William Berven

SPOILERS. It amazes me how most viewers missed the climax, and what it reveals. I won't dissect the characters here but it's not a gay story at all. Its the story of an (apparently) sensitive young man bullied by a overly macho, sadistic man who is compensating for his own deeply buried homosexuality. The big reveal, and there are clues all through the film, is the sensitive boy is in fact a sociopathic fledgling serial killer. Watch again with this in mind and you'll find it a masterful Hitchcockian thriller in the league of Psyco.

Spoilers...novel and movie excellent. The theme, survival through gumption and a love triangle. At least those are the most noted themes. For me, and I've read the novel and watched the film many times, the main theme is the unlikely partnership of Scarlett and Melanie. Scarlett detests Melanie, Melanie blindly loves Scarlett. Tragedy and circumstance bring them together to battle for survival side by side each providing their unique strengths and without both, neither would survive: Scarletts practical skills and Melanie's social skills work alternately and in tandem to secure the survival of themselves and loved ones.