Think five to ten years down the track, who will play a vital role in your life? Will you still be friends with the ones you call friends now? What really is the definition of true friendship? And how do Charlie and Slade portray this, in the film Scent of a Woman by Martin Brest? Furthermore, why is friendship so important in society? Why does it have such a big impact on our lives? I believe it gives us security and a feeling of wanting to be needed, but is that all we really need?.
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Charlie and Slade are two men, polar opposites it would seem, each struggling with life choices. One is plagued with a moral crisis while the other is a walking crisis, yet these two seem to find in each other the strength to face their particular problems. .
Charlie Simms is a seventeen-year-old boy, who goes to a private, rich boy's New Hampshire boarding school, and is on a full scholarship. He crosses paths with Lieutenant Colonel Slade, an obnoxious retired colonel with a very limited appreciation of women. He intensely despises himself, and is undergoing a rapid physical deterioration as he mentally contemplates his forthcoming death. The link between the mind and the body is clear as he programs his body to slow down it's functioning in preparation for its final demise. .
Charlie first thought of Slade as a misanthrope, a person who dislikes people in general. But later discovers that Slade and his cross roads were destined to meet each other. .
"Two may talk together under the same roof for many years, yet may not really meet; and two others at first speech are old friends." I believe this is a good saying for the movie Scent of a Woman, because it shows the relationship between Charlie's School friends with Charlie himself, and Slade with Charlie. .
However, is the relationship between Charlie and Slade a true friendship? I believe true friendship is extremely rare, even though most of us will make lots of friends throughout out lifetimes; very few will be true friends.