Forrest Gump

The friends discuss various movies, including "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Quiz Show," "Pulp Fiction," "The Shawshank Redemption," and "Forrest Gump." They talk about the characters, storylines, and their personal opinions on each film. They particularly focus on the character arc of Jenny in "Forrest Gump" and how the movie portrays historical events. They also mention the soundtrack and discuss the charm and enjoyment they find in the film. Hello, welcome to Subliminal, I'm Eric, and I'm Bonnie, and we are here coming down the off-shore of Sardespa Surfing, yes we are, we are all the way up to number 34, that is correct. So, what are you going to surf us today? 1994's Forrest Gump. Yes, what's your history with Forrest Gump? I have seen Forrest Gump at least a couple of times before this week. Okay. Yeah, maybe I don't know. Probably, maybe I saw it with the others in 1994, I don't know. Oh, I was here for this? Yeah. Yeah, so before we get into Forrest Gump, let's take a look at some of the losers. Okay. I remember a part where they had a girl. Yes, I have seen that, again, I've seen that a couple of times. Oh, okay. And that's a movie from 1994. Yeah, you like it? I do like it. Yeah. I mean, it's a rom-com. Yeah, it was kind of a sleeper hit. Okay. But maybe the stretcher lineup, it's Hugh Grant and Amy McDowell. I'm a little surprised that it was, you know, Best Picture. Yeah, I'm surprised too, especially under the competition. But it was one of those movies that they think was British-produced, but it kind of became a hit when it went off. Yeah, okay. I haven't seen it in a long time, but it's kind of a typical 90s rom-com. Right, yeah. Yeah, I would say. It's about, kind of, these two people are not in the same circle of friends, but they're like maybe one or two degrees separated, so they run into each other at big events. Right, right. And hence the title, Four Weddings and a Funeral. Right. And Spark Up a Romance. Yes. That's pretty much what I remember. Yeah. It made a star out of Hugh Grant. Okay. Yeah. He does look pretty young here. Yeah. She was already a star. Yeah, she has been in a few things. Grand Husband. Yeah, Grand Husband, definitely. Quiz Show. Quiz Show? Is that Voldemort? Ralph Fiennes is in it, yes. Yeah, he plays Charles Endor. It's about the Quiz Show scandals of 1959. Popular Quiz Show 21 was rigged for ratings, and they kind of hid that from the public, and it was a big scandal. Top of the Trade is, like, one of those events where, you know, America lost its innocence. But I think it's a very absorbing drama, directed by Robert Redford. Oh, okay. We saw him recently as an actor in this thing, but we've also seen his other directorial efforts, or one of his other ones, with Ordinary People. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, there's also the stars in it. It's a part of Old Paul Schofield, from A Man For All Seasons. He has a similar type of role, because he's kind of the consummate of the song. Okay. He plays, I think, the fine father? No, I think it's his father. Is he in that? Was he Thomas? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he's Thomas More. Okay. So you've seen this film. Yeah. You like it? I do like it. Yeah, I like it a lot, too. Also, the Shawshank Redemption. Oh, I did see that. Yeah. I really like that. Wow. Have we ever done this? Yeah. These are movies that I've... Yeah, the last one, I know you haven't seen, but you've definitely heard of it. But, yeah. How do you know I'm here? I know you haven't seen it. Maybe I have. Okay, well, let's talk about the Shawshank Redemption first. Okay. You have seen it. I have seen it. Prison drama. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, based on the Stephen King story. Okay. This is the one where Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman are in prison. Okay. So, you've seen it. Yeah. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. 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I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it. It does have violence and swear words. Well, I mean, I just watched Succession. That was, like, occasionally they had enough. Yeah, it has these three interlocking... It's about a little bit about gangsters in L.A., and it's such an interesting take on the gangster drama genre, which by this point had pretty much been mafia-centric, and this is just these three interlocking stories that are kind of told out of sequence and just kind of pulled together in, I think, a thrilling way. But yeah, I've seen it several times now, so I'm a big Pulp Fiction fan. Quentin Tarantino's second movie, the one that put him on the map to mainstream audiences, had kind of a following of an independent film. Okay. Never heard of it. That's his first one. Yeah, so this movie was led by two massive hits with almost the same amount of money, but Forrest Gump and The Lion King, same summer. Okay. I'm sure you saw both of them in theaters. I definitely saw The Lion King in theaters. Yeah. Massive hits. Is that the... Sorry, I'm jumping to your third one. Yeah, well... Is that the Jim Carrey one? No, but... Liar, Liar. Yeah, Liar, Liar