Alternate Character Interpretation: Why was Gay wrestling the horse? Does it symbolise him pursuing the woman he lost, and finally having to let go of her? Or did he just need something to dominate?
Award Snub: The film received no Academy Award nominations. Partly this was a result of an attempt to get it edited in time for the deadline of awards consideration, hoping to get Clark Gable a posthumous nomination for Best Actor. Naturally, time has also come to regard Marilyn Monroe's work as worthy of a Best Actress nomination, and those of Eli Wallach and Montgomery Clift for Best Supporting Actor. The film's Box Office failure and well-documented nightmarish production may also have put the Academy off considering it.
Roslyn declares she'll buy all the horses the men have captured, to save them from being killed. And you know she would have gone through with it, had Gay not refused.
Roslyn's "Reason You Suck" Speech, screaming at the men for their actions. And it's a meta one for Marilyn Monroe, who nailed the drama of the scene.
"All of you, liars! You're only happy when you can see something die! Why don't you kill yourself to be happy? You and your God's country! Freedom! I pity you! You're three dear, sweet, dead men!"
Her calling Guido out on his bull, after he's spent the majority of the film trying to manipulate her.
"You, a sensitive fellow. So sad for his wife, crying to me about the bombs you dropped and the people you killed. You need to get something to be human? You never felt anything for anybody in your life. All you know is the sad words. You could blow up the world and all you'd feel is sorry for yourself!"
Best Known for the Fanservice: The scene of Roslyn playing paddleboard is widely remembered, and provides the page image. The way it's often described, one would think the entire film is lecherous - when there are only two brief shots, and another Male Gazey one of her ass from the perspective of two leches.
Draco in Leather Pants: Guido is often imagined more favorably, due to being played by the attractive and charismatic Eli Wallach. While he appears to have a sympathetic backstory, his Trauma Conga Line is only ever mentioned whenever he wants to score sympathy from Roslyn. Hell, he tries to use her being traumatized by them capturing the horses as a way to get with her - minutes after she and Gay appear to be finished!
Isabelle gets a spiel about how cowboys are the worst types of people for timekeeping.
"I've never met so many men who didn't own a watch. Might have two wives but no watch."
Isabelle encourages Roslyn to throw her wedding ring into the river to celebrate the divorce, joking that "there's more gold in that river than the Clondyke". Roslyn asks if she threw hers in there too, and Isabelle laughs, revealing she lost it on her wedding night!
There's something eerily prophetic about the very last scene of the film being just Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable staring off into the stars together, having a philosophical chat. The latter would be dead before the film was even released, and she would follow him a year later.
Roslyn also has a line when dancing with Guido, "we're all dying", and the shot cuts to Gay soon after.
Roslyn gets a quickie divorce at the start, and struggles to find someone to love her without using her. While her end is somewhat happy, Marilyn Monroe's marriage to Arthur Miller collapsed during filming. Roslyn talks about being the other woman in an affair, and Arthur Miller in fact had one during production. And Marilyn Monroe herself likewise did so with Yves Montand on the very aptly titled Let's Make Love (Montand was also married, to Simone Signoret).
Perce is a sad man trying to ignore his obvious problems in order to get any kind of work he can. His characterization parallels Montgomery Clift's so much, it's unsettling; after a car accident that affected his Pretty Boy looks, he took to substance abuse to cope with the pain. The next year, his reputation was further damaged by a lawsuit from Universal that his behaviour caused a film to go over budget (when he was actually left with cataracts thanks to an on-set accident) and he didn't make another film for four years. He'd die himself in 1966.
Perce tells Roslyn that he loves her. It's obvious he means platonically, and he doesn't want to use her like Guido. Roslyn is touched that he feels so strongly about her, even though they only met earlier.
Gay letting the horses go, and announcing that he's done with ever hunting them again. He's clearly changed for the better, and his and Roslyn's relationship seems hopeful.
Jerkass Woobie: The 'jerkass' part only comes out in the second half of the film, where he's willing to wrangle a bunch of wild horses that will be killed for their meat, and is rude to Perce and Roslyn over it, but Gay also found his wife cheating on him with his cousin and it's implied his children were taken away from him to be with their mother. Part of his aforementioned behaviour comes from the fact that he's a middle-aged man who can't make sense of how quickly the world has changed, and how he's felt left behind by everyone in his life.
Love to Hate: Guido is a real jerk, but he's an interesting, messed up character.
