Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Why do men chase women?

Pardon my 1980's nerdiness as I take you back to:



Now, I know you must be thinking, why on earth is she talking about a movie that was filmed over twenty years ago...

The reason is that it's funny. And romantic. *And it was on television last night* But it also has enough cheesy lines to have your eyes rolling until they ache.

Case in point:

Ronnie: I love you!
Loretta: (slaps him twice) Well snap out of it!

And

Rose: How's his mother?
Loretta: She's dying. But I could still hear her big mouth.

You can't stop watching the film for more than the crazy Italian family dynamic and the witty...I mean, cheesy, dialogue. Despite yourself, you end up liking the characters. You want to watch them go crazy trying to work themselves out...it's that funny.

Throughout the film, an Italian mother, Rose, (who is being cheated on by her brash Italian husband), asks the age-old question: Why do men chase women?

By her question and her current circumstance, I assume she means "Why do men in relationships chase other women?"

Johnny (the man betrothed to her daughter Loretta) answers that men chase women because (and forgive my paraphrasing here), man was created by God, then women were created from Adam's rib, and now men feel like a part of them is missing...so they search for the woman to fill the hole in their chest.

Rose isn't having his thought-provoking answer because technically her husband had already found his rib...in her! When Rose questions Johnny on this, he verifies her belief. She believes that men are afraid of death.

My favorite line in the whole movie happens when she's sitting in the living room, watching her husband walk in after a rendezvous with the other woman. She says "I just want you to know, no matter what you do you're going to die, just like everybody else." Classic. He thanks her (THANKS HER!) and retreats upstairs to their room where he'll, no doubt, sleep alone. We never know, but that's my best guess because the next night (or maybe it was the night before), she has dinner with another man...



She asks him the question "Why do men chase women?" He says (and again with my paraphrasing) that men who are feeling like a shadow of their former selves can live inside the reflection of a young woman. They can see their former glorious self through the eyes of a woman who thinks highly of them. But, over the course of a few weeks, the women realize they're falling for a shadow and not the man they thought he was, causing the man to chase another young woman.

Rose isn't having this answer either.

It got me thinking...Why do men chase women? Boredom? Stress? Something missing from their current relationship? Taking the easy way out? Primal instinct? Whatcha think?

2 comments:

Deb Markanton said...

We must be on a psychic wavelength. Just the other day that line "I could hear her big mouth" popped into my head! Haha. I love that movie!!
Why do men chase women? *shrug*

Julie Musil said...

If I had the answers, I'd be rich. But not as rich as if I were a man figuring out women!

This reminds me, I need to watch Moonstruck again. It's been too long!