Robert Ray
.... 311) Carl has a good sense of what is right and wrong and sometimes has to remind his coworkers the difference; this tells us that he is definitely a voice of reason, just as all official heroes should be. The immaturity of Frank is an obvious sign that he possesses characteristics of the outlaw. In the beginning of the film, even before he starts his criminal career, he shows that he has no respect for authority. This is illustrated when he fakes being a substitute teacher for a class he is supposed to be a student in. This goes on for two weeks before the administration finds out about it and calls his family and him down to the office. The principal says that she will allow the parents to find a fit punishment, because it was such a strange situation. This is the first point in the movie where we see that Frank has no sense of right and wrong, or of authority for that matter, because when he is leaving the office his father laughs with him about how he pulled one over one the school. The absence of this form of authority leaves Frank to believe that he can do what he pleases, hence when the time comes for him to go out into the world, he chooses a life of crime. Throughout the movie, the ongoing game of cat and mouse continues between Hanratty and Frank, with the encounters mostly including Frank pulling one over on Hanratty. One of these times, they actually meet before Hanratty has a picture of him and Frank poses as a CIA agent, who has supposedly just caught the criminal. He escapes using the typical flight rather than fight method of the outlaw hero and escapes the grasp of the FBI once again. Women play a big role in this movie, with characters such as Paula Abagnale, Brenda Strong and Cheryl Ann. Paula Abagnale is Frank’s mother and is another example of a weak figure of authority. Frank frequently comes home to his mother cheating on his father with another man, making Frank think less of her. This lack of respect for his mother because of her habits, another being smoking cigarettes leaves Frank in a world in which he has no one to answer to, and no one to fear. An outlaw hero usually surrounds himself with women who either are submissive or are objects of lust. These are illustrated by the presence of the characters Cheryl Ann and Brenda Strong. Cheryl Ann played by Jennifer Garner, is a teen model turned high class prostitute. Frank meets her in the hallway of a fancy hotel and Frank gives her as much money as she wants for the night. This is an example of the connection between the outlaw hero and women mentioned in Ray’s essay on page 310, where the two sexes only share lust and a sense of spontaneity. The last prominent female in the film is Brenda Strong, a nurse at the hospital where Frank is posing as a highly credentialed doctor and acts as the submissive female in Frank’s life. They first become more than coworkers one day when they started kissing in Frank’s office. This leads to more and more kissing and an eventual act of sexual intercourse, where Brenda submissively gives in to a figure of power. This scene after they have sex is a very important part of the movie because Brenda reveals that the reason she is a nurse and living on her own is because she had an abortion and her very religious family kicked her out. This causes a sudden change of heart in the hero, because he shows sympathy and actually proposes to her at that very moment. This could be seen as more spontaneity, but the later scenes prove that it is real emotional change. Frank proceeds to move down south to Brenda’s home town to meet her father in order to ask for her hand in marriage. Brenda’s father, Roger Strong played by Martin Strong, not only agrees to this proposal but asks Frank to go into the practice of law with him. This is the first time in Frank’s life where Frank does something legitimate, for he studies and passes the BAR exam on his own. He is starting a new life for himself, one of legitimacy and one of an ironic career choice, a lawyer. Frank, now a law abiding man, finally finds himself comfortable in a society where he can act maturely, multiple attributes of an official hero. This would be a happy ending if it was to end here, but Frank makes his first mistake by using his real name in his marriage and law practice license. This leads the FBI right to him on the night of his engagement party, cutting his life of legitimacy short, when he is forced to flee. The loss of his new found life causes him to fall into his old ways again, ultimately making him an outlaw once again. He devises a plan to get on an airplane to Europe, but the FBI is all over the airport, so he once again uses one of his old methods of getting things done, womanizing. He poses as a pilot and travels to different colleges, assembling a team of beautiful stewardesses, that he promises a summer of travel and sightseeing. These women blind the FBI agents with their beauty allowing Frank to get onto a plane and arrive in Europe. Once in Europe he uses the same check fraud methods he did in the USA and steals even more money. Life seems to be business as usual for Frank, however as always Hanratty is right on his tail and eventually catches up with him in France. The French police take him into custody and Hanratty arranges for him to be tried and sentenced in the United States. Once on the plane back to the United States, Frank and Hanratty form a kind bond, because they have both spent the better part of a half decade chasing and eluding each other. The civil plane ride comes too a screeching halt, when Hanratty reveals that Frank’s father died when he was in Europe. With this Frank fakes sickness and goes to the bathroom, achieving another amazing escape through the wall of the bathroom. Even though Frank manages to escape once again, it is short lived. He goes to his mother’s new home with her new family to take a look at what he had originally set out to prevent. At this point Frank’s spirits are crushed and he realizes that everything that was originally important to him, his father,...