Overshadowed by Controversy: The film's nightmarish production is more remembered than the quality of the material itself. This even dogged it while it was still going on - as John Huston rather sneakily leaked a story to the press of Marilyn Monroe's problems being so out of control production was shutting down for two weeks. In actuality, it shut down because he was $50,000 in debt to the casinos and the whole production had run out of money. Arthur Miller even based two plays on the making of this; After the Fall, made right after Marilyn Monroe's death, and Finishing the Picture, which was produced forty years after the film's release.
Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: Although Perce tells Roslyn he loves her, their pairing is intended to be a platonic one, and he's the only male to not ever make advances in the film. The only issue is that Montgomery Clift and Marilyn Monroe have terrific chemistry, and the age difference between them is considerably less than the other two (he was only four years older than her). As Perce seems to grow the most through his time with Roslyn, and treat her with the most respect, they seem better matched.
Squick: Gay secretly admiring Roslyn from behind. He's old and falling to pieces, while she's still young.
Stoic Woobie: Roslyn has quite the sad backstory - a mother who was never really around, a husband who didn't treat her well, and multiple affairs with men who just used her. But she's actually incredibly stoic when she talks about these things, and she's considerably less angsty than you'd think of a character with that backstory.
Roslyn has reached a Despair Event Horizon, reduced to literally screaming into the desert at the idea that innocent wild horses will be slaughtered. Guido likewise reveals himself as a manipulator. Then Perce jumps into the truck, drives off and begin to free the horses.
Gay has darn near killed himself to recapture the stallion, and even Roslyn wanted the animal caught if only so Gay didn't hurt himself anymore. Then he takes out a knife and cuts the rope, letting the horse go free; announcing he's done with it for good.
Guido mentions how his wife never danced, simply because she had no grace. Roslyn suddenly gets very sad, wondering why Guido never tried to teach her, and thinking that the woman died never knowing what it was like to dance with her husband.
"If you loved her, you could have taught her anything."
Roslyn talking about the illusion of happy marriage, highlighting just how she's been used in the past.
"One time the wife was in the hospital, to have the baby. And the husband calling me up. I mean, he was calling me. They're still supposed to be happily married."
Perce nearly killing himself in the rodeo, and Roslyn being left in hysterics over it. The lack of sympathy from the other two doesn't help.
Perce is stunned that Roslyn cares that much about someone she barely knows, and that anyone would cry for him.
Roslyn discovering what's really to happen to the horses when they're captured. Gay tries to insist it's not that bad, and that he's only doing whatever he can to stay free; stating that that's why she likes him. Her response?
Isabelle laughs at Roslyn saying that she can't use the marriage being loveless as grounds for divorce, joking that "if that were grounds for divorce, there would only be eleven marriages left in the United States". This was eight years before the No Fault Divorce bill was passed, and in the following decade it would become more socially acceptable to divorce simply because of romantic incompatibility. Of course, the movie is ahead of the game by validating Roslyn's reasons for divorcing, as well as her later speech about a married couple that are still together despite the husband being unfaithful.
The age difference between Gay and Roslyn is especially off-putting to modern viewers, while not seen as unusual at the time. Gay is meant to be in his forties, and Roslyn is 30, so it's meant to be a gap of maybe fifteen years. But Clark Gable was 59 and looked it.
A dark dramatic moment is Guido driving everyone home from the bar, and Roslyn trying to get him to focus on doing so safely. Guido is clearly drunk, and was seen having some drinks at the bar, and just happens to be slightly less drunk than the other two (as in, he's conscious). With greater awareness of the severity of drunk driving, it looks odd that Roslyn doesn't just drive them herself, since she doesn't appear to have drunk much herself.
Broken Base: The "old" or "classic" Misfits (1977-1983) compared to the 1990's Misfits incarnation with Jerry and Doyle, but Micheal Graves instead of Glenn Danzig and Dr. Chud on the drums compared to the current version with Jerry Only on Bass and Vocals, Dez Cadena (of Black Flag ) on guitar and Eric "Goat" Arce (of Murphy's Law) on the drums.
Averted in recent years: while opinions on Danzig vs. Graves vary, everybody hates Only.
Then again, flipped around some time after the Original Misfits reunion, as most of the group seem to have mellowed out with age, but Graves' political views draw the ire of most old school punks, who are largely left wing.
Hilarious in Hindsight: The guy whose stage name was Only ultimately ended up being the only founding member left in the band.
Memetic Hair:. The "Devilock", invented and worn by several members.
