Is AYMT Life Affirming? (was What Cuaron will bring to PoA)

[Tim Regan]

Hi All,
 
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Wow Judy (aka Nia) – great reply. I'm still not completely convinced 
though. 

I really like your parallel between AYMT and the genesis story, 
especially if you ask "Who's the snake?". It would have to be Luisa 
(not Ana, I got them mixed up), but she's on the side of good, which 
brings the film close to Pullman's "Dark Materials" trilogy. Mary 
Mallone = Luisa, and Lyra and Will are Tenoch and Julio. 

But you can also see the boys' sexual conquests (that's the way they 
think of them) as attempts to get sexually closer and closer to each 
other. Starting normally, they then seek to bed each other's 
girlfriends, and then masturbate together, and finally one sleeps 
with the other's mother. But we know that's not the closest you can 
get to someone sexually – and they find out the truth near the end 
of the film through Luisa as the catalyst when they sleep together. 
But this realization doesn't lead them to an increased awareness of 
themselves – to adulthood. Or does it? Maybe I'm misreading the 
film. I know some people experience homosexual incidents as part of 
their growth toward adult heterosexuality (Michael Portillo, a UK 
politician made this claim a few years back 
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/442422.stm>) but it 
doesn't ring true. 

> The truth of the boys' existence—that they 
> loved each other—was impossible for them to process and deal with 
in 
> the superficial mental environment they'd established for 
> themselves.  
[snip]
> 	I found the picture life-affirming because even though 
> Tenoch and Julio lost their friendship at the end, they found a 
new 
> maturity and deeper perceptions.

No – I do not believe one can attain maturity through a rejection of 
one's sexuality.

> There was a great deal of Adam and Eve symbolism you could read 
> into this film also.  It's impossible not to make some biblical 
> connections with the name of their destination being "Heaven's 
> Mouth.".

And some sexual connections too. But religious or sexual – Cuaron's 
treatment of the boys' journey does bode incredibly well for PoA. Be 
ready for more sexual overtones though. In 
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-Movie/message/4490> I pointed 
out that all his films have romance or sex in. Even in "A Little 
Princess" he has an added romance between Amelia Minchin and the 
milkman which is not in the book.

Cheers,

Dumbledad.