful directions. Hell, I read one person who claimed that Eli's true gender made the story about a male sexual predator grooming a victim (but it's somehow OK if Eli had been female, ugh.)

I think the book really took pains to kind of paint Eli and Oskar as presexual-going so far as to have zombie Hakan attack Eli and Eli thinking that it was *funny* that Hakan's motive was that he was horny. I don't see how a film can convey that kind of non-interest in sex (on Eli's part) while depicting Eli's relationship with a pedophile.
"When is a monster not a monster? Oh, when you love it."

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Re: Would Hakan's pedophila hinder the film?

Post by a_contemplative_life » Wed Apr 05, 2017 8:51 am

cmfireflies wrote:I understand the choice to skip over Hakan's backstory for the film. Because you can't just show Hakan's pedophila in a vaccum, you have to show Hakan's "recruitment." If you don't a portion of the viewers would blame Eli, thinking that Hakan's been with Eli since he was a kid and THAT was why he's attracted to her. But Hakan's recruitment is tricky-and kind of glossed over in the book-because it was an act of manipulation on Eli's part and arguably, a pretty terrible thing to do to take a broken man who's drinking himself to death and turn him into a killer. To balance that out, you'd have to show that Hakan was just as manipulative as Eli in their relationship, literally starving her in exchange for some sort of contact. That would open up a whole other can of worms and definitely would detract from Eli and Oskar's relationship. It worked for the book because there was beautiful passages depicting the inner thoughts of the characters, but imagine the bedroom scene in the context of Eli rebuffing Hakan's offer.
Or the scene when Eli comes out of the shower, does a spin for Hakan, and concedes to his demands in exchange for him going hunting. Audiences would have been appalled.
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