is a Jim Carrey movie. This is the year, though, that put Jim Carrey on the map. He had three hits this year, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, and Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, all staying the same year. True Lies is Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Carrey. Oh, okay. It's kind of an action comedy written by James Cameron. Okay. So they do Titanic in this year. Right, and also Avalon or... Avatar. Avatar. Yes. Okay. Okay, Speed, I've heard of Speed. Yeah, Speed is a big hit that year. Is Clear of Present Danger one of the novels? Jack Ryan, yeah, I think it was a novel. I think it was part of the House of Red October trilogy. Right, yep. Yeah, so what is Forrest Gump about? Forrest Gump tells the story of Forrest Gump. Okay. It tells an interesting story, but it basically follows this guy, we'll talk about how it's narrated, but it goes, it's sort of his memoir from the time he was a child until... I wouldn't say he was only 40 maybe. Right. For the family devices, he's telling the story to strangers at a bus stop. At a bus stop. And he tells a continuous story, and we should say he's, what, on the spectrum? He's some sort of... We don't know specifically his IQ of 76 or something. Oh, that's right. Or points below 80. Yeah. It's like 69, he had to be 70 or something like that. I thought he had to be 80, but he has a low IQ, but... It's functional. Yeah, low enough to make a significant impact on his life, but not too low that he can take care of himself. Right. Yeah, such an interesting framing device. Right. But, anyway, we'll get into that. And then, of course, famously, he's inserted his life story, it's all these things, all this real footage of historical events in America, and he's in all these things. Yeah. But, yeah, who's the love of his life? The love of his life is the Princess Bride. Yeah. Jenny. Jenny. And they start out as best friends, although he has always loved her, and best buddies his kids. She's a very troubled, beautiful young woman, and it follows... Yeah. She's really... It's interesting, she's almost like the story of America. Yeah, well, we'll get into that. But, anyway, so, yeah, it's her issues as you go. But it's basically, it's an unconventional love story, but it's essentially... I definitely wouldn't characterize this as a rom-com. No, no, certainly not. Yeah. And probably the other main characters are his mother, played by Sally Field, and his best friend, I guess you would say, is Lieutenant Dan. Yeah. So, he goes off to Vietnam, of course, Dan goes off to Vietnam, and he's a commanding officer, right? He's a lieutenant, yeah. He's a lieutenant. Yeah, I don't know the terminology, but he's the guy in charge when it gets there. Yeah. He's the team commander or something. Yes. So, what are your thoughts on First Stop? Well, I mean, you know, because you've watched it with me, I enjoy this movie immensely. I do like this movie. So, sorry about that. I just find it very enjoyable. You're going to try to talk me out of it, but I still like it. How am I going to talk you out of it? I don't know. It's a watchable movie. It's hard to... It's funny, because in some respects it's very polarizing, but it's hard not to enjoy it, or to get back to that point. I also... It makes me think, like, oh, maybe there's, you know, about... You take different parts, because I just watched it the one time all the way through, but I was like, I'd kind of like to outline this film and break it down a little bit more and see what other nuggets, because it is interesting the way it deals with, you know, like he's telling the story to these people, and they kind of... That all takes place within a couple hours, say, of each other. Maybe it's one hour. I don't know. But I guess it's a couple hours, because he's telling it. But the people change. You know, they get older as they go. The type of character, the gal who starts out, she looks like she could kind of be fit into the 50s, or whatever, when he starts. And so they... Anyway, it's kind of indicative of the decades as you go along. So there's all sorts of little nuggets like that that are part of it. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's very much a boomer movie, too. I mean, in terms of the type of whole events that it will show are all... Yes. They're basically... Yeah. Early boomers. Right? No, I guess just regular boomers. Yeah, just regular boomers. Yeah. Yeah. Because they're all... And a bee. You're right. