This One's a Biggie...

 

"Jodi Arias signs movie deal for a biopic!"

"New TV drama about Charles Manson!"

Yes. I will be talking about the wonderful world of the celebrity criminal. BORED, BORED, BORED!

I’ve wanted to write about this for a long time. Celebrity criminals have always been around – the musical ‘Chicago’ is even based on two real murderers whose lawyer made them so infamous they were found not guilty and became Vaudeville stars. The musical in itself comments on the celebration of criminals, at least in the American justice system – though it occurs all over the world.

My friends and I all have notorious murder cases we’ve been intrigued by for different reasons. Each of us knows a little about the others’ because of the time we spend talking about it, but essentially we each have our specialist ones. Mine is the Tate-LaBianca murders of 1969 and the Manson Family in general, Sophia’s is the Jodi Arias case from 2008, and Joe’s into the Black Dahlia, or Elizabeth Short from the 1940s, whose killer still hasn’t been found to this day. Don’t Google the names, by the way. There are lots of scary, horrifying and saddening images of what humanity is capable of doing to the innocent.

Elizabeth Short - or, more famously in death, the Black Dahlia. A young aspiring actress killed in Hollywood in the 1940s. Her killer was never found.

Now, I became interested in the Charles Manson case through Sharon Tate. A singer called Marina and the Diamonds wrote a song called ‘Valley of the Dolls’ on her Electra Heart album. Being a person who wonders what songs are based on or mean I looked it up and found out it was based on the 1967 film of the same name. Naturally I watched it and discovered my infatuation with Sharon. Looking into her more and more, I found out that she was sadly one of the many victims of the Manson Family creeps.

Susan Atkins, Patricia Kenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten on their way to court in late-1970, singing Manson's songs as they went, with the famous 'X' carved into their foreheads - to represent how they had X'd themselves from the world, though again following Manson's actions. Only around a year earlier they had slaughtered Sharon, Jay, Abigail, Wojciech, Steven, Rosemary and Leno in only two days.

Charles Milles Manson, born in 1934 to a 16 year old prostitute and rumoured black, absent father. In 1971 he was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and first degree murder, and sentenced to death in the gas chamber, though California later abolished the death penalty so their sentence was reduced to life. Manson no longer arrives to parole hearings, though does find ways to push his ATWA beliefs on the world.

Sharon truly was so beautiful. She is somebody that I look up to a great deal, being someone who moved a great distance alone to train in acting, as I will soon be doing. An actress who had only just had her first real starring role in the year she was killed, 1969, in ‘12+1’ or ‘The Thirteen Chairs’ (released posthumously), she was well on her way to immense stardom. She had the vulnerability and elegance on screen of Marilyn Monroe, for different reasons, and a true talent for light comedy, horror and drama. You could almost call her the hippie sex symbol, I suppose, though she too wanted to be taken seriously, questioning directors’ motives head on (in ‘12+1’ she was asked to dive into a pool wearing a thin t-shirt and no bra, and she said straight up ‘is that because you want the shirt to go see through and cling to me? I had to do it once before’ - or something similar). Since finding out about her, I’ve also looked into Abigail Folger, Jay Sebring and Wojciech, and tried to find anything I can on Steven, Leno and Rosemary too, though details about their lives aren’t as easy to find due to their lack of fame or connections - apart from their grisly deaths.

Sharon Tate, model and actress of the 1960s who starred in 'Valley of the Dolls' and 'Eye of the Devil', whose life and blossoming career was cut short when she was killed by Manson's followers while 2 weeks away from motherhood in 1969. Atkins testified that Sharon 'begged for the life of her baby', asking for them to wait two weeks for the baby to be born before killing her. She reportedly called out for her mother as Atkins and Watson stabbed her. When Atkins returned to her body to write the word 'PIG' on the door in her blood, she stated Sharon made an attempt through gargled words to ask Atkins to take out her baby and save him. Atkins said she had 'no mercy for her' and tasted her blood. 'What a trip!' she would sickly recall.
(getting quite emotional at this point.....)

The thing that triggered this blog entry was reading an article about Rob Zombie, who is apparently planning to direct a TV drama about Sharon and the other victims of Charl... wait, what? Oh, my mistake.

He’s directing a TV drama series about the killers, Charles Manson and his Family. And I used to love Rob Zombie, too. Dammit, that’s a shame.

