Had planned on another Bond movie tonight, but I got sucked into Forrest Gump again. I know a lot of people hate the movie and think it is cheesy, but I just love it. I always well up when Bubba dies, though. And I love the Lt. Dan character.
Open Thread
by John Cole| 96 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
cathyx
I like it too. Even if it’s corny.
cathyx
I’ve got to have my daughter watch it. She would love it. Thanks for the reminder.
scav
And a happy marriage to Barney Frank and James Ready!
(I’m indulging myself with old Jonathan Creeks. Nice dumb locked room mysteries.)
Friday Jones
And I love Lt. Dan. Gary Sinise is a class act. I was in Afghanistan, the Lt Dan Band visited, and they went out of their way to meet, shake hands with, and/or have photos taken with just as many people as they could.
On the other hand, a popular (if you’re into that type of thing) country music singer who has a tacky “patriotic” song (his initials are Toby Keith) also visited Afghanistan while I was there and was a complete dick. Maybe he had a tummy ache or something. Perhaps there was a good excuse for his dickish behavior.
Full disclosure: I approached neither of them, I just watched as others did.
lamh35
Well good for you. I’ve just spent the last 2 hours watching Goldfinger. Damnit.
Lucky for me, I consider Goldfinger is best of Bond movies in the whole series. Has best line ever: “No Mr Bond, I expect you to die.” Best Bond girl name: “Psy Galore” and best henchman “Oddjob”
xaneroxane
JC, you are just the limit! I’m probably going to go the Bond route, tho. xoxoxo to you!
cathyx
@Friday Jones: Gary Sinise had been a favorite actor of mine until I heard about his political bent. Damn guy is a republican. Ugh.
johnny gentle famous crooner
I haven’t felt the same about that movie since I discovered it’s actually Tom Hanks. It’s not a documentary at all!
artem1s
Saw Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter last night and I have to admit, I loved it. yes there was campiness and anachronistic silliness but the director and actors managed to pull it off. Can’t recommend it enough if you are trying to get out of the heat for a couple of hours
zmullls
My problem with FORREST GUMP is that it tied very closely into the Republican mindset. Don’t think for yourself, do what your momma says, and you will be magically rewarded (with Apple stock and whatnot). If you go off to think for yourself, and try to control your own destiny — be an *individual* for gawds sake — you will be punished. You will lose your legs like Lieutenant Dan (who thought he would be a leader of men) or get AIDS and die like Robin (who didn’t follow society’s rules). The film has all sorts of unpleasant messages, even though it’s told with a level of technical skill.
My sister is a featured extra in the film. When Forrest sees Jenny in the reflecting pool, and runs from the podium to see her, he walks right by my red-headed sister, whose face is featured prominently for half a second. Also, when Forrest and Jenny are walking (in the next shot) at night among the protestors, there is a couple making out in the foreground. The woman on top leans back and throws her hair way up in the air, and back — that’s also my sister.
danielx
Late dinner…New York strips, seared before broiling, yellow rice, steamed asparagus with lemon and olive oil dressing, tossed salad, garlic bread. Dessert debate is between key lime pie and chocolate mint ice cream, although one party is holding out for “just a little bit of both”. Decisions, decisions…perhaps a Leinenkugel Amber Lager will help with the process.
lamh35
I suspect some Bill Maher lovers aren’t gonna like this, but so what. Even people like Ta-Nehisi Coates have commented on Maher’s “We need gangsta Obama instead of Wayne Brady” schidt.
So DAMN!!!! WAYNE BRADY WENT ALL IN ON BILL MAHER!!!
(NSFW)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpGgQX9frSY
After listening, it reminded me of the Chappelle skit with Wayne Brady..”Is Wayne Brady gonna have to cut a bitch…?”
lamh35
@lamh35: oh yeah can’t sleep on Shriley Bassie’s theme song either.
Steeplejack
Telenovelas. I’m sharing my brother’s house with his partner’s Brazilian aunt, so it’s Globo all the way tonight. I’m going to try to outlast her and watch some episodes of Monk later. Never watched that show when it was first on, but I got hooked on reruns a few months ago.
