Matilda Pigtail Girl

 

A while ago I wrote an article about a scene from the 1996 Sony Pictures film Matilda, see: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2020/05/pride-intelligence-guts.html. I'd like to address another scene. It's a daring thing Roald Dahl did, as well as those who adapted his book. Child abuse is not a laughing matter, and Miss Trunchbull is typical of Dahl's adult villains, very irreverently portrayed and completely over the top. Yet again we see the tables turned against the bully by the reaction of the would-be victim and their friends. This time Trunchbull decides to pick on a sweet and diminutive girl called Amanda Thripp. The reason is, Amanda has her hair in pigtails and Trunchbull doesn't like pigtails. After some verbal humiliation, Trunchbull picks up Amanda by her pigtails and spins her around herself like a throwing hammer; Trunchbull being a former Olympic hammer throw champion. She hurls Amanda into the air with enormous force. The girl is tossed high and long over the school fence; however, in the middle of the trajectory, she gains control of her flight and lands softly in a field of beautiful flowers. She slides through the field, grinning with delight as she picks the flowers on the way. When she comes to a standstill, she stands up, shakes herself and holds up the bunch, waving to her friends who cheer in response. Miss Trunchbull is furious at the outcome. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7CZ4ev7gHc. This is very similar to the cake eating scene with Bruce. The abuser finds her own actions backfire against her by the response of her target and the support of her friends. That is the lesson we hospital porters must learn, and anybody else in a similar situation.

See here for more background: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2017/09/drop-dead-fred-film-review.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-future-by-stefan-molyneux.html.