Crazy Love Essay

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Psy Law Crazy Love Dan Klores documentary Crazy Love released in 2007 recounts the tumultuous relationship between Burt Pugach and Linda Riss that has endured over half a century. In 1957, Burt Pugach was a 32-year-old rich successful lawyer who set his sights on a much younger and beautiful 21-year-old Ms. Riss. After a fantastical courtship, Ms. Riss discovered that Mr. Pugach was married and broke off their relationship. Upon hearing of her engagement to another man, Mr. Pugach hired several men to blind Ms. Riss with lye. He was later convicted and spent 14 years in prison for this heinous crime. Shortly after his release from jail he married Ms. Riss and as of today they are still married. Burt Pugach 79, and Linda Riss Pugach 68 along with several of their mutual friends recount their story. Crazy Love is not as much a love story as it is a tale of obsession, possession and self-preservation. In 1957, an admittedly awkward looking Burt Pugach became enchanted with a beautiful 21-year-old brown-eyed brunette on a sidewalk in the Bronx. Mr. Pugach was a rich, successful lawyer who had just returned from a trip from England where he produced a movie. As per Ms. Riss’s own admission she felt he was completely out of her element and she perceived him to be unattractive. But she remembered her grandmother saying upon learning that he was a lawyer “ If he is better looking than the devil than he is good looking”. It is implied early on in the documentary that because Ms. Riss lacked a stable father figure (she was raised by divorced mother, aunt and grandmother) and because of that she was some how vulnerable to Mr. Pugachs charms. My personally estimation was that this was not the case. Her friends and cousin recount how traumatic it was for Ms. Riss to grow up without a father. I recognize the impact this could have on a young girl especially during the

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