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I agree with most of your reasons – but for me the main reason is that Blatty himself gives no indication that BD is a molester or has any aggressive feelings or intents toward Regan. Blatty’s presentation is that BD’s death is an unmitigated tragedy. No one, including Regan, is the better for his death.
However, in real life we know of myriad examples of “smart”, famous people who do egregiously stupid things, from shoplifting to drunk driving to child abuse. If – and only, theoretically IF – BD was molesting Regan, he would have been one of those “smart”, famous alcoholic imbeciles who put everything at risk because of their obsessions. But having said that, I reiterate, BD did NOT molest Regan.
Friends,
There is no indication that Burke molested Regan. His reason for going into the room, may have been as simple as checking on her to see if she was sleeping or feeling better. Why must we make it worse? While I am sure feminist theorists would love to assume otherwise, as the old saying goes, to assume makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’. I like your logic hench85 and appreciate that you have cleared the air regarding such an odd claim.
Cheers & God Bless
Benjamin Szumskyj
(editor of the forthcoming ‘American Exorcist: Critical Essays on William Peter Blatty’)-
‘His reason for going into the room, may have been as simple as checking on her to see if she was sleeping or feeling better’
How do we know that Regan didnt come down the stairs and violently drag him to the room? This has always been my belief.
Buda, that is a very creepy scenario – you’re right, Regan could have crept down and seized Dennings.
Could you guys imagine that scene?
Dennings sitting on the couch by himself having a drink when he hears the creak of a door opening and the patter of feet from upstairs. He turns his head to look toward the stairs and sees Regan with a demented unholy smile on her face doing the spiderwalk coming down the stairs towards him. He is frozen from shock as she grabs him by the neck and drags him up the stairs to her room where she violently shoves his face into her private area which is bloodied while uttering profanities in the vile demonic voice before she kills him and throws him out the window.
That would be a SICK scene.In the novel, Burke was reading the witchcraft book while he was in Regan’s bedroom. He had a habit of shredding his scripts, and when Chris reads the book she sees that a narrow strip had been surgically shaved from along its edge, in the manner of Dennings. That’s when she realizes he went up there. If Regan had dragged him to her room, he wouldn’t have had the time to read the book. The reason he went up there was because he heard noises and moans coming from it – according to the novel.
“where she violently shoves his face into her private area which is bloodied”
Her private area wasn’t bloodied at that time. It was only weeks later when she stabbed/masturbated herself with the crucifix.
Been a while since I read the book – certainly as you say Chris could figure it out that Dennings had been in the room and left the “stripped” book there. But did Blatty mention another possibility, namely, that Dennings read/shredded the book downstairs and later Regan came down, collected the book, and took it upstairs with her? Trivial point, and as I say, I don’t recall if it’s a possibility or not…
No, granny, Blatty didn’t mention that possibility. Regan took the book upstairs with her on the day she had an EEG performed (arteriogram in the movie) and Willie found it under her bed while they were away in the Barringer clinic. Supposedly Regan read the book prior to the onset of her “illness”.
Lunuso is right … read the book … it’s better than the movie and fills you in on the gaps you don’t about in the movie! When I was about 13, I read the book and when I finished reading a chapter or two, I stored the copy between my bed and wall (about a 12″ space). One night a heard the sound of paper tearing. I investigated. Yep, the pages were eaten down along the front. As Karl would have said to me: “Maybe rats?” I’m not sure, because we never had a mice/rat problem in my home. So, “Maybe, demon?” Scared the hell out of me as a Catholic kid.
granville1 makes a great point here. Most of hench85’s points don’t stand up to even common sense psychology.
1 & 2: We know Burke is an alcoholic. He might be a sex addict too. Addicts do not make these sort of cost/benefit analysis when they are in their disease.
3-5: Many times ppl are not aware when sexual molestation happens. Its a very private thing. Ppl will often turn a blind-eye to it either intentionally or unintentionally simply because its so socially proscribed no one wants to deal with it. Also Regan was very sick and in a desperate situation Sharon may not had done the responsible thing.
Whether or not BD molested Regan is certainly open to interpretation. Its one of the coolest new theories I have heard about the movie. I will agree though, the movie does not go out of its way to explore this possibility.
Here are some reasons why I think Burke did not molest Regan
1. Chris is his star. Why risk losing your main star, by hurting her daughter? I don’t think Chris will want to do any future films with Burke if he was.
2. The publicity. I don’t think he would risk all the publicity that would come if he got caught molesting Regan.
3. Sharon let Burke stay with her. Sharon has been around Regan and I’m sure she might have said something about Burke if he was molesting her. If Sharon didn’t like Burke, she wouldn’t let him stay with her.
4. Regan’s father. Regan’s dad must have met Burke before. If he had a bad feeling about Burke, he would have told Burke to his face to stay away from his daughter or tell Chris not to let Burke near Regan. If he thought his daughter was in danger, he would fight for custody for her.
5. Chris . She has been around Burke a lot, and would know if he was a threat to Regan or anything.
I just think that BUrke wouldn’t do it because he would have too much lose if he was a child molester. Also I think the people who knew him closely, wouldn’t let him near Regan if he thought he would hurt her.
Anybody have any ideas why he didn’t molest her or did?
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