Cameron H.

Off the top of my head, life being “like a box of chocolates...” is a pretty big one. The idea being you have a set box (fate), but what you choose from that box (free will) is up to you. Shoes are also big. They are an object meant for a set purpose (fate), but where you go in them is up to the wearer (free will).

In the Sixties? Being *in* college could keep you out of the draft, but it’s not like being a college graduate meant you would never go, or not be conscripted into, the military. Hell, we had recruitment officers at my college all the time and that wasn’t all that long ago. Also, even if you disregard all that, and it’s true that college graduates usually don’t join the army, that only makes it more clearly fate. At that point in the movie, Forrest was at a crossroads. What exactly was he going to do now? He doesn’t seek out the military. The Army guy just happens to (fate?) come up to him at that *specific* moment. A moment when he’s not sure what to do next. Again, he makes choices, but those choices are built within a destined framework. Or, as he puts it, it’s both free will and fate.

Yes but he probably wouldn’t have been recruited into the Army if he hadn’t been in college. He was in college because he could run fast. He was able to run fast because he was picked on for being slow and he was born with a birth defect that required him to wear leg braces that strengthened his legs. He knew to run because no one would let him sit next to him and so he met Jenny. He only met Jenny because he was born to a woman that would do anything to get him into a “normal” school.

We watched: I’m eagerly awaiting all of your comments with antici...

Already own the soundtrack

You’re right. Apparently I got fooled by the Mandela Effect. I could swear I read that in an interview...

He was also the inspiration for Link...

This is a great pick!

I brought this up earlier in my own words, but this is what the movie says about that: “I don't know if mama was right or if it's Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze. But I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time.” The wind is destiny guiding us on a path, however the shape of the feather (what we are inside), gives us free will within those events. We don’t plummet straight down like a rock. For example, Fate brought Forrest to Vietnam, what he does there is his choice.

I’m sorry, I’ve been super busy this month and I haven’t had a chance to check anything out. Is everyone still game to try to resurrect movie nights?

Yes, but at the same time, he’s socially liberal, and while I wouldn’t say he’s expressly anti-capitalist, he’s certainly not plutocratic or anything. He makes money, but it’s more incidental and doesn’t really affect him. So, yeah, I think there’s some pro-conservative messaging. I think Lt Dan is a prime example of that. But I also think that there’s just as much pro-liberal messaging. Enough so that the whole thing comes out as a, perhaps unsatisfying, wash. If anything, I think Forrest Gump is a paean to moderation. I’m also not so sure that Forrest doesn’t take movement from anything. For example, Bubba’s death, and the emotional fallout, leads him to make a decision to become a shrimp boat captain. That’s not something that’s thrust upon him. He makes a conscious decision that that’s what he’s going to do and he makes deliberate plans to carry it out. And the lessons he learns are gleaned through all of his experiences - ultimately culminating with him coming to the conclusion that life is like a feather on the wind: partially guided by our external experiences, and partially directed by our intrinsic nature. No, he doesn’t cap each story with what specific lesson he learned in that moment, but it’s clear he’s learning as he moves forward. It’s just cumulative. That being said, if you don’t subscribe to that particular argument, in a movie so reliant on a person’s (at least) partial destiny, it would be counter to its thesis of life being like a box of chocolates for him to employ too much agency. If Forrest Gump were about him taking independent movement, then he should be saying something like, ”I specifically bought a king-sized bag of Peanut M&M’s because they’re my favorite.” Forrest Gump is the anti-Greek tragedy. Instead of hubris compelling him to reject his destiny, and thereby resulting in divine punishment, his humility and willingness to “go with the flow” results in him being rewarded. At least that’s how I see it.

I have no idea what you mean...

I agree with you, and everyone else, that it’s pretty straight down the middle. The only way I see it as a conservative film is in the fact that it’s not overtly anti-conservative. The thing with Forrest is that he’s essentially a tabla rasa - rarely commenting on the events themselves and leaving the viewer to interpret the things around him through the prism of their their own experiences. Like how you see the hippies as bumbling and the military guy as having a plan. I do feel like the hippies are a motley bunch, but I don’t see them as being particularly incompetent or anything. And I don’t see it as a conservative bias because in that moment, in my mind anyway, the movie is clearly casting the military guy as the person with ill intent and the protestors as well-meaning, albeit maybe out of their depth. Pretty much your standard establishment vs anti-establishment scenario. However, like you said, I can 100% see a pro-military conservative interpreting that scene oppositely. And I guess that’s a part of the general apathy regarding the movie. The movie doesn’t take sides because Forrest doesn’t take sides and this can make it feel kind of toothless. Everything is kind of presented without judgement. The military/government isn’t all evil. The hippies/protestors aren’t all good. They just kind of are. And if the movie doesn’t take a stand one way or the other, it can leave the viewer with a kind malaise of, “Okay, what’s the point?” It’s hard to be passionate when the Art presented is inherently passionless.

