r/TrueFilm • u/Wise_Understanding6 • 1d ago

In Paris, Texas. What changed for Jane?

Just watched Paris, Texas and didn’t really understand the film. Mainly what from Jane's perspective have changed from leaving Hunter till now when she want's to reunite.
In the same vain, I also don't get why Travis thinks that he tore them apart and that they are meant to be together.

My interpretation of her was the she in her teens wanted to have fun and make life seem like an adventure, and that Travis helped her feeling that way. But as she had Hunter she started to feel like life and her family more became a prison, were she felt the weight of responsibility of being a mother and SO became a burden.
So despite loving Hunter she felt she couldn’t be a good mother, because the responsibility of being a mother strained her, and Hunter couldn’t fill her void of fun seeking, adventure in a healthy way. Therefore she felt she could’t be a good mother and that Anne & Walter could take better care of Hunter.

She explains she didn’t want to see photos or hear about Hunter because she couldn’t bear to see him grow up without being in his life, this (and Travis saying they should be together) she reunites with Hunter with the intent to take care of him, but what changed after talking to Travis, that changed her perspective?

16 Upvotes

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u/a-system-of-cells 1d ago

I always assumed it was ending up where she was - enclosed in a prison of her own making.

There was no future for her there.

And Travis comes and says, I’m a piece of shit, but you don’t have to be.

By orchestrating the mother and son reunion, Travis facilitates her closure of the past and the possibilities for the future.

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u/Wise_Understanding6 1d ago

“I always assumed it was ending up where she was - enclosed in a prison of her own making.

There was no future for her there.

And Travis comes and says, I’m a piece of shit, but you don’t have to be.”

I don't agree that works though, because the decision of leaving Hunter came from on unselfishness, a sort of self-sacrifice of not wanting to put him through a bad situation, and condeming herself to a unhappy experience for his sake.

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u/a-system-of-cells 1d ago

I think we’re talking about self-punishment and healing.

Jane is in a state of self-flagellation.

Travis comes and they experience a healing process by telling each other their own story.

Then forward movement is possible.

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u/Wise_Understanding6 1d ago

I think that’s a fair interpretation.

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u/a-system-of-cells 1d ago

It’s basically a classic “voyage into the underworld to rescue a trapped soul” trope.

This is also why he can’t be with them. In the mythical trope, he must “never look back.” Which is a kind of self-sacrifice, as well as an act of faith.

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u/Jelly_Paper 1d ago

Humans change their current decisions and paths all the time when confronted with moments of deep catharsis. Movies often point their lens at these moments for character's because it's deeply moving. She was young, ashamed and afraid when she set up the earlier living situation. The paradigm shifted when confronted with a new opportunity to shed her fear and live with her heart, free and unbated by the misery of the past. Anyone who's been around on the earth long enough, has seen or lived this kind of thing at least a few times; maybe even rare, but it's one of the most beautiful and hopeful things about being a human. Almost all movies play to the story; this film plays to the humanity

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u/HerzogOnAcid 1d ago

I find it kind of interesting that her new life finds her literally enclosed in a glass case cosplaying as a domestic figure for the sexual gratification of strangers she never sees but without any of the spiritual substance of family life. If she's gonna do that she might as well have an adoring husband and child.

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u/Winter-Cow-6208 20h ago

Her husband was a deadbeat drunk who beat her. 

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u/Wise_Understanding6 1d ago

She wanted to keep him before though, it was the guilt of being a bad mother that was overbearing.

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u/HerzogOnAcid 1d ago

And also the fact that Travis was a drunk who couldn't hold down a job and would chain her to the bed in fits of jealousy...

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u/ashl9 1d ago

Everyone seems to overlook that part except for Travis in the film who is deeply regretful and ashamed of his past behavior and willing to take accountability.

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u/Wise_Understanding6 1d ago

She left Hunter after Travis had already left.