Got up to 104° in my little corner of NoVa today, but only up to 101° here in Arlington. High of 96° tomorrow. Balmy!
Raven
“Thanks for inviting me to your Black Panther Party. . .”
You know that Forest’s Vietnam story is based on Sgt Sammy Davis? I’ve met him a couple of times and he’s a really interesting guy. They superimposed Hank’s image over Sammy’s in the MOH Award ceremony with LBJ.
Nicole
I saw Forrest Gump in the theater. I remember, after the movie, my boyfriend at the time asked me what I thought. I gave some garble garble response about how the film showed a lot of pivotal moments in mid-to-late 20th Century American history, but didn’t say anything about them. My boyfriend said, “I think the film was saying, if you’re not a white man, you’re going to die.” He pointed out every main character who wasn’t a white man died in the movie. I argued that Gary Sinise got his legs blown off. My boyfriend countered, “But he didn’t die. So if you’re a smart white man, you end up crippled. If you’re a dumb white man, you end up a millionaire.”
Six years later, when GW Bush, during the 2000 campaign, said it was his favorite movie, I was a little sorry I was no longer in touch with that boyfriend, just so I could say, “You know, you were on to something there.”
That said, the original novel is freaking hilarious. Laugh out loud funny. I have no idea why it was turned into such a weepfest.
Amir Khalid
I liked Winston Groom’s book better than the movie. The movie lays on the soppy sentimentality with a trowel.
Just Some Fuckhead
Watching bluegrass on RFD.
Steeplejack
@lamh35:
That’s my favorite Chappelle show sketch. “Run, bitch! Run for your life! Get some help!”
Raven
“In June 2008, Sinise donated $2,300 to the Republican Presidential primary campaign of Arizona Senator John McCain.”
Ol Froth
If you like it, fine, but from a critical standpoint, its a feature length deus ex machina.
gogol's wife
So you missed Summertime on TCM with Katharine Hepburn and the divine Rossano Brazzi. Swoon. But maybe he wouldn’t make John Cole swoon.
rikyrah
I love Forrest Gump
Raven
@zmullls: In Savannah?
lamh35
@Steeplejack: hahaha yeah one of my favs too.
Is Wayne Brady Gonna Have To Choke A Bitch
gogol's wife
@scav:
Oh, I love Jonathan Creek. Haven’t seen one for ages.
rikyrah
@lamh35:
Chappelle shoulda won an Emmy for that
Raven
Fuck a bunch of right wingers that PLAY soldiers and make their living advocating for the republican skunks. Reagan, Sinise, Norris, Greenwood and his phony ass song. Fuck em all.
Raven
BOSTON, July 7 (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic Representative Barney Frank wed his longtime partner, James Ready, on Saturday, becoming the first sitting congressman to enter into a same-sex marriage.
suzanne
I’m gonna start the second season of Downton Abbey. I have a crush on Maggie Smith. God, is she awesome.
Raven
@suzanne: “Weekend”?
Amanda in the South Bay
@Raven:
I’d like your comment if this was Facebook. I think every right wing war whore who was eligible based on age should’ve enlisted after 9/11, or shutted the fuck up. Fuck, I enlisted, that’s more than Gary Sinise ever did.
lamh35
@Steeplejack:
Officer: “My mother in law loves you…she’s never gonna believe this…”
WB: “That’s ’cause she is never gonna know about it bitch…” (crack…)
YellowJournalism
I love the movie, too. The soundtrack was great, too.
I actually read the original book and didn’t care for it, and I usually love good satire. I couldn’t even get through the first few pages of the author’s attempt to cash in on a sequel.
gogol's wife
@suzanne:
It seems fashionable to say that the second season wasn’t as good as the first, but I loooved it.
Raven
@Amanda in the South Bay: Roger that. At least Hank’s is even handed. He got hammered by right-wingers for daring to be realistic about how we had to fight the Japanese in the Pacific.
Raven
@gogol’s wife: Yea, especially the part where NO ONE knew that someone paralyzed from the waist down couldn’t reproduce! We enjoyed it but it was nothing more than a high dollar soap.
Hill Dweller
How can a thinking person be a part of this Republican party?
I can almost understand being a member of that party forty years ago, but the current Republican party is both intellectually and morally bankrupt.