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's... I've always pretty much liked it. I think this time I probably enjoyed it the most of all the times I've seen it. Yeah, as I said, it's just hard to say I hate it, even though there are some... I hate the word, but there are some problematic aspects to it. But it's just so... Yeah. Yeah. And I think it builds up a lot of charm that I think remains a little bit toward the end. I think it does, for me, start to drag a bit, maybe, after the short bit of stuff, but I don't think the charm runs out. It's still very enjoyable. It's very, I think, fast-moving, if you ask me. Yeah, and it's interesting, the character development that you see is not Forskump himself, because he's too simple for that. Right? So he's completely dial-less, and kind of innocent, and just... Both in a sense. He just stays the same from childhood through adulthood. All of that, right? But the people that he... It's really the characters that surround him that we see go through these great developmental changes, in particular, you know, Jenny, obviously, Lieutenant Dan. Yeah, I think Lieutenant Dan probably has the most character arc. Jenny has a pretty interesting character arc. I don't really call it an arc. She's just everything that happens to her. Yeah, but she really changes, you know? So by the end, she's gotten her act together, and for the first time, she can be on her own. You know, where she's always been... That's why she just... She had a terrible growing up period. Her father was abusive. A really awful child. Really horrible. Just the worst of all things. She was physically, and sexually, and mentally abused as a child. So then you watch her go through this series of... She was, like, incapable of love. She couldn't love him back. She had this real pure love, but she just kept seeking wrong... You know, she just went from relationship to relationship, not knowing, trying to fill some sort of hole, and she kept getting abused, and he would keep running into her, and all of that. But then finally, at the end, she... Yeah. But I would say that, because the panel is a much clearer arc, because we see it on screen, whereas Jenny, her change is mostly off screen. She just comes back into the picture, having put her life back together. To some extent. Yeah, well, I think... But it's not like she shows back up without explanation, and we don't know why. All the way through, yeah. It's like her... Whatever character arc she had has happened in the meantime, and we don't really see it. As with Lieutenant Dan, we definitely see him having experiences that change his perspective on screen. Yeah, I totally... I see that as more of a character arc. Well, so, I mean, I don't disagree with anything that you're saying, but I think that it was a different type of character arc that we saw with her. So, yes, everything was happening off screen, but that was part of how it all went, is that she was there at the beginning, then she went away, and then she came back, and went away. And every time we would get the snippet of... Of course, always, even in between, he was always undying in his, you know, like, true love, really as good as the other love for her. Like Jack. Like Jack, right. But much more mature, even though he was... Oh, okay. He wasn't any more mature. Anyway, but like Jack in Titanic. Right. I mean, whatever, but it's just Jack was, like, 48 hours long, or whatever. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it takes a while for that sort of, I mean... Yeah, but I mean, I was thinking just like as a, not a love story in particular, but as a person, sort of for his age. You know, I was talking about that love, that aspect of love. He had many decades to mature that love, right? Yeah. And to be clear, we're talking about Jack from Titanic. Jack from Titanic. And anyway, with Forrest Gump, he... The difference, actually, is that he had an idealized version of her to begin with, but, I don't know, he loved her even as he found out, realized, she's ruining everything. I mean, she's doing basically everything that you could do wrong, and she definitely follows the Berkeley, hippie, druggie, you know, boomer, you know, gets involved in all of that, all of that stuff, and anyway. Yeah. And then, but what I love about her, the way they portrayed her character arc, is that she had finally hit rock bottom, and we kind of see her heading to rock bottom, and we keep thinking she's got to be at rock bottom, but then it keeps getting worse. Yeah. And then we see her... Yeah, I mean, at one point it looks like she's going to... Right, so we do see that, you know, and then she, you know, she's going to throw herself off, she's like, and then she just leaves. She walks out. It's got a great soundtrack, by the way. Oh, yeah, throughout. I mean, this is peppered with the classics, and it's so easy to use. Yeah. And so it's just, she's walking right out that door, you know, so they play that... It was Friedberg, right? Well, during that, but then when she's leaving, it's... This is the door, right? Love Her Madly is at some point in her... Yeah, it's Friedberg. Yeah, I mean, there's the tone. Anyway, so it's all so good. I mean, five different door sounds. But I like how they show that, and then she disappears, but then we see her just appear to him as, you know, just kind of a broken person for the first time. She's, like, devoid of this pride and almost hubris that she's had, and sort of a... She'd always been his protector, in a way, or at least thought of herself as... I don't know. There was still a pride for her. Yeah, but at various times in her life, she's not capable of being a protector. Right. And that's what all she has to have. Right, yeah. And so then she comes, and she is finally devoid of any pride, and she spends some time. That's when it's really