I grew up in a dysfunctional family myself. Nothing like this though. This one is more fucked up than the folks in Fish Tank. And it’s not even from England. But what’s England got on working class families from the deep South?
Here of course the rich are even more fucked up than the lower middle class. And it takes an unemployed football coach from South Carolina [who, if nothing else, is colorful] to nudge them in a more satisfying direction.
And then there is The Incident. Some families have one and some don’t. Or some have a series of less traumatic events. One of this magnitude though can put whole future in the crosshairs. There is before and there is after. Period. End of story. And nothing is ever quite the same. But the movie unfortunately barely scratches the surface here.
To wit: The movie vs. the book:
[b]wiki
While the film was a box office hit and raised Streisand’s reputation as a director, its numerous changes from the original novel upset some Conroy purists. Conroy and Johnston eliminated most of the novel’s flashback scenes. They describe Tom Wingo’s relationship with his siblings in great detail. In the novel, these flashbacks form the main plot and take up more of the novel than the romance between Streisand’s character, Dr. Lowenstein, and Tom Wingo. The removal of the flashbacks makes the relationship between Wingo and Lowenstein the central story in the film, whereas in the novel, it is not. Another character in the novel - the second Wingo brother, Luke, who appears only in flashbacks onscreen - is vitally important to the novel, and his death is a major plot point. In fact, the title of the book derives from a poem written by Savannah about Luke and his struggle against the government after the seizure of Colleton. In the film, “The Prince of Tides” is the title of a book of poetry written by Savannah and dedicated to Tom. Luke only appears intermittently, and only as a child, and his death is only vaguely described.
IMDb
Those who have both seen the movie and read the book say that the novel is much richer in detail, as well as more disturbing, than in the movie. Savannah’s story, as well as the tiger’s role, were larger in the novel. Luke, who is the real ‘Prince of Tides’ in the book, was almost entirely left out of the movie and the bonds between the three children were played down, while Tom’s love affair with Susan was made the central theme. The killing of the three escaped prisoners also was handled differently in the book, such that Tom killed one and the tiger killed the other two. Several viewers have commented that there were so many stories in the 600-page book that at least 4-6 different films could be shot and never repeat the same information.[/b]
This is very, very true. While I liked the movie [and Conroy helped to write the screenplay] the novel is much, much better. This has Hollywood written all over it. But watch the film and then read the novel. The novel becomes all that much more satisfying.
Look for George Carlin.
THE PRINCE OF TIDES
Directed by Barbara Streisand
[b]Tom [narrating]: There are families who live out their entire lives without a single thing of interest happening to them. I’ve always envied those families.
…
Tom [narrating]: I suppose Henry Wingo would have been a pretty good father - if he hadn’t been such a violent man.
…
Tom [narrating]: From my mother I inherited a love of language and an appreciation of nature. She could turn a walk around the island into a voyage of purest discovery. As a child, I thought she was the most extraordinary woman on earth. I wasn’t the first son to be wrong about his mother.
…
Tom [narrating]: I don’t know when my parents began their war against each other - but I do know the only prisoners they took were their children.
…
Tom: Now girls, have I ever told you the facts of life?
Jennifer: Oh, not this again.
Tom: Stay away from boys 'cause they are all disgusting, self-indulgent beasts that pee on bushes and pick their noses.
…
Sally: I just don’t know how you feel about me anymore.
Tom: Don’t take it personally. I don’t know how I feel about anything anymore.
Sally: God, you’re pathetic.
…
Tom [narrating]: It was only my sister who could force me to come to this God-awful city. This city that roars down on you. She loved it all. The muggers, the winos…the bag ladies, the wall-to-wall noise. She loved it because it had nothing to do with our childhood. Luke and I hated it for exactly the same reason.
…
Tom: I’m sick of my sister’s attraction to razor blades - and I’m sick of shrinks who can’t do a fucking thing to help her!
…
Tom: What the hell is going on here? Why is she strapped down?
Susan: Her team felt she had to be restrained…
Tom: Why? She has enough drugs to anesthetize a whale!