The article stated things like ‘it is difficult to endear an audience to one of America’s most reviled criminals’ and ‘all too often we like the anti-hero’ (paraphrasing a little). Here’s a tip, maybe DON’T TRY TO ENDEAR PEOPLE TO MURDERERS, because, oh I don’t know, THEY’RE MURDERERS?!
Like so many other docudramas and biopics, this one is going to focus on the murderers and the conspirators, the violent, brainwashed, drug addicted thugs who ended the flower child movement and the greatest decade that there ever was, rather than the innocent victims and the lives they led before being cut short. Zombie is going to glamourise and glorify evil Manson by making him into a character, a character which isn’t really, truly Manson – but an exaggerated version of the 79 year old convict in his youth, which has been made in order to be liked so that the TV show is a success and makes money. This will, as the article states, endear the audience to ‘charismatic’ Manson, the man in denial of ever doing wrong despite the corroborating evidence, and again leave the human beings he killed/ordered to be killed as ‘bodies’ or ‘victims’. Yet again. He will be exploiting the deaths of so many innocent and pretty genuine, great people who were so young and were on the way to achieve so much (Steven Parent, the boy there by accident, was only 18, the age I am now. I can’t imagine being killed when I have so much more that I want to do with my life).

One of Manson's MANY on screen counterparts in 'Helter Skelter', the film based on the book written by the lead prosecutor in the trial, Vincent Bugliosi.

Sharon Tate, 8 1/2 months pregnant and photographed here by ex-boyfriend and long-time close friend of her and Roman's, Jay Sebring, on the afternoon of August 8th 1969. Wojciech was there at this time, along with Mrs Chapman the housekeeper who left early evening despite Sharon offering her a room for the night to 'avoid the heat of the city'. She later thanked God she hadn't accepted. Abigail would later return 'home' too. Hours later, Wojciech was asleep on the sofa, Abigail was reading a book and smiled to Atkins as she quietly wandered the house, inspected the other members of the household - Abigail knew Sharon and Roman kept a fairly open house, not shutting their doors to anyone, so assumed Atkins was a friend of the couple. Krenwinkel said she saw Sharon sitting up in bed, Jay above the sheets talking to her with his back to the door. Only around 45 minutes later, they would all be dead, Sharon being forced to watch each of her friends die. Roman later said around August 18th, when he visited the house, that Sharon 'must have been sleeping at some point that night', because the pillows were in the middle of the bed. She used to cuddle them when he wasn't there at night.

Time after time we see events from HIS point of view, or THEIR point of view [Atkins, Krenwinkel, Van Houten and Watson]. I’m tired, sick and upset about it beyond belief. I don’t see t-shirts with Sharon Tate’s face on, or celebrations of their lives in the media, television or film, however Sharon’s sister has been trying to make this so very recently with the release of her Recollection book.
I do see, however, Manson’s music being covered by bands like Guns n’ Roses, t-shirts of his and his followers faces – the money from the sales of which ensure royalties go straight to them in prison. I see Manson’s paintings selling in online auctions for his benefit. I see films like ‘Helter Skelter’ based on prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi’s factual book of the same name being made where Sharon, Jay, Gibbie, Wojciech, Steven, Leno, Rosemary, Hinman are just passing characters who are only shown when they’re being stabbed, strung up and exploited (Shorty Shea isn’t even mentioned as far as I remember, or the Black Panther member who Manson shot and believed to be dead. I find it pretty hard to watch). Then we’re back to wonderful Manson, and his followers, the supposed ‘victims of brainwashing’ as cult supporters who deny the wrong in their actions like to call them. They are, truly, but they were in their own right minds the night they committed these acts, and not under the influence of any drugs as far as they testified in court. Another false idea people spout is that Manson didn’t do anything wrong. A lot of these movies paint him as just this anti-hero and preacher who told people to kill people, rather than do it himself – which is completely false. He sodomised a peer when he was 17 as he held a knife to his throat, helped to behead and cut the limbs from Donald ‘Shorty’ Shea, he cut the ear of Gary Hinman with his prized machete before Atkins and Beausoleil stabbed him to death at Manson’s command, he tied Rosemary and Leno up with some of his leather ‘thongs’, before they were killed on August 10^th 1969, and also ordered the killings of everyone at ‘the old Melcher house’ where he knew pregnant Tate and her friends were then living – NOT Melcher. He was very much as guilty of conspiracy to murder and committing murder as the perpetrators of the Tate-LaBianca murders.

