Wake in Fright : No head wound?

No head wound?

I noticed after he got out of hospital, he'd been there long enough to have his hair grow back, with no trace of the bullet wound.

Was this a goof, or am I missing something?

Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.

Re: No head wound?

Yeah, it was odd. I really doubt it was a goof as it's not exactly a minute detail - he's filmed in profile after all - and wouldn't have been hard to re-shoot. I don't know if it was meant to indicate the amount of time he spent recovering (though he was already conscious the next day or so), or whether the director was implying something over my head, but it did slightly take me out of the film. If there was no intention of ambiguity they should've at least given him a small bandage.
One possible clue I just thought of: in the very beginning I think there's a mention that winter break is 6 weeks. He spends something like the first 5 nights on his downward spiral after leaving the school-town, right? Then he leaves the hospital fresh as a daisy and proceeds to the train station. When he returns to the school-town the bartender welcomes him back and makes no mention that he's early. Just asks him how his break was. So it's possible he was in the hospital for over a month. They also probably didn't need to shave his head for surgery because it was some kind of graze and not a direct hit (in which case I suppose he'd be dead) as Doc implies.

Re: No head wound?

That is a good explanation.

Also, the whole movie has a very dream-like quality to it, so it reinforces the idea that the events were some sort of hangover hallucination.

Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.
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