Josie
@gogol’s wife: Oh, I love Rossano Brazzi! I used to watch South Pacific just to see him sing “Some Enchanted Evening.”
Raven
Check out My Boy Jack and All the King’s Men (Maggie plays the Queen) for a serious look at the glory of WWI in Britain. They are both true stories.
CW in LA
I’m trying to figure out why the Storm have such a miserable time every friggin’ time they have to deal with the Sparks, and why that seemingly has to be so often.
S. Holland
Sorry, but I loved Forest Gumption….something about that movie just got me…..
Keith
I’m alternating between HBO boxing and The Quick And The Dead. It’s a really cool western, IMO, and Gene Hackman is awesome as always. And it’s got Lance Henrikson for an automatic star.
lamh35
A couple of new OfA ads. What do ya’ll think?
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0tZK_qHHCc&feature=player_embedded">"The Problem"
“Troubled”
Ron
We’re watching Forrest Gump here too. I just think it’s a good movie. I rarely let the politics of actors in a movie affect whether I watch it or like it. John Ratzenberger is a putz, but I’m not going to stop watching old Pixar movies.
suzanne
I have to another one of my architectural registration exams on Thursday and I am starting to get really fucking freaked out about it.
Need. Martini. Naow.
PurpleGirl
@suzanne: Enjoy it. As gogol’s wife says, many people claimed the second series wasn’t as good… but it continued the story.
Raven: High class soap it may be, but you need some of that every now and then.
I bought the new TV set after the second series was shown the first time but then it was shown again a month or so back and that time I was able to really see it.
Mustang Bobby
I always wanted to know who the feather wrangler was on Forrest Gump. Or was it CGI? :)
LT
I fucking love that movie. And just for the record: Billy Bob should get special Oscars for writing, directing, starring in, and casting “Slingblade.” That move was fantastic in so many ways.
Cacti
The moral of Forrest Gump:
Better to go through life as a clueless moron, lest you get AIDS and die like the hippie scum you are.
clayton
GAH — the Eastern Europeans I interacted with at the time thought it was all that.
I hate it because I thought it was stupid and I hadn’t seen it or read the book.
Later I did. I still hate it and that career that it launched. I’m not talking about Tom Hanks here.
LT
@cathyx: “Gary Sinise had been a favorite actor of mine until I heard about his political bent. Damn guy is a republican. Ugh.”
You should just write “I’m an idiot.” It would be faster.
P.S. I’m sorry. You’re probably nice – but manoman, that is just not right. If you like him as an actor – then you like him as an actor, FFS.
Thoroughly Pizzled
“Forrest Gump” is good, but “Pulp Fiction” deserved to win Best Picture.
Steeplejack
@lamh35:
Yeah, I had to hustle over to YouTube and watch it again.
LT
@Cacti:
The moral of Forrest Gump:
Get a good cast and a decent story and tell it in an original and creative way – and make us laugh and cry a bit – and then sit back, crack a beer, and wait for hipsters to be hipsters.
#RunHipsterRun
R-Jud
@Thoroughly Pizzled: That’s pretty much how it always goes with Best Picture, though. I mean, can you believe that “Crash” beat “Brokeback Mountain”? Or that “Rocky” beat “Taxi Driver”?
DougJ
Watched Gump the other day. It’s good except Hanks sucks as the southern retard. And do we need another movie about how souther people are retards? At some point, it’s an offensive cliche.
lamh35
this really is a nice write-up of Barney Frank’s wedding today to his long-time partner.
Congrats Mr Frank and Mr Ready.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/fashion/weddings/barney-frank-wedding-jim-ready.html?_r=2&smid=tw-nytnational&seid=auto
Schlemizel
I wanted to like the movie, its a clever story and the special effect used is well done. I enjoyed it while watching but the more I thought about it the more it pissed me off.
I hate hate hate that Forrest can go through life completely untouched by the world around him. I have worked with mentally challenged adults and believe they are often MORE impacted by the people around them not less. Then there is the really nasty streak of misogyny throughout the “love story” side of the tale.
LT
@DougJ: “And do we need another movie about how souther people are retards?”
I know! We get it already!
