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From: manis@ubc-cs.UUCP (Vince Manis)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: Kudos to CBS/CTV
Message-ID: <178@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 2-Mar-86 12:23:01 EST
Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.178
Posted: Sun Mar  2 12:23:01 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 2-Mar-86 15:18:00 EST
References: <173@ubc-cs.UUCP> <20@spdcc.UUCP>
Reply-To: manis@ubc-cs.UUCP (Vince Manis)
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science
Lines: 31
Keywords: Welcome Home, Bobby
Summary: 

In his reply to my posting re "Welcome Home Bobby", Steve Dyer raises a
couple of points with which I must disagree.

First, Steve points to TV having "ruined" the portrayal of Bobby's
relationship with an older man. The man is indeed not presented as a child
molester, and Bobby indeed becomes involved with him of his own free will.
Yet it becomes apparent in the movie that this relationship is not entirely
beneficial to Bobby.

Perhaps I'm just becoming an old fuddy-duddy, but I'm inclined to say I
agree with the position the movie takes. It becomes apparent that Bobby
comes from a troubled family, and has an (apparently) unsympathetic father.
Bobby's lover (unconsciously) trades on that, and becomes in Bobby's mind
the father he never had. The lover acts sometimes like a father, and
sometimes like a lover. This can hardly be good for any adolescent, let
alone one as confused as Bobby. (This has nothing to do with gender: I'd
feel the same way about such a relationship if Bobby had been Bobbi). 

Regarding the closeted gay teacher who comes out to Bobby: I agree that this
is unlikely. (But, then, so's the plot of Hamlet.) Nonetheless, I too was a
closeted gay teacher ten years ago. I had a student who I should have come
out to, but I didn't, for a number of obvious reasons (including the
conservatism of the district in which I taught). Perhaps, no matter how
unlikely the actual event, its depiction might cause some teachers to think
carefully about their professional obligation to their students, and how
that relates to coming out.

Perhaps by the standards of film, "Welcome Home, Bobby" is not great art.
Nonetheless, by the standards of an industry which has presented "My Mother
the Car", "Gilligan's Island", and "Saturday Night Main Event", it's not
half bad.