this... They kind of fall in love. She starts seeing him in a different way. They consummate the relationship, and then she leaves. Right. We find out later that she became pregnant from that. Yes. With Haley Dawson. Ah. Wait, what else do we know him from? The Sixth Sense. I don't know if you've seen that. I've seen him in other things. Yeah, he was in AI, which I don't think you've seen that either. Something more mainstream. But anyway. Yeah, okay. But anyway, so she... But I like that she walks out, because at that point, she has left that world of drugs behind, and this time she leaves, because if she stays, then she's just going to be dependent on him. And she needs to know that she can do this on her own. And so then we see... The next time we see her, she's just this hardworking... Waitress. Waitress. Single mom waitress, and has been doing it, right? And she just has this calmness, and a calmness and an inner strength that we've never seen before, but following the signs of the times like that we've had, she has AIDS. She's contracted AIDS from the drug stuff. They never say... Yeah, I was kind of surprised. It's pretty much assumed in the discourse of the movie that she gets AIDS. Yeah. But it doesn't say it. It doesn't say it. It was a little early for her. But it's not... Not too early, but it's kind of remarkable. Right. But it's fitting. I didn't remember it from past watches. This watch, it was like, oh, she's got AIDS, which kind of makes sense because at each point... So in the sequel novel, it says that it's hepatitis C that she has, but it's almost universally said that it's AIDS. Yeah. Although her death is more like... It doesn't look like AIDS. It doesn't look like AIDS. It looks like she... Yeah. It kind of looks like a cancer. It's very similar to her mother's stuff. Except that... In the same bed. It was the way she described it, as this kind of mysterious... The virus that they don't know anything about. Yes, exactly. By that point, we've been conditioned to look for things that were newsworthy in the 20s. Exactly, right. Yes. So they sort of indicate that that's what it is. But anyway, so it's kind of... We think that we... So then when she calls them because she knows she's going to die, that's the other thing. Something where she knows that it's fatal. Right. So that also fits into the AIDS thing. Right. Especially at that point. And we're used to seeing the AIDS patients as emaciated, and the actress doesn't get that way. But anyway, and then they just have this... Then he does take care of her, and they kind of have this beautiful ending to her story. So I would say that we do see... We see her at the depths. We see her getting beaten. We do see her want to kill herself, and then come down. Right. And then we do see her kind of hit rock bottom. So we see enough to say that, is it as impactful as a character on... Right. I mean... I mean... I mean, she changes more than Forrest Gump changes, but you just have to kind of connect the dots in a way that you don't with Lieutenant Dan. You just kind of see him on screen. Yeah. I'm not saying that's good or bad. Yeah, yeah. And Lieutenant Dan is just a great... He's great. Curtis is terrific. Oh, my gosh. He's so good. And his special effects are amazing. Yeah. And I love that... 20 years later. Amazing. Yeah, because he... I love how they put that. But his character arc is also really great. They're actually both... Both of them, and I guess that's why I put her into the same thing, is that they're both kind of saved by Forrest Gump. I mean, Gary's... They're both literally saved. I mean, Gary... Well, he's... I mean, Lieutenant Dan is literally saved by him. Yeah. But even the... He's not that happy about it. He's not that happy about it. No, he's very unhappy about it. But both of them are transformed as people into really good, healthy... They go from emotionally unhealthy to emotionally healthy because of him and his hopefulness and innocence and purity. Yeah. I mean, they're both suicidal at this point. Yeah. Right. Turn to fraudulence. Yeah. And he gives them no good advice or... It's not like he's even trying to change their characters or anything. Yeah. It's just his... He almost symbolizes all that's good. Yeah. And just by being exposed to goodness and hope, it transforms them and it seeps into them. Yeah. Yeah. One of the problems that I've had with it on previous watches that I've kind of come around on is I kind of get annoyed at this thing I call... My term for it is recognition porn, which is just shows something that the audience recognizes that the characters don't. And it's just such a lazy... And the Titanic reference is the Picasso death. Picasso, yeah. Right. Which is... Yeah. And it's one thing for... The audience all laughs just to show that they get the joke. Right. And it's just like a very cheap method of engagement that I think kind of annoys me. I agree. In many ways, this is kind of like a movie version of the Picasso joke, because you see it constantly throughout. And that was like a real stumbling point for me. It just seems so cheap. But this time when I'm watching it, I'm thinking, well, it's more... It's just