Slog Bog

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/reviews

An extraordinary movie, original, funny and frightening. Terry Gilliam's masterpiece.

Infofreak6 April 2003
I really can't tell you how much my first viewing of this movie knocked me out. Nearly twenty years ago, before Terry Gilliam's reputation is what it is today, seeing this in a cinema without knowing ANYTHING about it, it was one of the most unforgettable movie experiences of my life! Still is. I was a Python fan since childhood and well aware of Gilliam's animation work, but nothing could prepare you for just how bizarre, funny, scary and disturbing 'Brazil' is. It's still one of the most original and inventive science fiction movies ever made, with a surreal, retro future quite unlike anything seen on a movie screen before or since. Gilliam mixes Python's anarchic, intellectual humour with Orwell, Kafka and Theatre Of The Absurd elements and comes up with something really special. John Sladek kinda sorta wrote some stories in a similar territory before this, and Dean Motter has written some comics since, but 'Brazil' is really in a world of its own! Jonathan Pryce was fairly obscure at the time and an odd choice to play the leading role, but is perfectly cast, and it's hard to think of an actor who would have been as convincing and sympathetic. The rest of the cast includes an amusing cameo from Robert De Niro, Kim Greist (only her second movie, after 'C.H.U.D.' of all things!) as Pryce's love interest, Python's Michael Palin, and a bunch of excellent Brit character actors - Bob Hoskins, Ian Richardson, Ian Holm, Jim Broadbent, etc.etc. It goes without saying that when I praise 'Brazil' I am ONLY referring to Gilliam's cut. This is still an utterly brilliant movie, one of the very best of the last twenty-five years. I can't recommend this movie highly enough, it is a masterpiece pure and simple.

https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/3133 wrote: Film Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

There is a long and fascinating tradition of the holy fool in spiritual literature. These people follow the dictates of the heart and are often able to effect great works of mercy and compassion. Their brand of selflessness is free of reason's madness and the ego's frivolous grandeur. Holy fools pay no heed to the worldly pursuit of power, status, or financial success. That is why they are usually deemed crazy and forced to live as lonely outsiders.

Forrest Gump is an enchanting and creative parable about a contemporary holy fool. The film was a multiple award-winner, garnering 1994 Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Tom Hanks), Best Director (Robert Zemeckis), Best Visual Effects, Best Editing, and Best Writing based on material from another medium (screenplay by Eric Roth based on the 1986 novel by Winston Groom).

The film revolves around Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), a Southerner with an I.Q. just below normal who is raised by his single mother (Sally Field). She lavishes him with love and sends him on his way with a smorgasbord of tidbits of wisdom, such as, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

Tom Hanks plays Forrest with just the right blend of sincerity and earnestness. With his ability to stay focused on one goal, he becomes an incredibly fast runner, first escaping bullies in grade school, then as an All-American football player. In Vietnam, Forrest's loyalty to his best friend Bubba (Mykelti Williamson) leads him to save his platoon and receive a medal of honor. While recuperating from his wounds, he becomes a champion ping-pong player. Never one to break a promise, he follows up on Bubba's dream to run a shrimping business. Later, Forrest gathers quite a following when he runs across the country just because he feels like it.

Through the technical wizardry of director Robert Zemeckis, we follow Gump to the White house where John F. Kennedy commends him for his football heroics, Lyndon B. Johnson asks to see his war wound, and Richard Nixon chats with him after his ping-pong tour in China.

While these cinematic bonbons are worth noting, the real treat is watching Gump maintain his optimism in the midst of the political, social, and cultural turmoil of the 60s and 70s. His slow-blooming friendship with Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise), his commanding officer in Vietnam and subsequent business partner, is touching.

Most impressive is Gump's unswerving love for Jenny (Robin Wright) who first reaches out to him when everyone else in elementary school rejects him. This abused girl turns into a self-destructive woman who samples the worst excesses of the drug counterculture. Gump remains true to her over the years until she blesses him with the best gift of all.

Holy fools are debonair souls whose love, devotion, and delight in life are unalloyed. We are fortunate to have this screen version of one of their number. Hopefully, Forrest Gump will encourage many of us to express aspects of the holy fool inside ourselves.

canpakes wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2023 5:46 am

High Spy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2023 12:19 amWhy that exact shape.

Gozer the Traveller, he will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the rectification of the Vuldronaii, the Traveller came as a large and moving Torb. Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the Meketrex Supplicants, they chose a new form for him... that of a Giant Sloar.

Many Shubs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Sloar that day, I can tell you.

canpakes wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2023 5:46 am

High Spy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2023 12:19 amWhy that exact shape.

Gozer the Traveller, he will come in one of the pre-chosen forms … I can tell you.

Aria wrote: Gozer is a shape-shifting god of destruction. It is an ancient and all-powerful Sumerian deity. Gozer is also known as Gozer the Gozerian, Gozer the Destructor, Volguus Zildrohar, and Gozer the Traveler. As a shape-shifter, Gozer has the ability to change its form. It displayed an extraordinary array of abilities including dimensional travel, telepathy, great agility and stamina, and lightning blasts.