Paper Moon Message Board
Ezekiel Zeke Steiner posts a message on 11/2/2005 3:23:49 PM
Paper Moon is an attempt to recapture a romanticized earlier time; it depicts the free life of a clever con man and his precocious daughter. The disparity between what Bogdanovich meant to depict and what audiences saw is instructive. He has said that the ending is meant to be sad because the father and daughter, reunited, will simply drive off into a life of absolute disaster. He sees their relationship as destructive, a terrible man and a misused little girl. Most viewers found their relationship to be warm, affectionate, and thoroughly delightful. Bogdanovich may have wanted to portray the father as a vicious man, but he didn't succeed. He wasn't willing to lose the appealing aspects of the character. Certainly the little girl doesn't seem misused; if anything, she manipulates others. The confusion between purpose and realization in Bogdanovich films suggest that either he isn't fully committed to his declared themes or he can't effectively present them. Other concerns, such as technique and a desire to be entertaining, obscure his professed deeper meanings.
Note: the views expressed here are only those of the posters.