so baked into the cake that it's not even this cheap kind of laziness. I think it does serve a purpose, because it's kind of a fun learning of something we see over and over again, which is the inability to understand what you're in the middle of. Yes. And we see that in more serious ways with not understanding racism, not understanding sexual abuse. But I think the kind of little Easter eggs about John Lennon writing Imagine, and the bumper stickers, and the t-shirts, and all the stuff that we're like, oh, haha. It kind of almost reinforces that case. And going back to John Lennon, we kind of... It's a silly thing, but we see kind of this instant of the person's life, and then zoom back to see the whole, or at least to see what his fate is. And you get the sense of, at this point where these two paths are crossing, he has no idea, John Lennon has no idea what trajectory he's on in his life. And the public doesn't, the cabinet doesn't, but there's a greater story that you can't see when you're kind of in the middle of it. And so I appreciate that more this time around. Yeah, that's definitely how I see it, too, is that with Titanic, it's just a cheap joke. But here, it's actually... Exactly. I mean, you described it very... I can't improve on how you said it. Well, thank you. But it also reminded me of, like, he sort of represents the American idealism, and how we're not devoid of any of that, even at some of these very low points. We know that he gets assassinated, we know that the whole Nixon thing, it's kind of hilarious how they have him in there. But it's like, they're showing... America's going through some really challenging, messy, ugly things. I mean, you see how many people are being shot. Yeah, and so... But throughout that, he's like this constant that is almost like this pointer to, you know, we're not totally lost. There's still an element of hope, even in all of these things. And I love how they... This is not an example of the recreated scene. Oh, actually, it might be. I don't know. But that's where he's in uniform, and he goes to that rally on the mall that is a veteran's rally, and he doesn't know, because he's not anti-war, he's not anti-anything. He doesn't have a... He does not really have an ideology. Yeah, he doesn't, because he's sort of beyond that, right? Anyway, and they show him. They ask him to come speak, because he's got to receive a medal of honor. Right. Ask him to come speak, and then we don't hear his speech, because he says, here's what I have to say about the war. And you know it's not going to be anti-war or anything, but it's like he could... And then we hear it. They finally get it fixed, right? At the end, where he says, so that's all I have to say about it. So, we don't hear that, but the war protesters all take that as this inspirational message. Anyway, let's just... So, actually, what was the scripture that he said before they ended up going to that rally? He just basically says, well, you know, war is a place where you go, and sometimes you come home without laying, and sometimes you come home, and sometimes you don't come home at all. And that's all I have to say about that. And so, it's like, but that's something that, like, Abbie Hopkins... Yeah, right. Anybody can read. You can read into it what you want. Yeah, yeah. Well, I, you know, I agree that it's... Yeah, that it's... But that gets into, I think, the most polarizing aspect of the movie, which is that politics is very much a conservative movie, certainly in terms of how much it glorifies kind of conformity and rule-following gets rewarded, and then the portrait of the counterculture anti-war protesters, and particularly the Black Panthers, I think, is the most controversial thing here. It's just very... It's portrayed very, almost cartoonishly, negatively. Is it? I see, to me, the part, that scene with the Black Panthers, the ones who were portrayed very negatively in there were the, you know, sort of the liberal white college kids that were calling themselves volunteers. Well, they definitely were. I mean, the speech that the guy gives is not... It's very aggressive, and it's almost cartoonishly, like, you know, like how Pappy can't have ever written his character, you know? This is how the Black Panthers, you know? And I feel that there's kind of a more militant end of the white movement, but it's almost cartoonishly one. And here's the... I mean, they... It's very much... It's another aspect where it is kind of a boomer movie, because boomers are kind of an interesting generation, if I'm going to oversimplify things, but it's the generation of hippies and of yuppies. Very different ideologies, but kind of the same generation. And this is kind of a... You don't really see yuppies here, but it's very much trashing the other side of their generation, where it's much more focused on rewarding conformity and being a good capitalist American. But as the movie progresses, you see him... Well, throughout Forrest Gump, it's kind of a blank slate. And so early on, as we're getting used to the patterns of this movie, the villains are the bigots, right? During the scenes that are set in the 50s, which is what George Wallace