Sanjay Patel How Is Col. Fitz Represented?

(The Colonel's Kiss) The Colonels kiss appears during the final scenes of the film before the killing of Lester Burnham. After finding recordings of Lester exercising nude, the Colonel gains the assumption that his son is gay. Throughout the film the audience are aware of the Colonels negative homophobic views, in spite of this he visits Lester and attempts to seduce him to find out whether he is gay and therefore maybe having a relationship with his son. The Colonels kiss scene begins with him visiting Lesters garage while he is exercising, enforcing the idea of Lester being gay. The viewers are able to feel his desperation and anger when he first visits Lester, as the Colonel begins his seduction towards Lester straight away. Outside of the garage the audience as well as Lester are able to notice the amount of rain and dullness in weather, as well as noticing the Colonels soaked clothing, which could suggest the upset and anger that the Colonel is feeling emotionally. On the other hand Lesters garage is well lit and bright suggesting that he will be able to help the Colonel in a good way (he is the light at the end of the tunnel). Initially during the kiss, (that is used to reveal the sexuality of Lester) the Colonel appears to be quite passionate towards Lester whereas he is the opposite way round, confused and almost afraid of the colonels motives. This connotes that the Colonel may have homosexual desires towards Lester and other men, although throughout the film the audience are clearly aware about his homophobic views towards other people. In spite of this I feel the Colonel felt that he had to be defensive about his sexuality because he was ashamed of his own homosexuality, and also felt that being homosexual would bring shame upon his Marine culture, ashamed and embarrassed attempts to kiss Lester to open out about his sexuality. Furthermore enforcing the idea that the Colonel way gay is the idea of the distance between himself and his wife Barbara Fitz, during the film they two of them are rarely scene together as a couple which may appear strange to viewers as they are married and live in the same house. In addition Barbara Fitz seems quite distant especially towards her husband. This may be because she is aware of his homosexual desires and built up anger and there is no romance between the two people. In conclusion during this scene the viewers are able to gather that Colonel Fitz is a homosexual man with repressed desires, influences towards his desires include his possible southern upbringing, failed marriage, and working in the Marines, the rejection after Lesters kiss made his feel shameful but although opened his eyes to what he really wanted from life (what he thought was beauty).