Why is Joe attacked earlier in the movie "You were never really here"?
In the movie, You were never really here.
Joe walks out the back door of an establishment, sees a few dead pigeons, walks for a few steps more and gets attacked by an unknown person in a dark valley.
Joe counter-attacks and beats his assailant down before walking away.
I watched this scene a few times:
- Joe does not seem to know this assailant.
- This assailant's face is never shown.
I am wondering why Joe is attacked or what is the purpose of this scene?
Best Answer
Disclaimer: This is only my own interpretation and not a sourced answer.
When watching that scene, I took it as just a random attempted mugging. Joe was walking down a dark alley at night; in the middle of an urban city, which is generally has risks of being mugged. The mugger simply had the unfortunate chance that his chosen victim was someone like Joe, who is very physically tough.
As for the purpose of the scene, it shows us tough Joe is. Not only in his physical ability to easily defeat the mugger, but also in his attitude that he doesn't even care or act upset at what just happened.
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Why does Joe pull out his tooth in you were never really here?
He pulls his tooth out after getting shot in the face, he has suicidal fantasies, and he regularly asphyxiates himself with a plastic bag that stretches over his head like a death mask.What is the point of you were never really here?
You Were Never Really Here is a harrowing evocation of life as a trauma survivor. What's particularly harrowing is that the survivor in question\u2014a ghostly, reclusive war vet named Joe (Joaquin Phoenix)\u2014tries to exorcise his own demons by extricating others from traumatic situations.What happens at the end of you were never really here?
Joe returns home to find that his mother has been murdered as well in her bed. He discovers that the killers are still in the house, waiting for him. Joe manages to get the upper hand and shoot both of them. One of them is alive but moments away from death.What happened to Joe in you were never really here?
The girl gets up and appears to leave, and the film forgoes its previously subtle hints at how Joe has felt his whole life\u2014as if he were never really here\u2014and he shoots himself in the head.More answers regarding why is Joe attacked earlier in the movie "You were never really here"?
Answer 2
I cannot find a clip of it, but if my recollection is correct, then on top of what Gendolkari said, the scene also serves some other purposes.
Joe is basically dead inside, he is traumatized and numbed from passed experiences. He just continues to exist without real drive or emotion. Even when he is mugged in that scene, he does not really care. Actually, i kind of recall him provoking the situation.
He is basically a fighter, who only exists to fight, even though he has nothing left to fight for.
What he discovers throughout the story is another purpose, a melody long forgotten. While before he was mostly concerned with himself, if even that. He then takes selfless care of someone else even though there is nothing (which he valued before) to gain from it.
The beginning serves as his rock-bottom start of the journey.
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Images: Sebastiaan Stam, Pavel Danilyuk, Markus Spiske, RODNAE Productions