does, and you see the people chasing him with the Confederate flag on their... Right. The other school students. And then... He's pretty racist. Yeah, she named him after Nathan Benjamin Forrest. She named him after a clan. Yeah. Or maybe the founder. The founder of the clan. Oh, gosh. I mean, that's how it's narrated. I don't know the actual history. But then, once you get to the 60s and the Vietnam era, then the villains start to change to the counterculture. And so it's almost a very liberal kind of outlook, where you think, well, racism was a big problem until the Civil Rights Movement just kind of fixed all that. And then after that, that's not really a problem anymore. And the problem is people start making too many waves. And so it's just very much dependent on that as far as being from that generation. You don't have to oversimplify all the rumors. Everyone has their issues. But that racism was a problem with our parents' generation that we observed in our childhood. And then now the villains have changed to the other people that we find annoying, the hippies and the war protesters and the druggies and stuff. Well, I mean, I would say it was pretty horrific in the 50s for African-Americans. Well, no, it was. I mean, it has improved significantly. You can't just... Yeah, but I don't feel like... You don't hose people down for sitting at a coffee table. No, well, definitely. I'm not saying that. But in terms of the story we're being told, it definitely fits that pattern. And I think in terms of Chase being by rednecks with Confederate flags on their trucks... I mean, that probably still happens. Yeah, but... Right. People naming themselves after, naming their kids after... Yeah, but my point there is not... Well, another interesting point on both lines is I found it very interesting how Bubba's mother is portrayed. Because we see, as we see with a few different characters, we get this kind of the same actor playing their descendant. And so we see that she's been a servant, and she's a maid, her mother was a maid, and you know, going back generations. So we have that set up where it's... We see kind of the generations of servitude over centuries of slavery, and both being effective and serving. And then that chain is broken by, well, first of all, just by individual charity, of course but also through the capitalist system, by making money off of the shipboats and then investing it in a fruit company, for example. And so it's like, it's kind of... There's a satisfaction to seeing her being served by a white maid, but it's almost like It almost embodies this perspective that the cycle is something that we resolved through our generosity and through our assistance. Yeah. Well, I mean, it is at least very satisfying when you see the transformation. No, yeah, but the point is that it is satisfying. Yeah, it is satisfying. It's thoughtful of the things that have happened. And, you know, I mean, if you put too much thought into it, the only reason the shrimp boat is successful is that everybody else has their livelihoods destroyed by the hurricane. So they're just hoarding all the money that would have been distributed to other people who must be in massive poverty ever since this hurricane. But these two white guys benefited from it. It's a great... They're not trying to benefit from it. Right, yeah. They just haven't. I love that. And they did it because they wrote out that hurricane. And one of my very favorite scenes is them on the hurricane, on the boat in the hurricane, and Lieutenant Dan just, like, shaking his fists and arguing at God. Like, this whole thing is just his... He just finally says his peace to God, and they get in this massive argument, you know, with this storm is how he sees it. And then when it's over, it was just so cathartic for him. Yeah. Now, I mean, you could also say, well, you know, that's not... That's too simplistic for, you know... Yeah, it's definitely not faithful. So I think, really, it's just part of... You could say that about all parts of it, but it is very satisfying to see that. And that's what's seductive about the movie. I know. It's lovely. And I think that's where... I mean, I'm definitely cutting out on the movie side, but I see the polarizing... I think the dividing line is whether you're less going to be focusing on what it celebrates versus what it pins down. Yeah. Right? So... Yeah. And whether it's, you know, you're... You know, I think, again, like, he represents hope. So it's like, you know, this is what we all aspire, or we should all aspire. Right. You know, we should all aspire to be beyond that level and move beyond these things. Obviously, there's still drug addiction. There's still, you know, there's still racism. There's still wars. There's still all these things. But that's not the... You know, this isn't a... You know, it's a movie that's talking, really, I think, about hope. Not about realism. I mean, this isn't a realism movie. No, it's not. When I was kind of reflecting on the theme, actually, back to a conversation we had on You Can't Take It With You, I remember, about two months ago. You remember the movie, right? I remember the name of it. Yes, I do. So we