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The Derrick: Holding His Hand Up to Cover His Eyes

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  1.  
    • CommentAuthorbkk
    • CommentTimeMay 19th 2009
     

    OK, I've seen it twice, and I noticed Plainview often holds his hand up to shade his eyes from bright light.

    He does it during the gusher fire scene, and when Bandy wakes him in the woods, and at least a couple other points during the film that I can't remember right now.

    So... first, which other instances of this gesture are seen in the film that I am forgetting?

    And, what does it mean?  I can't help but think it has some meaning... probably spiritual (encounters with God/Devil??) but I can't quite put my finger on it.

    Any thoughts?

  2.  

    Right, there's something peculiar about the way he does it -- purposeful, deliberate, somehow -- that made me notice this as well.  Then again, watch for his hands in general the next time you see it. There's a lot of attention paid to his hands (there's one striking moment in the header image for this site.) Not sure what it means, but it's fascinating.

  3.  

    Hmm, I don't know that I ever noticed anything more to those instances than just the sun was hurting his eyes.  I'm not one to overanalyze thing though.  So, in my opinion, there probably wasn't anything behind the gestures.

    DDL has great hands though, so maybe PTA has the same obsession with them that I do and wants to show them as much as possible :)

  4.  

    I don't know if I would attach any significance to that particular gesture, at least it doens't mean anything to me, but DP is very expressive with his hands and arms, almost unintentionally. He seems to channel a lot of (nervous) energy through his fingers, which I noticed in the very first scene, after the dynamite goes off and he pauses for a moment to see if he should go forward, and then later in the scene when he's first approaching "Henry". He fidgets with his hands and fingers quite oftenin other scenes too (train scene with HW, fiddling with his napkin at the restaurant with HW, eating dinner witht the Sundays).

    But if there is some kind of symbolism with the hand shielding the light, I'd love to know what you think...

    • CommentAuthorFlignar
    • CommentTimeDec 9th 2009
     
    "But if there is some kind of symbolism with the hand shielding the light, I'd love to know what you think..." Well I think he''s a fallen angel who had the temerity to survive at the beginning while being overseen by the three hills (trinity)... the bright light could be hand of god. As for his hands he doesn't talk much (why should he...he's not looking for the approval of any man but instead god). I also think about how he asked father Sunday for water and bread.. "do you have water"..."do you have bread"... not 'would you be so kind as to give us some water and bread if you have some to spare?" which seems reasonable because Daniel is pretty polite when needed.. "thank you so very much" he says a few times.

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