Jodi Arias, who, though convicted of premeditated first degree murder and facing the death penalty, sells her art through the internet, receives support letters from 'fans' and has just recently signed a movie deal for a film about her life story, despite already having a movie detailing her relationship with Travis. Travis Alexander is still waiting for any royalties from any movies about his fascinating life up in Heaven.

Tanya Ramonde's onscreen portrayal of *pre dyed hair* Jodi Arias in Lifetime's 'Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret', from 2013. IMDb describes her as 'a seductive, aspiring photographer found guilty of killing her former lover', kind of as if it's a 'story' - Travis' name wasn't even mentioned in the description, as if he was never a real human being at all!

Officers dig up the remains of Donald 'Shorty' Shea, Hollywood stuntman, in 1977, almost a decade after he was beheaded and dismembered by Manson, Bruce Davis and co at Spahn Ranch.

I have NEVER seen a portrayal in the media of Sharon’s life, of Jay’s career, or any of the other victims’ lives. These are the people we should be celebrating, not the vile evil of the criminals.

I want to see a show that humanises the Tate/LaBianca/Hinman/Shea victims. I want to see a movie that humanises Travis Alexander rather than creating sympathy for the relationship he shared with Jodi Arias. I want to watch a film that focuses on the lives of these people, and ensure that people know that they were just as interesting, just as charismatic and fascinating as perhaps some people find these disgusting murderers.

Steven Parent, 18 years old, shot four times by Tex Watson for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time on the night of the Tate murders. He had been visiting William Garretson in Cielo Drive's outhouse, and was on his way home just as the Family scaled the fence. How is fate for you, that typically nobody Garretson met ever visited him, but this boy did on that particular night? Crazy. He was heard by people in the surrounding area, a Scout leader as far as I recall, calling out 'Oh God, no, please don't shoot!" before the sound of gunshots, but nobody thought to call LAPD.

In my own little, humble opinion, criminals should not be glamourised and celebrated. Rather, they should be rightly vilified and looked upon with the shame, embarrassment and disgust that they deserve. This is a topic that upsets me a lot, and I have ranted time and time again, about Manson mainly, but also Jodi Arias whose art is sold and who is signing deals for movies about her life story etc. The celebration of these people seems just to never end.

Abigail Folger, friend of the Polanskis, killed in 1969

Sharon and Wojciech on August 8th, hours before their deaths 

I think Roman Polanski said it best in a fairly recent interview...

“When I see these people wearing his shirts, or playing his music, I wonder: do they know that Charlie Manson killed my wife? Do they know that he killed my baby, my friends?”

Sharon Tate and her husband, the love of her life, Roman Polanski, famous film director and co-star of Sharon in his film 'The Fearless Vampire Killers' where they met and fell in love. Roman was due to return a week after the murders took place to celebrate his birthday and await the arrival of the couple's child. When he received the call telling him that 'everyone's dead', the people around him said that they had never seen a man physically crumble like he did. He fell to the ground crying out for Sharon. Roman is as much a victim as the slain, as he had trouble coping with the loss of his wife, unborn baby and friends, going off the rails in the mid/late-1970s. He took part in the investigation himself, but his work and life after the murders is never shown in film adaptations - or at least for very long. 

Next time you watch a documentary about a murderer, or see a movie or TV show based on a true murder case, spare a thought for the victims. Spare a thought for the lives of the human beings who died and made that TV show possible. Spare a thought for the producers and creators, who earn money from making these people into ‘passing characters’ simply used as bodies to stab, rather than the actual, real life human beings with souls and families that they were.

If you would like to help in any way, you can go to STOPMANSONPAROLES.com and sign the petition to ensure that members of the Manson family cannot be offered parole. Bruce Davis, killer of 'Zero' in one of the 'reaction murders' and an aid to Manson in the slaughter of Donald Shea, was almost released on parole recently. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to live next door to him - despite him pushing 80.

