Truth vs. Facts in the Recreation of Events
Retelling the story of Brandon Teena, or any story for that matter, in a theatrical manner as opposed to a documentary involves the audience in a completely different way. As several people have mentioned in previous posts, viewing this film had an extremely significant effect on them. In any “good� movie, actors always discuss how they had to truly become their character in order to accurately portray someone believable. As Kimberly Pierce mentions in the article about her creative process, she recounts the development of the rape scene and that she told actor Brendan Sexton III “you’re not yet doing it [raping Brandon] because you don’t need to do it� (100). Once he was able to internalize his character’s emotions and self loathing, the scene was perfect and had an incredible effect on the actor from the internal conflicts of actually becoming that person. As an audience member, this character development makes the scene more believable and realistic and I was able to feel the horror of witnessing the scene as if it were happening right before me and I could do nothing to stop it. Instead of hearing the facts of an event, regardless of how shocking they may be, the viewer realizes what it’s like to be involved rather than hearing and dismissing it as something that doesn’t directly or personally affect them. Clearly a dramatized version won’t be as accurate as a documentary filled with straight facts and unbiased representations, but I believe it to be more true to the event itself. It’s impossible to completely and perfectly recreate true events without having filmed the event directly because even memories and recaps will have certain biases. However, even an actual viewing of the event would not necessarily capture everything truly involved in the scene. Pierce explains the process of researching and then internalizing the story to begin the creative development of the recreation of not only the cold facts but also the actual horror and emotions of what went on that may not be visible to an audience automatically. Because it’s impossible to know exactly how a person is feeling or thinking, it is up to the director or writer to decide through their own creative process and internalization of the characters how they will be portrayed, whether it is factually accurate or not. The question of accuracy regarding the number of murders has been brought up a few times in previous posts and I see this omission as a way to avoid distraction, drawing more accuracy from the final scene because of the way it will be interpreted by the audience and the importance to the plot. Because it is too difficult for the audience to develop an emotional or personal connection to several characters (or at least one that is significant), Candace’s death represents both individuals who were murdered as sort of innocent bystanders as opposed to the premeditated murder of Brandon. I presume that this third person who was killed was either unknown or of little plot importance in the rest of the story and would easily be brushed aside as another casualty in the event instead of noting the brutality of the death of an actual person. Rather than this omission devaluing this missing character’s life, it leaves the audience with the proper reaction because of their familiarity to Candace.
Expanding on this previous idea and in response to the claim that this is not a transgendered movie, I believe that the impression of Brandon as simply a lesbian who changed her identity to fit what was accepted by society may be shaped by the director's portrayal and interpretation of the film as well. In viewing the film, I had the same reaction and found myself wishing she (he?) would stop trying to pretend to be a man and simply find a female who was attracted to her as another female. Rather than this being the misinterpretation of the audience or critic as Annabelle Willox suggests, I think it is because Brandon's gender identity seemed to be clearly linked to his sexuality and wanting women to be attracted to him and being able to deceive everyone he met in order to fit in. The real problem, however, is not misinterpretation or mistakes in portrayal of who the character was actually supposed to be or may have become, but rather in the creation of categories and the assumption that a person may fit perfectly behind one specific label of transgender or homosexual or even crossdresser and the expectations and social roles that accompany them.