Essay Questions

Why does George see things in enhanced colors throughout the day?

George has decided that this will be his last day to live and thus, he chooses to experience the world around him in a very specific way. He is far more present with people and objects and by doing so he enhances his senses to a degree where he has a true emotionally connected experience in particular moments, he's creating memories.

Why does Tom Ford's camera have George float in and out of being fully in frame while delivering his speech about fear to his students?

George decides to put down the required reading and begin to talk about fear as the nation is under imminent threat of a nuclear war with Cuba during the Missile Crisis. George floats slightly out of frame because what he is saying to the students is an ask, he's asking them to see fear differently and to live. Yet, he himself is afraid and knows he is choosing to die. Thus, his words he believes are falling on deaf ears because the bearer of this speech is not living what he is preaching and the imagery shows us this.

What does George's suit represent?

Every morning, George put on a fresh suit complete with tie bar, pocket square, cuff links and adds polished shoes and hair along with his glasses. George is not a cheerful person in the morning. His life is one that is primarily hidden from the world as a gay man in the 1960s. Thus, his suit is his armor against the hatred and intolerance of the world that he must face every day. His suit changes him from the outside in so that he can make it through his day.