You can also go to Change.Org and search 'Travis Alexander Law', where a petition has been set up to create a law which stops innocent victims being slandered in court without real, hard evidence simply to make the defence's case. Travis was accused of paedophilic tendencies, domestic violence and verbal abuse without any real, substantial evidence on the former two, and only few instances of name calling via text/IM on the latter. This happened not only in Travis' case, but in so many more, including the Tate case. The victims were essentially blamed in the media because:

1) Sharon's belief in not closing her door to anybody - this was out of kindness, and also, nobody locked their doors in Benedict Canyon before the murders. Nothing could have predicted the horrible events that occurred. 

2) They were accused of hosting orgies and Satanism - Roman Polanski debunked all of these salacious rumours about his wife later in a press conference, however.

3) That everyone there was a drug addict, and they had hosted a party and someone had flipped out - this idea was more so when it was taking time to find the culprits due to a lack of evidence, and the media was speculating. Roman said Sharon was obsessed with her pregnancy, so in the eight months before the murders hadn't touched alcohol, cigarettes or marijuana. Sharon had taken LSD around 13 times before she met Roman, but when she convinced him to try it she had a bad trip and vowed never to take it again. Wojciech was probably the most avid user of drugs, though not on that particular night. Abigail used drugs, as did many young people of the late 1960s, but not as much as her boyfriend Wojciech, and Jay sometimes used cocaine. A roach was also found in an ashtray in his bedroom. There was no 'drug den' at Sharon's home, or any drug fuelled parties held there.

These people were all innocent,  but they were allowed to be slandered in the press. Please sign and help in any way you can, it would mean the world :)

All my love,

Eloise. x

Thoughts on Forrest Gump...

When I first revealed to my best friend what my favourite movie was, it must have been back in 2010, she laughed at me a little. I was taken aback that she had never, EVER seen Forrest Gump (but then, she’s not seen The Lion King, so I rest my case. Love ya girl).

When you haven’t seen Forrest Gump, the name kinda sounds a little whimsical, funny... maybe even silly - like it’s not too much of a deep and intelligent 2-and-a-bit-hours watch. However!

Forrest Gump has always touched me in a way no other film has come close to – 12 Years a Slave moved me in so many ways, but I’d say it’s second to Forrest Gump. This is because Gump gives me this crazy feeling that I haven’t felt as a result of watching anything before in my life, and I don’t think I ever will feel it from any other film. I don’t know what it is about this movie, but it gives me this familiar feeling. It makes me cry at odd points throughout, despite my having watched it no doubt 50+ times. I cry in different places every time. I can think of a character and burst into tears. I can quote it in any situation. I adore all the actors, admire the special effects team and really geekishly love deciphering the subtext and metaphorical ideas put forward in the film...

I remember the first time I watched Forrest Gump. I was at my Dad’s house in a small corner of the Isle of Wight, and we were channel surfing, trying to find something good to watch as a family on Friday night. This was in early 2009 as far as I remember, around 15 years after the film had been released back in 1994. We switched to Film 4 and I was like, ‘what the HELL is Forrest Gump, Dad? Lolololol!!!11!!!’

What a young fool I was.

It was probably due to the fact I was introduced to the film at the scene where Forrest’s Momma is *ahem* giving her everything for her son to get into a good school (and not ‘some special school where they learn how to retread tires’) that my dim preconceptions reared their ugly heads, but I was sorely mistaken, and loved every minute of that film from that very first sitting. My Dad told me I’d love it if I just watched, and I’m so glad we did that night (hey, with the theme of fate and destiny throughout, maybe it was my fate that I was to watch the film that night, become obsessed with it and write this blog entry many years after... crazy huh?). I WEPT LIKE A MOTHERBITCH.

So due to my love of lists, I have compiled a few reasons why I LOVE Forrest Gump, and personally find it unsurpassable in terms of EVERYTHING A FILM COULD EVER BE.

1)      The soundtrack – okay, let’s just get this first one out of the way. THE SOUNDTRACK FOR THIS MOVIE IS THE BEST MOVIE SOUNDTRACK I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED. I’ll sub-list a few right here, right now.

