Christine's dummy might be from the novel! It does seem like the sort of thing that would be. I definitely have to read it again! But also it's very 80's to keep it in :D
His big freak out when Christine unmasks him the first time does include the self loathing and loneliness required for woobieness, and his reaction to having observed Christine and Raoul on the roof just before the interlude is written as a "poor Erik" scene as much as a "antagonist threatens doom for protagonists" scene.
Oh, yeah, my teenage self, listening to this in the 80's/90's, definitely grabbed on to those as woobiness. But as a rather older adult in 2024, it definitely gave a strong vibe to me of "abusive people are not abusive 100% of the time and always feel they have self-justification for their actions," especially the way that he would use these moments as springboards to, well, threaten doom for the protagonists. But I guess people didn't really understand that so much back then... it's a really compelling portrait, though!
And yes, I still have a lot of Feelings about it, clearly :D
I have not seen those essays, thank you for linking!
The Les Mis movie had the great virtue that it was clearly made by people who cared a lot about the book. (It even had Gavroche's elephant!!) I loved it, while I had all but forgotten that there was a Phantom movie at all (and could not now tell you anything about it except that I did remember the singers weren't great).
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Date: 2024-05-19 05:33 am (UTC)His big freak out when Christine unmasks him the first time does include the self loathing and loneliness required for woobieness, and his reaction to having observed Christine and Raoul on the roof just before the interlude is written as a "poor Erik" scene as much as a "antagonist threatens doom for protagonists" scene.
Oh, yeah, my teenage self, listening to this in the 80's/90's, definitely grabbed on to those as woobiness. But as a rather older adult in 2024, it definitely gave a strong vibe to me of "abusive people are not abusive 100% of the time and always feel they have self-justification for their actions," especially the way that he would use these moments as springboards to, well, threaten doom for the protagonists. But I guess people didn't really understand that so much back then... it's a really compelling portrait, though!
And yes, I still have a lot of Feelings about it, clearly :D
I have not seen those essays, thank you for linking!
The Les Mis movie had the great virtue that it was clearly made by people who cared a lot about the book. (It even had Gavroche's elephant!!) I loved it, while I had all but forgotten that there was a Phantom movie at all (and could not now tell you anything about it except that I did remember the singers weren't great).