West End Movie Group

Stories of our Lives

© 2011 Linda Tiessen-Wiebe Contact Me

Get Low


”Every secret dies somewhere.”

GET LOW tells the story of Felix Bush (Robert Duvall), a man who’s been living sequestered from everyone for years, who decides he wants to buy a funeral. Not any kind of funeral, his own. And here’s the best part, he wants to attend it. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to throw a funeral for a man that is feared by the town folks. With some many horrible rumors being told about Felix, it’s going to take more than an invitation for people to show up. Read more, including an interview with Robert Duvall about this movie.

Watch Get Low trailer


Read reviews by Daemons Movies and Decent Films

Questions For Discussion

  1. What was Bush's real flaw that he was trying to redeem at the end of his life?

  2. What are the various possible meanings of the title?

  3. How does the humour help to develop the story arc?

  4. How do the supporting characters of Frank, Buddy and the preacher Charlie fit into the central narrative?

  5. After Bush decided to live a hermit life, wild stories developed around him, some of them true. Do we encourage false or one-sided stories about us when we choose to withdraw from relationships?

  6. Is this a Christian or a religious story? How would you explain your answer?

  7. What biblical stories or themes does this movie resonate with?

  8. Why do we build interior prisons that we don't want (or can't) escape from?

  9. Why is grace or forgiveness so hard to accept?(Forgiveness, Richard Rohr says, is the only new thing in creation. Everything else is recycling the same old patterns. )

  10. Is Bush's confession intentionally anti-climactic? Why or why not?

  11. Comment on the reviewer's conclusion about 'Get Low': "He was deprived of the happy ending he wanted, and, in the end, he came, albeit by tortuous paths, to the one he needed." 

  12. Comment on which of these quotes strikes you and why:
    “I paid."
    "I didn't do Jesus any wrong." 
    "For every one of me there is one of you." 
    "Right and wrong we think are far apart." 
    "You stay in one place your whole life.... the world keeps moving."
    "Free will is not all what it's cracked up to be."