Gone Baby Gone *spoilers*

L

Longhorn_Fan68

1,000+ Posts
Wow. We just got around to seeing this movie and i must say I'm pretty torn. The wife and I just had a lively debate about whether or not he did the right thing. Either way, he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. For those who have seen it, thoughts?
 
i don't want to give away any secrets unless we label this thread as "with spoilers" but i will say it was my favorite film of last year. now i haven't seen every movie, but it was so well done i was incredibly impressed. about 20 minutes from the end i was pissed and felt like the movie was about to achieve epic fail, but things came together better than i could have hoped.

if you haven't seen it, please do so.
 
Mizzou,
Fixed the thread title. please give your thoughts on whether the main character did the right thing or not. I'm not as interested in whether or not you thought it was good or I would have put this thread on Cactus.
 
I absolutely think he did the wrong thing. I live in San Antonio, where at least every 2 weeks another baby/toddler is beaten to death. What absolutely astonishes me is how many chances the mothers and husbands/live-in boyfriends are given. Parenthood should be a privledge not a right and we are only enabling another generation to turn out screwed up kids if they make it. It reminds me on the movie Parenthood when Keanue Reeves gives a little speech about how you have to have a license even for a dog, but they'll let anyone be a parent. We have to realize that being "with the mother"is often not only the wrong thing, but the worst thing for a child. In a case like this movie, she wasn't even going into foster care-she had a very loving family ready to change her life. I loved the movie, but not 1 good thing happended due to his actions. One good cop was killed, his girlfriend left him, another good cop and wife were devestated, and the little girl was left to live with white trash. But a least baby Affleck kept his high and mighty morals intact. Boo-urns.
 
I would of have left the kid with the ex police captain. Then again, my friend who saw it with me, vehemently argued that it was still kindappng and the kid belonged with the mom, no matter how @#$ up she was. I know it was against the law, but leaving her with the captain seemed like the "right" thing to do.
 
Well I would argue that since the Police Captain and the 2 other cops helped conspire to commit kidnapping, that by definition eliminates them from being considered "good cops".

And spare me the "they did it for a good cause" explanation.

However, that all being said, I completely understand why they did it. Like all the others, I am very very torn as to him doing the right thing. In the end, I agreed with the choice, the child belongs with her mother until its proven she cant handle the responsibility.

I thought Affleck's character had a phenominal explanation as to why he made the decision he made, that decision being the thought that Affleck, in 20 years, wouldn't have to meet a crying 25 year old woman, who begs him to know why she was taken from her mother, and why didnt he take her back.

What is sad is the little girl no longer has a chance, she is going to turn out just like her worthless mother.
 
I think he made the right decision in the end. No matter what the intentions were, the end did not justify the means. like casey affleck said "when that girl is 20 she's not going to come to me and ask why i never took her back to her mom." (or something approximately the same)

To me, the message of the movie is that "the right thing may be messy, it may not be popular or easy, or it might be something that a lot of people hate you for, but it is still the right thing."

i loved that message. it took the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" argument and basically said, you know what? **** one side of y'all. somebody is in the right here, and while you may not agree with that, there is a right answer and a wrong answer. kidnapping that little girl was not the right answer. sure, her mother sucked. but that's not your fight. you don't have the right to step in and do something that drastic. If you think it's a crappy situation, take more time out of your life and spend it with the kid, but kidnapping? sounds great, but no way.
 
This movie really struck a nerve with me, as when we saw it I was in the middle of watching my two precious nieces suffer through and get torn apart by a divorce between an abusive, alcoholic mother and an idiotic, narcissistic, sociopathic, loser of a father (my brother.) If I could have come up with a way to legally and morally get those little girls away from their ******* parents, I would have done it in a heartbeat.

Regarding the movie, to me, whether he did the right thing or not was a moot point once the deed was done and later discovered. At that point, the girl was happy and was going to have a hell of a lot better life where she was than with her mother. I think that in the best interest of the girl, the new family should have been left alone. LordHorn vehemently disagreed.
 
It was a great movie. I netflix'ed it and didn't even realize that Ben Affleck directed it. I thought it was great.

My wife was pissed that he called the police on the captain. I agree. I think that Casey Affleck's character thought that money was involved, that everyone thought that the girl would be better with Morgan Freeman b/c he had more money. But that wasn't it. The girls was better off with Freeman b/c he would have loved her more and would have made more sacrifices for the best of the girl. The mom would rather drink a brew than spend time with her daughter.

If the mom was a millionaire but didn't want to spend time with her daughter, I would rather the girl be with a blue collar person who would do anything for her.
 
I know the feeling . we also tried to figure out if he did. the cops broke the law and people died because of what they did ( not perfect people )so that played into guessing he did. but I thought CPS would have taken the child to a safer home.
 
Uh, no, that's not "**** happens." that's making a series of bad decisions in the name of justice and inviting Murphy's Law to your front door step. They made their beds.
 
The 1st police officer did not die due to the issue. He died in the line of duty trying to apprehend a baby kidnapper/pedophile/drug addict. Ed Harris died due to it but not the 1st officer (from Beverly Hills Cop).
 
One scene that we're not talking about (that i forgot about until now) is when Casey Affleck finds the pederast with the dead boy, and shoots him in the head. In my mind, that was Casey saying "the end justifies the means, this guy DESERVES to die for what he did." looking back, it's clear that he thinks that was the wrong decision, even though it was done with the intention of future protection/vengence.

he could have chosen to protect the little girl from her crappy home situation, but he knew that was just the "easy" way out without being right.
 
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