*clears throat*

- All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
- California Dreamin’ – The Mamas and the Papas
- Mrs Robinson – Simon and Garfunkel
- Freebird – Lynyrd Skynyrd (oh my god)
- San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) – Scott McKenzie
- Blowin’ In The Wind – Joan Baez (Jenny alludes to it and sings it, and it’s on the CD)
- TOO MANY SONGS BY THE DOORS TO LIST
- (I Don’t Know Why) But I Do – Clarence Frogman Henry
- Hound Dog – Elvis Presley
- Get Down Tonight – KC & The Sunshine Band
- Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac

And so on. I rest my case. The soundtrack is the ULTIMATE soundtrack of the 50s, 60s and 70s (though unfortunately The Beatles aren’t in there), and that’s where the best music came from. I think, if Gump didn’t have this soundtrack, it might just be a completely different movie. I don’t want to say that it might be a worse movie, because I still love the original Alan Silvestri theme, but I think that using the music of each decade as time moves on really adds to the reality of what happened during those periods – the civil rights and hippie movement, the Vietnam war, the flower children, the aftermath of that and the junkies that were left with their drug habits, the music that represented the feelings of those times – of the freedom, youth, the excitement, the new opportunities and social developments, the feeling of change and revolution in the air... It must have been an exciting time to be Forrest and Jenny’s age during those decades - and I spend a lot of time personally imagining what it might have been like *sad I know*. Forrest Gump and its soundtrack help me to do that. If I listen to ‘Freebird’, I see Jenny on that balcony reeling in depression from her heroin habit and abusive relationships, and if I hear Hendrix’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’ I imagine the soldiers in Vietnam enduring the sun and then the relentless rain. The music is a vehicle that helps me to really feel what was happening to the characters, and all the different routes life could go during those special decades.

2)      The snapshot of the 20^th century, its highs and lows –

Vietnam is a big part of Forrest’s life, when as soon as he graduates college he is sent packing to training without much thinking in between. I think Zemeckis handled it really well. None of us want another film focussed on war and the battle – and Gump doesn’t give us that. Instead it stays in keeping with its theme of love, and shows the devastation caused to Forrest’s friends and fellow soldiers, from his own simple point of view. We see the parts of Vietnam that we don’t see in other films. We also see the devotion Forrest has to Jenny and his loyalty to her words. We also see just a snapshot of the actual war, and instead see more character development for Lieutenant Dan and Bubba, and the aftermath of the war for invalided veterans. Vietnam also links to the theme of fate within the film, because if Forrest hadn’t been drafted, he would also have never saved Lieutenant Dan or met Bubba, would never have won the medal of honour and been able to go back to Washington to cross paths with Jenny once again, he would never have become a shrimp boat captain or a ping pong champion... It’s a strange thought that that one event mapped out Forrest’s entire destiny, just because of his determination in each opportunity that is presented.

 

      We also see the protests and the hippie culture, and also sadly the way some of the flower children became junkies when the 70s arrived. We see Forrest debunk Watergate unwittingly. We see Forrest meet (through the medium of INCREDIBLE EDITING) all the presidents of those decades, we see the civil rights movement happen briefly – something I would have loved to have been there to feel happening. We see the creation of Apple Corporation, AND LETS JUST THROW IN GUMP HIMSELF ON THE DICK CAVETT SHOW INSPIRING THE LYRICS TO IMAGINE BY JOHN LENNON, BECAUSE THAT GETS ME EVERY TIME.

(along with ‘one day, that nice young man from England was going home to see his son... for no particular reason, somebody decided to shoot him’ SOBS)