I did want to add, I just realized this year (before Tay-loe made this pick) that I didn’t already own this album. After I bought it, I must have listened to it straight through every night for a full week. The soundtrack is really strong on this movie.

I haven’t listened to the episode yet, but I don’t know that this is entirely fair. I don’t think any of those groups are actually shown to be “bad.” How exactly are the protestors or the Black Panthers bad? And the only hippie to be shown in a negative light is her abusive boyfriend which I saw as just pointing out the hypocrisy of *some* hippies and not an indictment of the counterculture as a whole. In the DC protest scene, with the military guy ripping out the microphone jacks, the movie shows is speaking out more against conservatives than liberals. The movie also heavily frowns heavily, and repeatedly, upon segregation. And when it comes to Vietnam, the movie only ever celebrates the soldiers, not the war or the military. I also think it’s telling that the movie touches on six assassinations or assassination attempts, (Wallace, JFK, RFK, Lennon, Ford, and Reagan), but the only ones Gump discusses with any personal emotion are JFK, RFK, and Lennon. Of the others, the only one he even comments on at all is Wallace’s. I mean, I guess with the conservative figures, those were all just “attempts” and not successful assassinations, and maybe that makes a difference, but the movie definitely feels more sympathetic toward those with a liberal philosophy. However, it’s not above pointing out hypocrisy wherever it sees it.

I’ve been calling them sea spiders for years! As for Forrest Gump...I’m so neutral on it that I’m going to abstain from voting. On the one hand, I personally prefer FG to a lot of the other movies on the list, but I don’t necessarily agree that it’s such a well-made movie that it deserves inclusion. Also, as I’ve gotten older and have had children (one of whom is on the spectrum), everything Sally Field is doing tears my heart out. It’s tough to watch Forrest being excluded because he’s different, which is a fear I have for my own kids that literally keeps me awake at night, but it’s heartening to see Forrest not only survive but thrive. How the things that set him apart are the same qualities that allow him to succeed.

The playfulness of serial killers, the director of The Country Bears calls in, and more on this week’s mini-sode! Paul opens up the Explanation Hope Line, goes through Corrections and Omissions for Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, and shares a deleted scene from the Jason Lives episode. Plus, find out which movie we will be watching next week! This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp (www.betterhelp.com/bonkers). Subscribe to Unspooled with Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson here: http://www.earwolf.com/show/unspooled/ Check out our tour dates over at www.hdtgm.com! Check out new HDTGM merch over at https://www.teepubli…wdidthisgetmade Where to Find Jason, June & Paul: @PaulScheer on Instagram & Twitter @Junediane on IG and @MsJuneDiane on Twitter

Is it possible, given the sexual and gender fluidity of the characters within, could it just be no one is a hero or a villain? That everyone is both?

In my opinion, Frank is more of a charismatic villain than an anti-hero. We love Frank even as we are repulsed by them. Frank really can’t be contained in any one way - which is why they are ultimately so attractive.

I haven’t seen it either, but yeah, apparently he’s been trying to do sequels since forever. Shock Treatment is the only one actually filmed. Unfortunately, since Tim Curry didn’t want to return it focused solely on Brad and Janet (not played by Sarandon or Bostwick). According to Wikipedia, it flopped pretty hard, but has its own (smaller) cult following. According to O’Brien, its failure at the box office is why none of his other attempts were ever green lit.

Has anyone seen the sequel, Shock Treatment, or is that a conversation best left for another week?

I think I'll let Quasar make his own points, but I agree with you. I can see how this movie can both be reductive and inspirational. That being said, a lot of things are and I think Rocky Horror may be many people's first experience into a world that's not strictly heteronormative. So while I don't think it's necessarily perfect, I do think it's important.

I think I caught some of it as a kid, but I don't think I really got it at the time and kind of wrote it off. Then, I want to say about two years ago, it was on sale on iTunes right before Halloween so I went ahead and bought it. My thinking was, if I still didn't like it, I was only going to be out the cost of a rental. I think it's definitely the type of movie that you have to be in the right mindset for. I read @Quasar Sniffer's Letterboxd review and he isn't wrong. However, I don't think the movie is trying to be malicious and is no more problematic than 95% of movies made before 1999. It's strange to think that as a society we might actually be more woke than Rocky Horror...

I saw this for the first time, in its entirety, maybe two years ago. I watched it by myself and I loved it.