Talk:One Eight Seven

Lost his sanity?

The following sentence struck me as drawing unsupported conclusions, not to mention being somewhat contradictory: "After Benny is found dead in the Los Angeles River, apparently of a drug overdose, it becomes clear that Garfield, having slowly lost his sanity, has taken justice into his own hands, playing by the rules of the street in an intense contest with César and the K.O.S." As it stands, this sentence equates "playing by the rules of the street" with "losing one's sanity." There is nothing in the film to suggest that Garfield is insane according to a medical definition. In fact, there is a long dialog in the movie that makes it clear that Garfield has made a very deliberate decision to play by the rules of the street when he feels it is justified. If this is considered "insane," then all the gangster figures in the movie (and in other films) must be insane as well. If anything, we can point out the tension (and contradictions) between the standard morality of the teaching profession and the morality of gang violence, but that doesn't mean the character has lost his sanity. He has simply adopted a different code of ethics, one that is actually closer to the prevailing code of ethics shared by many students in the film. (The fact that a teacher can be desperate enough to adopt those ethics is a major point of the film; to call him simply insane ignores that sad fact.) For these reasons, I removed that clause from the sentence. 24.62.5.186 (talk) 21:04, 11 October 2008 (UTC)