3)      The Characters, OH MY GOD –

I really want to start with Jenny, because she’s probably my favourite character ever: I think Jenny is a symbol for ‘we accept the love we think we deserve’ – she is such a complex character. As a child she was sexually abused by her father, and so thinks she deserves nothing more than the abusive relationships she gets herself into, and after experimenting in the sixties she continues using the drugs that keep her numb to it all. That’s why she denies Forrest’s love throughout and tells him that he doesn’t know what love is; really, it’s Jenny who doesn’t know what love is. She is a real symbol of someone who can’t understand love because she’s never seen it. All Forrest wants to do is take her in, heal her and love her – there’s nothing difficult about that at all; it’s just what he’s done from the day he met her on the school bus. Even when Jenny admits that she loves Forrest, she feels scared and has to run from it because she believes she isn’t worthy of the profound, unbreakable love he has for her. Jenny has never thought to accept something that she might actually deserve because since she was a kid all she has seen are bad relationships and bad love.
Jenny is also a symbol of women’s newfound freedom in the 60s. I have heard so many people say to me: ‘Jenny’s a slut!!!!111!!’ but let’s think; this was the 1960s. Women were finally allowed to express and own their own bodies and sexuality without being judged because of the introduction of the contraceptive pill. Time for a grumble about this day and age, because nowadays we seem to have regressed back to the 1950s shame in sexual expression, but I digress. Women could have more sex, be freer and be more of an equal to men in terms of sexuality for the first time ever. Jenny is the embodiment of the woman who owned herself, who owned her sexuality and owned her ability to walk in and out of relationships just as a man might, and exercise her right to everything a man could do. Plus, she just has a series of partners, it’s not like she just sleeps around.
I see Jenny as anything but the traditional Hollywood stereotypes of women in cinema. She doesn’t just accept the groping advances of the men in the club she works at, but is purely doing the job because of her aspirations to be a folk singer and her drive for success. She never marries until she chooses – she even proposes to Forrest herself, turning the typical on its head once again because it’s only when she feels ready to get married, not the man in the narrative. She’s the complete antithesis of pretty much every female character that has been before. She’s real, gritty, she did what she wanted to do, she lived for herself and what she thought she deserved – not what a man thought she deserved, she left men – they didn’t leave her, and she stood up to bullies for Forrest.  

 

To me, she's a symbol of the best decade there ever was.

 

Lieutenant Dan: Lieutenant Dan is a symbol of loyalty throughout Forrest Gump. He is always a man of his word, despite being stuck in the somewhat stubborn mindset of lieutenant. When he says he’ll be Forrest’s first mate, he goes through with it. Dan is truly a very noble character. Dan is also GREAT for quote-ability – I use ‘that’s just perfect’ and ‘yes, I know that’ on a daily basis.

 

Forrest: I might be going COMPLETELY Film Studies student about this, but I see Forrest as a kind of Christ-like figure for the people surrounding him, as his Momma is to him. I think Tom Hanks said: ‘Forrest believes in 3 things; God, his Momma and Jenny, and everything else is filtered through those 3 things’. The feather also poses quite a theological idea, but I saw it mainly in Forrest’s relationship with Lieutenant Dan.

Basically, I thought to myself first of all that Dan mentions God and Jesus a LOT for a supposed non-believer. He asks Forrest ‘have you found Jesus yet?’ on a desperately sad, dingy Christmas Eve at his apartment with a bottle of drink. When he joins Forrest on the shrimp catching boat and tells him to pray for shrimp, he still goes to church despite coming across as a non-believer. Dan’s costume goes from clean cut to Jesus-like when he meets Forrest in New York, with long hair and a beard. When he has his new legs, he’s suddenly clean shaven and short haired – almost like he’s been given a rebirth by thanking Forrest for saving his life. And when Lieutenant Dan finally thanks Forrest for saving his life, he swims out and the sky and water are almost white. I see that as a metaphor for Heaven, Christ and finding peace. Also, Christ could heal cripples – Dan is healed in a way by Forrest allowing him into his shrimp business and giving him a new lease of life rather than sitting in his dingy flat all day, every day.

I also got this whole Christ idea from Forrest doing his run. I compared it to Jesus’ walk through the desert – JC walked through the desert for 40 days and 40 nights to find his God given purpose and have his former life revealed to him. Gump ran to let off emotional steam over Jenny, put the past behind him and find a sense of purpose now that he had no Momma and no Jenny in that big old house. Ultimately he became a symbol of hope for thousands of people, even stating that it ‘gave people hope’.

4)      The themes throughout –

Hope, the determination to never give up, doing your best in whatever opportunity life throws at you along the path. How, if you do good things with honest, compassionate intentions you can never be called stupid or wrong, because stupid is as stupid does. Unrequited love, friendship, fate and destiny. The way our lives and our friends lives can and will pan out completely differently to one another as Forrest, Jenny, Lt Dan and Bubba’s all did. Forrest had known Jenny since primary school and yet he ended up a war veteran and she ended up a singer, flower child, hippie, junkie and eventually a mother.
I love how Forrest Gump also poses the questions: do we make our own destiny, are we all here by accident floating around and making our own way, or do we have a destiny set out? Was life supposed to happen that way, or did it happen like that because that’s the way the feather blew? Sally Fields actually said in a documentary, that Forrest is an example of life being there to be had, and that it’s just a matter of reaching out and grabbing it.

