William Forrester is a character who keeps himself locked in an appartment and not interact with people. A Pulitzer-prize winning author who helps Jamal Wallace walk the correct path towards writing. Forrester moves back to his homeland of Scotland, where he dies of cancer. He leaves Jamal his apartment and a manuscript of his second and final novel, 'Sunset'. It is to be published by Jamal after he has written a foreword.
Although William Forrester is a fictitious character, there are some noticeable parallels between his life and that of the American author J. D. Salinger:
- Both Forrester and Salinger are notoriously reclusive authors.
- In the movie Forrester blocked a biography of himself that the character Prof. Robert Crawford was going to have published. Salinger did the same thing through a lawsuit against Ian Hamilton.
- Both also only wrote one book that is wildly popular: Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye and Forrester's Avalon Landing
- In his Glass family stories, Salinger's narrator, Buddy Glass, is obsessed with his dead older brother Seymour. In the movie, Jamal, discussing Forrester's novel, tells Forrester that he thinks there was somebody else. Forrester also has a brother who is dead.
6 comments:
What an enspiring movie!
Nice explanation and analysis.
Also...you have the most beautiful hands I have ever seen.
Charles Alexander@losttreasuresoftheheart.com
The perspective that the director uses is perfect. A young struggling student who knows he has potential but keeps it secret. I love the way they bring the two together by Jamal taking on a simple dare. Sean Connery was the perfect choice as I love his demeanor.
Few more parallels with Salinger
The article published in the New Yorker
And also somewhat distorted , being in a relationship with Claire. Though in the movie it is shown as Jamal's love interest
Awesome movie. The uncontrollable drive to write 'serious literature' and the absolute need for self-seclusion so often go hand-in-hand. We wonder which causes which, or if they both stem from a another but common cause. Perhaps the common cause is an extraordinarily painful existence eroding social-coping skills, forcing one to communicate through written words which cannot be audibly spoken to another soul. Yet the interconnectedness of these two traits - the writing impulse and isolation - is a most certain reality. The story conveys this reality so very well, and yet manages to uplift.
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