TooManyJens
@lamh35: That was a really beautiful article, thanks.
LT
@Schlemizel:
For fuck’s sake.
You know what I hate: that Peter pan can fly! Cuz I know some fairies – and they can’t fucking fly at all! And life’s hard for them!
** I spent a total of about seven years working in a group home with DD adults. Deeply rotten difficult fucking life for a lot of those folks, yes. Less for others.
clayton
@LT: Just another faker coasting on wingnut glory.
Will you pay him $3.67?
magurakurin
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
Pulp Fiction is a thousand times the movie that Forest Gump is.
Forest Gump lacks an ending. The characters throughout the film are allegories for different elements and changes in American society. It’s sort of interesting in its way, even if one doesn’t agree with the various portrayals of those elements of society. But then in the end, Gump and Jenny are just people. It’s like Canterbury Tales for Late 20th Century America became a Harlequin Romance novel.
hated it.
LT
@clayton:
What?
magurakurin
@R-Jud: “Crash” what a piece of nihilistic shit that movie is. The only film worse on that level is “Babble.” Now there is a movie that shouldn’t let a friend watch.
magurakurin
@DougJ:
“never go full retard”
Boudica
Forrest Gump is one of the few movies I can think of that I consider better than the book. I’m not a sappy person, but I always tear up when Forrest is talking to Jenny’s headstone. It’s just one of those movies that you can come across on TV and join in and enjoy from whatever point.
clayton
@LT: Your boy Gary is just another coaster. There is a wingnut site that charges gullible people $3.67 to comment.
It’s all the same thing.
Once you figure out how to stop grifters from draining your side of money, then maybe we can talk.
Otherwise, do please keep up.
Cacti
@R-Jud:
Dances With Wolves beating Goodfellas tops my list.
Kevin fucking Costner won an oscar for Best Director before Martin Scorsese.
MikeJ
@magurakurin: The JG Ballard Crash, which I love, or the other one, that I never saw?
Now I have to go crank up The Normal.
NotMax
Been cooking for the last 3-plus hours. Still have about another hour or so to go.
Then move the whole shebang to the car and head over to where the regular Saturday night gathering is held.
Fingers and toes crossed that reheating the main dish of stuffed turkey breast in a slow oven there while the pot of curried eggplant gets up to simmer temp on the stove doesn’t dry it all out.
On the plus side, this group of folks would eagerly gobble down a pan of gravel if that was what was served.
NotMax
Forrest Gump: half a thumb up
Being There: 1-and-a-half thumbs up
Most undeserving of a “Best Picture” Oscar ever, IMHO? The Goodbye Girl
LT
@clayton:
This happens every fucking time I come here: some fucker like Clayton comments and I’m fucking flashbacking like holy fuck.
John, you have got to do something about this. I am really scaring the cat.
clayton
@LT:
You are special.
Happy?
You don’t get American political or entertainment culture and you cry to JC.
That’s weak.
magurakurin
@MikeJ:
“Crash” the one with Don Cheadle. It supposed to be about how all these random people are connected by the common hideous bond of racism. It’s dreck and depressing. The basic point of the movie is “There’s racism in La.” Yeah, no shit.
Plus from a dramatic standpoint the climactic punishment of the main character is far, far too severe for his sins. It just makes your brain hurt.
But “Babble” with Brad Pitt is way worse. The film uses English, Spanish, Japanese and, I believe Arabic, to make the point of how communication is difficult. Considering that I understand fluent three of those languages, my own existence seems to weaken that point. Plus the whole point of the film seems to be “life sucks, people die.” Yeah, again, no shit. Not much of a basis for a compelling film in my opinion.
Don’t watch either one. Better to watch something like Zoolander or Mystery Men instead.
Yutsano
@NotMax:
Just add some extra water. It will simmer out as the curry comes to temp.
LT
@clayton:
At the very top of the site you obviously just went to it says I’m American.
That insult/joke was “crying to John”? Are you fucking serious?
I have absolutely no fucking idea what you’re talking about – except maybe the Gary part. I’m assuming that’s Sinise. I didn’t mention Sinise, except indirectly, in regards to casting “Gump.” Maybe you meant to respond to someone else?