were kind of comparing its themes to It's a Wonderful Life, which is kind of by Yeah. And it seemed like, in the war, the mentality has just shifted dramatically. Oh, right. Where these themes of just do what makes you happy are just... They don't apply anymore. And so I can see where... It makes sense to me that there was a backlash against You Can't Take It With You in the late 40s or something, where you don't like where we've seen this ideology lead. But looking back at it, actually, over 80 years, it's like that whole part of the politics of it's not really all that relevant anymore. You can just kind of enjoy it on its own terms. Yeah. I kind of think that for some backlash, I'd be interested to see how its reputation changes decades and decades from now. Well, let's revisit it in 50 years. Yeah, let's do that. When I'm 106. Yeah. I'm 106 to those criticisms, but I would also separate the politics from its artistic merits, because that's what would last longer than just how it relates to the present day. I was watching it from today and kind of being annoyed at the attitude that racism is solved and protesting is bad, so don't hate the politics, be kind of a know-nothing. And even like a decade after it, Birch W. Bush was compared a lot more to a kind of an Ashok's anti-intellectualism that seems to be embodied. But I think that it actually does what art is supposed to do, and it kind of captures that era. And I know because I lived through it, but after the Cold War is done, and before 9-11, it's just like, okay, we kind of won, and the politics is kind of a value of the status quo. And then there was just kind of very much almost kind of what we call now center-right, other than like social issues, which have always been kind of controversial, like hard on crime, and low taxes, and small government, and not to get into any of these particular issues, but I think the movie does kind of represent that kind of mentality. But it's a really enjoyable movie. I really like it. I had a lot of fun. So, I asked for a little lyric about Forrest Gump. In a town called Greenboro, you see, there lives a man named Forrest Gump, still free. He ran with great might, through day and through night, a simple soul, inspiring you and me. I think that's all the movie was trying to get to. Sometimes it's okay to be inspired. So, I got 13 nominations. Wow! That's a lot! Yeah. Wow. I got 14, so that was a lot. Only two acting nominations, though. How many? How many? Lieutenant Dan. Yeah, okay. Gary. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, Best Picture. Oh, okay. So, he won Best Actor two years in a row. Yeah. What about, who won? Gary Simmings. Yeah, Gary Simmings won to Martin Landau for Ed Wood. Really great movie. Tim Burton will be about the worst director of all time. And Martin Landau played Bella Lugosi. Oh. Yeah, and he was great. Diane Ruiz won her second Oscar. She won for Him and Her Sisters. So, this was for another Woody Allen movie, for the Broadway, which she was very happy. And Jessica Lange won for Blue Sky, which was a movie that was barely released, and a very small movie, but it was kind of a unique year for juicy roles for a female. But it worked out for Jessica Lange. Yeah. And she got her first lead acting Oscar. She also won Supporting Actress for Tootsie. Yeah. Ever heard of it? We haven't talked about that. Yeah. So, this was, I think, one of the only years where three of the four acting winners were used for their second movie. Okay. So, Martin Landau had won before, but Bella Lugosi had. Had won. Yeah. So, I'm glad that it won for Best Visual Effects. Yeah. Visual Effects. Yeah. I mean, it's... Yeah, because Lieutenant Dan not having legs, I mean, it looks like he really does. Well, revolutionary, and the CGI was relatively new. And this movie really shows how you can use it to tell different types of stories. It's not just about the dinosaurs or alien invasion and stuff. Yeah. It's like the feather. Right. It's very hard to film that and get everything right. Yeah. And then all the footage of all the different presidents. Yeah. So, it didn't win for Best Original Feature. Although... No. Yeah, it was for The Lion King. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, it won for Best Screenplay, Film Editing, Visual Effects, and Picture Director Actor. Yeah. That's a pretty good haul. Yeah. All right. So, what is coming up next? I don't know. I don't know either. And you get to choose another one. I do. I don't even need to say what I'm going to pick for this. Anyways, what are your picks? The Ipes, Parasite, Spotlight, Moonlight, Amadeus, and No Country for Old Men. Okay. And I have The French Connection, The Departed, Huggers of Sleight, and The Heathens' Ike. And I'm going to add... Which one do you want? No, I'm going to add... I'll sign on the left-hand side. The 1930s. I think it's going to be Spotlight. I think so, too. I think we're due for Spotlight. It's not going to make it to the 20s. I mean, it's a good movie. Let's find out. Let's find out. Oh, it is Spotlight. It is Spotlight, yes. Okay, look at that. Okay. Alright, so next week we'll be back with Spotlight. Spotlight, number 33.