And just why aren't you the jealous type?

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2002)

Dr. Bill is confronted by this question by his wife. "Why aren't you the jealous type?" His response? Silence...Kubrick leaves the viewer to fill in the reasons. This question splits into two very basic questions that are often too disturbing for men to confront...namely "what is jealousy and why do we men try to convince women that we are not like other men? Jealousy first. Dr. Bill does not become enraged because his wife fancies someone else by itself. This film, along with all our lives, shows that men make comparisons of EFFORTS to other men. Dr. Bill has gone through med school. Dr. Bill has provided a big house with comforts. Dr. Bill has saved lives. The film constantly shows the surroundings displaying all those efforts. What has the navel officer done? What are his efforts in Dr. Bill's comparison? Next to nothing! No man would ever get enraged if Michael Jordan beat him out while trying out for a basketball team. But what if some no-practice, beer drinking, over-weight sloth were to be selected over Jordan for the team? Would MJ be jealous? You bet he would, after all his EFFORTS. The second issue here is more painful. Why do we men distant our- selves from other men? It is simple...because we hate the male culture more than women do. Yet, we cannot run from it. Doing so only makes it worse. So, in our journey to confront it we become the very thing we despise and have been struggling against all our lives. Every male re- lationship in this film takes a deep dive, lower and lower throughout and without exception. His relationship with Nick is based on a soft, empty memory. They were buddies in med school and, yet, Nick dropped out! So, why remember it in a positive note? Because men like to remember empty relationships as good since no fighting broke out just as 2 rocks lying on the ground must be having a great relationship as well.
Dr.Bill's relationships with the storekeeper, Sydney Pollack's character, and a person in the same predicament as he is whose fiancee comes on to him in front of her dead father all add to his isolation. And women? In their rage they react to feeling suffocated by men by seeking out someone cut from the same mold as the one she is with. Funny she didn't pick out a mailman to have a fantasy about! Are all women stuck in their roles as well, being narcisstic pigs who self destruct while the men who chase them seem like stupid emotional cripples? I could go on about this film but must leave for now. Email any discussions you wish to engage in!