Susan: Her team decides…
Tom: Quit calling them her team! Sounds like she’s trying out for the Giants.
Susan: What should I call them?
Tom: Let’s be creative. Let’s call them assholes.
Susan: Let me tell you something about those assholes. I’m grateful because they saved your sister’s life.
Tom: Well, I don’t like to see her strapped down!
Susan: I don’t care what you like. She’s still a threat to herself. There’s no point to this unless we keep Savannah alive. And I don’t care if it takes drugs or voodoo or reading tarot cards…I want her alive.
…
Tom: It’s the Southern Way; when things get too painful, we either avoid them or we laugh.
Susan: When do you cry the Southern Way?
Tom: [laughing] We don’t.
…
Tom: My mother should have raised cobras, not children!
…
Tom [narrating]: By the second week, I’d developed the New York willies. The guilt that every out-of-towner feels if he’s not improving his mind every goddamn second. I made a list of things I should do. Museums, plays. See three foreign films all at the same time.
…
Susan: So you feel your mother betrayed you?
Tom: I was talking about my wife!
Susan: Oh…
…
Eddie: How’s Savannah? When can I see her?
Tom: I don’t know, Eddie. It’s like talking to a fern.
Eddie: Well, I’m glad she’s improving.
…
Tom: You know, it’s an art form to hate New York properly.
Bernard: No, it’s not. It’s a cliché.
…
Tom: What if I’d done the same to your son?
Susan: It’s not the same thing!
Tom: I’ll make him a Presbyterian quarterback!
Susan: It’s quite different. My son didn’t try to kill himself.
Tom: Give him time, Lowenstein. Give him time!
…
Tom [to Susan]: Mother got the island in the divorce settlement. She immediately sold it to the government for a lot of money. They wanted to put up a power plant. Luke went crazy. He made some threats. The government laughed. He blew up a construction site. They quit laughing. He went on waging his own private war. Hurt some people. Savannah and I tried to stop him, but the government stopped him first. Shot him in the head.
…
Susan: How did you deal with his death?
Tom: I shut down like a broken motor.
Susan: And according to the Southern way, still no tears.
Tom [laughing]: Oh, I cry sometimes, Lowenstein. I cry at weddings, at the Olympics. I’m real big at the national anthem.
Susan: But not over Luke?
Tom: What the hell for? It wouldn’t bring him back.
Susan: No. But it might bring you back.
…
[Luke blows the TV to hell with shotgun]
Luke [to Henry]: TV’s broken you son of a bitch. Now you can watch your kids blow out their candles.
…
Tom: How about Luke? Do you ever think about Luke? Does he ever cross your mind?
Lila: Who taught you to be so cruel?
Tom: You did, Mama, you did.
…
Susan: How old was Savannah when this happened?
Tom: Thirteen.
Susan: What were you doing while this was going on?
Tom: I don’t know.
Susan: You don’t know? Maybe you ran for help?
Tom: I don’t know. I don’t know.
Susan: Why do you think you didn’t?
Tom: I don’t know. Just because.
Susan: That’s a child’s answer, Tom.
…
Susan: You said before that three men came in. What happened to the third man?
…
Tom: What was happening to me was unimaginable. I didn’t know it could happen to a boy.
…
Tom: Luke, two. Mama, one. While I did nothing.
…
Bernard: My father hates you, Coach Wingo.
Tom: Yeah, but he loves you.
…
Herbert: That Stradivarius is worth over a million dollars!
Tom: Well, if I drop it, it won’t be worth shit.
Susan: Don’t do it, Tom.
Tom: Apologize to your wife, Herbert.
Herbert: You’re bluffing.
Tom: I may be, but its a powerful bluff, isn’t it, asshole?
[Tom throws the fiddle high in the air over the penthouse balcony]
Herbert [screaming]: I’m sorry, Susan!
[Tom catches fiddle]
Tom: Sincerity becomes you, Herbie. Now apologize to me for your unforgivable breach of etiquette at the dinner table tonight, you possum-bred cocksucker.
Herbert: I’m very sorry, Tom.[/b]