Sexuality
The movie has many sexual connotations, mainly through the relationships between Susana and David and symbolized by their pet leopard, Baby. The leopard symbolizes the wildness and sexual ferocity – Susan is the one to induce this reaction in the usually sensible David. Moreover, there are numerous innuendos in place throughout the movie, not lease the “bone” that David is chasing after, which has phallic symbolism.
Heteronormative stereotypes
The movie mildly challenges a lot for the societal norms at the time. For example, Alice, David’s uptight fiancée, is portrayed in the manner of being gay at the time (being unresponsive to affection from David and caring about her career). Moreover, she does not wish for kids as was the role of woman at the time, and instead firmly stated that their marriage will “entail no domestic entanglements of any kind.”
Living Life
There is a secondary message of simply enjoying one’s life that runs throughout the movie, David spends all his time thinking about work and even his romantic relationship with Alice is more of a business arrangement than a romance. However, when he meets the kooky Susan, this all changes. She engages him in a wild adventure, chasing after his missing been and her pet leopard. By the end, he comes to appreciate that work is not everything when Susan destroys his long-awaited completed skeleton of the Brontosaurus but he tells her it does not matter.
