First off, I really liked this movie, although I had kind of a hard time getting into it at first. However, the character of Troy is really really interesting and it was great seeing a film where the protagonist has so many negative character traits. For the major portion of the movie I absolutely hated that guy. From not caring about his eldest son's music to crushing his younger son's dreams of getting into college and playing Football and then to top all that his cheating of his wife and the major selfish d-ckhead speech he's giving to her.

Then in the end, when his son says he doesn't wanna attend the funeral, his mother is getting outraged at this and is defending Troy. At first that kind of sickened me, but in the end when you think about it, all that happened led to the son having a good career with the Marines, thus becoming "better" than him.

I think deep down Troy always meant the best for his family but he didn't really know how to convey it. His idea of "tough love" was overdone (telling his son he doesn't need to like him, just fulfilling his duty because that's what fathers have to do) but to him it was the right way. Of course this all leads back to his bad upbringing and the abuse he suffered from his dad.

The point I am getting at: At the end when Gabe comes around and "opens the pearly gates", not only does the sun shine down on them for a brief moment, but at the same time, the gate at the front of the house swings shut, seemingly on its own. I am thinking back to the scene where Bono tells him about people building a fence to keep the people they love inside it. I think the door swinging shut was meant to show that he loved them after all (they are all inside the fence he built).

Anybody else picked up on this?