The United States of Leland :: essays research papers

     In the movie, The United States of Leland, Leland Fitzgerald commits a murder and becomes the center of attention as batch try to understand why he did it. The only someone Leland trusts is off-white, the juvenile hall teacher and aspiring writer who helps Leland to examine the rightfulness of his crime. Unkn bear to Leland, pull together had his take agenda, and uses Leland to obtain material for a book. Pearl does this until he begins to see that Leland is giving him something he never expected. Leland is not stipulation the concrete answer Pearl seeks, but the realization that now is the succession to change his own life for the better.      Leland is a soft spoke fifteen-year-old son that appeared to be headed in the right direction despite his unusual priming and past life. He moved around from place to place, with no world or person to attach himself to. His background and past actions, being as they were, did not show sig ns that would prove him a criminal.     The movies brass was very confusing and messy towards the beginning, but was done on purpose. This disorganization parallels the disorganization of Lelands thinking and feelings. He began talking with Pearl. The relationship seemed to be one that was to help Leland figure out his reason of committing murder, but in actuality the words and reasoning of life Leland gave allowed us to relate our mistakes with his. As sundry(a) people try to deal with Lelands murder they all expose their own mistakes and we get to see how different people deal with them. The most grave message comes from the conversations between Leland and Pearl. Pearl is not a great cat-o-nine-tails himself - hes a liar, drinks too much, cheats on his girlfriend, and uses others for his own benefit. He is called on a lot of this and responds with the usual "Im only human" lines until Leland calls even those into question. Leland asks, "How com e people only say that when theyve done something bad - never when they save a baby from a burning building?" He gets Pearl to hire that he wanted to do those wrong things and that is why he did it. Pearl realizes that he had no excuse for what he did and needs to deal with it. It is scenes interchangeable these that pull us away from contemplating Lelands crime and forces us to deal with our own motives.