Phil gripping the bed

1
Does anyone find any significance in the way phil grips the bed as vito is being beaten. The camera focuses on his hand so i'm sure there is a reason for it..even though it doesnt totally add up it could possibly another hint at phil's closet homosexuality
Tony: You killed the dog? What'd you do that for?
Chris: It was an accident.
Paulie: What was it, barking?

Re: Phil gripping the bed

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Based on how gung-ho Phil is to have Vito killed, I think we are definitely led to believe that his anger may protest too much. After all, he was in prison for a long time. Between his prison time, his anger about Vito, and that he quite literally steps "out of the closet"in the Vito-murder scene, I think its a safe assumption to make that Phil is not necessarily as straight as he wants everyone to believe. Or, there is grey area for him which he'd prefer be black and white.

Re: Phil gripping the bed

3
yea i see these hints in Ritchie and Tony B too, who also came from prison. Ritchie prefering to keep the lights off during his welcome home gift from tony, and altohugh this might be a reach, Tony B having Queen's "we are the champions" ringtone, considering lead singer freddie mercury was gay..i just feel its too random of a choice of ringtone to not have a meaning...and to add to phil's hints, is his clear distraction when the bodybuilders are on the television after vito's funeral.
Tony: You killed the dog? What'd you do that for?
Chris: It was an accident.
Paulie: What was it, barking?

Re: Phil gripping the bed

4
Thats interesting, Wes. I would spin the Queen song in a different way personally. Tony B is such a sad sack character. He was screwed over and sent to prison, while everyone else prospered he rotted away in the clink, his daughter ran away, etc etc. It is just quite the dichotomy (laced with irony) that he has had such a sad life but chooses We are the Champions, a heroic confident song.

It also brings to mind the sign that is given to Tony B as a present. I can't recall the exact wording, but it is incredibly optimistic based on the poor guy's circumstances.

Re: Phil gripping the bed

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"Because I'm the Boss
...that's why!"

That was the sign.

I don't think Phil is necessarily homosexual, whether he's conscious of it or not. I think that, in prison, he was faced with the choice of masturbation for twenty years, or substituting a guy somewhere along the way. When Phil is talking about the compromises he's made through two decades in the can ("Walk Like a Man" if I'm not mistaken) he says "I wanted to fuck a woman, I compromised...I jacked off into a tissue". Something about the fact that he specifically said "woman" instead of "I wanted to have sex" seems to give it away. Then there's also the fact that it seems his wife either knows this or at least senses it, and uses it against Vito when telling Phil how much of a disgrace to the family the situation is. Her insistence was probably based on a combination of her desire to make her husband feel better, and her ridiculous archaic religious beliefs. Phil struck me as similar to those self-loathing conservative politicians that spend their careers voting against every bit of gay rights legislation, and voting for any discriminatory policies, while they themselves are homosexual.
What violin?!
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