Re: virus: sentimemes

John ''Black UN Helicopters'' Williams (prefect@tricon.net)
Tue, 15 Jul 1997 14:13:07 -0400


>1) Almost every American I know loved Gump and thought it was a real
>feel good movie. Almost every Canadian I know thought Gump was okay, but
>mostly syruppy.

This may be true with your qualifier ("Almost every American I know"), but
I can assure you that that's not the case. :-)

Most people I know (and I know mostly Americans) had two reactions to
Forest Gump: they thought it was great or they loathed it. Oddly enough,
that was the similar division for Pulp Fiction. And, most people you loved
Pulp Fiction loathed Gump, and those that loved Gump loathed Pulp.

I did not watch Gump; it is a limitation of mine that when something
becomes massively popular, it becomes difficult for me to attach any
validity to it. I'm unreasonably pissed that:

1) Tori Amos is now cool
2) Electronica is now cool

I suffer from a severe case of the "obscure = good" meme. I also suffer
from a case of "massive advertising makes me want to vomit" meme, which is
why I could not stand Gump or anything done by Disney.

>2) In both movies the director clipped media shots of the president and
>used them however he wanted. However, Bill Clinton's men are *really*
>making a stink about Clinton's "appearance" in Contact.

>How is this different than the Ministry's clip of Bush in N.W.O?

I'll get back to you on that... I think it has something to do with the
*purpose*. Ministry's clip could be seen as political comment or satire or
some such, whereas Contact is supposed to give the impression that he's an
actor for the flick.

I suspect this stuff will become more touchy as collage technology improves.

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