As far as the $3.67 – I have no idea what you’re talking about.
James E. Powell
@lamh35:
I like them both, but I am not exactly the target audience.
James E. Powell
@NotMax:
That was the “Screw you, Woody!” Oscar
NotMax
@Yutsano
Thanks, but I think the steam from the water will soften the spinach/cheese/prosciutto stuffing too much and it will leak messily, so will probably rub the turkey liberally with olive oil and hope for the best. :)
KRK
I really hated Forrest Gump. Cheesiness is just the tip of the iceberg.
clayton
@LT: I didn’t give you a click, man.
Yeah you like other wingnuts, go crying to JC when you get a flesh wound. It doesn’t work.
You didn’t need to mention Sinise. I knew who you were raving about. He got way too much mileage for that, especially given that he didn’t care enough to serve.
I already told you what the @3.67 is about. Use your google or memorandum fu to figure it out.
Hell you are probably one of the people who paid to comment.
Mike G
@KRK:
This.
Cheesiness, manipulative sentimentality laid on with a cement mixer, and the smug worldview that you don’t need knowledge or experience, all kinds of awesome stuff will happen just by showing up and following your gut.
It’s the GW Bush of movies.
magurakurin
@clayton: dude, I’m thinkin you must be pretty drunk right now.
just sayin that, you know, you’re not making a whole lot of sense one way or the other.
maybe it’s time to burn a jay, eh?
LT
@clayton:
You made the “You don’t get American political or entertainment culture” just out of the blue? Well, because I’m just like that – okay, I believe you. I was wrong.
Clayton, I am begging you. Do not be this guy. I said:
Read this slower than usual: I wasn’t actually appealing to John. I was making a funny. The “flashbacking” and “scaring the cat,” I think, should make this apparent.
Now please read that again even slower. For all of us.
Forget everything I said. And next time the attendant leaves the room for a little while please start playing with scissors. It’s fun! No matter what they say!
Oh, okay! Please give me few hours! Wait for me!
Narcissus
I didn’t like Gump. It’s basically a message to the silent-majority type excusing their inaction: Remember the sixties and seventies, how you just watched from the sidelines while history was made? You did the right thing by not rocking the boat, and not having any ambition, by just going with the societal flow.
It never did sit well with me.
CW in LA
@NotMax: Three words: The. English. Patient.
And a fourth word: Sucks.
mai naem
I watched the movie at the theater. I remember liking the movie but I hadn’t watched it till I caught the second half of it a couple of months ago. Caught the first half of it today it. I feel like I had forgotten the movie. I didn’t have a problem with Gary Sinise when he was helping the soldiers but I think he another one for whom 9/11 allowed them to show all their wingnut with pride. He was on Sean Hannity.
I have a friend who helped with the USO set up and said Carlos Mencia was an a hole. I also remember Al Franken talking about doing USO tours and Sylvester Stallone was supposed to come on one but he cornered Al Franken at a party and asked him about the plane landing…anyhoo Rambo apparently is a big chicken IRL.
David Koch
Life is like a box of chocolates, you just never know what Bond movie ya gonna get
David Koch
@NotMax:
GG didn’t win for best picture. Dryefuss won best actor, but it was in a really weak field.
asiangrrlMN
@lamh35: That’s awesome, and the Dave Chapelle skit with Wayne Brady is BRILLIANT. It had me rolling in tears, especially since the outtakes show Wayne Brady expressing his discomfort with the classic line.
I never cared for Forrest Gump at all – just seemed so sentimental and syrupy.
Freemark
@asiangrrlMN: Gotta admit I sometimes like sentimental and syrupy. Iwatch It’s a Wonderful Life every year also. And I LIKE IT.:-)
mellowjohn
vastly prefer winston groom’s first book, “better times than these.”
tybee
@Mustang Bobby:
the feather scene at the beginning of the movie, with the revolving door (and that scene is not in many of the tv versions) was shot at the first union building in savannah on johnson square. i worked there for 4 years or so…is always amusing to watch that movie to see parts of savannah and beaufort, sc.
Pangloss
That’s funny…. I stayed up to 3 am last night watching the film and all the extras on a two-disk DVD version of Pulp Fiction.