5)      Finally, this...
“You died on a Saturday morning, and I had you buried under our tree. And I had that house of your father’s bulldozed to the ground. Momma always said that dying was a part of life. I sure wish it wasn’t. Little Forrest is doing just fine. He’s about to start school again soon. I make his breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, make sure he combs his hair and brushes his teeth every day. I’m teaching him how to play ping-pong. He’s really good! We fish a lot, and every night we read a book and he’s just so smart, Jenny. You’d be so proud of him. I am. He wrote you a letter, but he says I can’t read it, I’m not supposed to so I’ll just leave it here for you. Jenny, I don’t know if Momma 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. I miss you, Jenny. If there’s anything you need, I won’t be far away.”

 

I cried typing that out. I mouth the words along with Forrest every time I watch the film because I think it’s just such a heart wrenching, beautiful piece of script work which captures the essence of what I feel love is so perfectly – of wanting to continue giving everything you have despite physically not being able to anymore. Above everything else, I think Forrest Gump has made me question and think about love more than anything has before. I've decided since watching the film that I’ve not ever been as devoted to a person as much as Forrest was to Jenny, from the day he met her to the day she died.

 

Forrest cherishes Jenny. She is his goddess, his angel. He takes care of her and works hard for her even when she seems a pain. Their love was the kind of love that brought out the best in both people involved - where you give up your own selfish needs to do anything to bring a smile to that person’s face, because their smile becomes your smile. Their happiness becomes your happiness. Their pain is your pain, and you overcome obstacles together to prevent that pain in the future.

I know that the film and novel are complete fiction, and that it’s unrealistic in its narrative, but if I would want any type of lover it would be someone who somewhat emulates Forrest. His compassion for Jenny is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and it’s not even real – which is the sad thing. My favourite line is that last one in the monologue: ‘if there’s anything you need, I won’t be far away’. It astounds me that Forrest still wants to provide for Jenny even though there is nothing he can really give her anymore. He has given almost everything, and still finds it in his heart to want to give more. I think it’s his selflessness that brings me to tears, and how in the end he lost out the most by losing his Jenny.

 

That’s what more human beings need; carefree, selfless and undivided love for all of their brothers and sisters. We are all of the same species when it comes down to it; disregard race, gender, religion, social class, whatever causes the poison and toxicity, because we are all as vulnerable as each other when we turn out the lights at night. We could all be the Jenny at some point in our life in some way or another, but we all have the opportunity to become the Lieutenant Dan. We have the ability to believe in ourselves and love, just like Forrest did. We all have the ability to do great things; whether we’re smart or dumb, short or tall, big or small, slow or fast, disabled or completely healthy. Life is great, you just have to reach out, grab it, and make it great and worthwhile by making the most of every opportunity – just like Forrest did.

I needed to get these thoughts down somewhere, and I thought my blog would be the best place to do so. It's honestly such an inspiring movie to me - these words don't even sum up the emotion, the love and the familiar feeling I get when I watch it. It's a movie I will never get tired of.

I'll  leave you with one of my favourite moments from the movie, and one that makes me cry sometimes when I watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2QGUkVqv-M

'Our destiny is defined by how we deal with the chance elements of our life.’
 
Peace and Love <3

What in the World Am I Thankful For?

What In The World Do I Have To Be Thankful For?

Sometimes I think we take everything we personally enjoy for granted. I’m not talking about possessions – happiness can’t be counted in ‘things’ and money. I was thinking to myself the other night, what in the world am I thankful for? I came up with a ton of stuff! So here are 100 things I came up with that make life worth it even when I’m feeling down, disheartened or stressed; what I am thankful for, and what makes the world the best place to live. They’re in no particular order...

1)      My mum, dad, brothers, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

2)      Acting

3)      Seeing a real traditional Isle of Wight native witness a really flamboyantly gay man.

4)      The word contrapuntal.

5)      Matthew McConaughey and everything he does.

6)      Sometimes my feet get ahead of themselves when I walk, and it makes me laugh.

7)      Men that love their mothers more than anybody else in the world.

8)      Chris O’Dowd’s face.

9)      Hearing the British public complain about the weather.

10)   When people use obscure song lyric references in everyday conversation.

11)   People laughing uncontrollably.

12)   Having a video player still.

13)   Hearing somebody whistle ‘Mysterious Girl’ by Peter Andre

14)   Marilyn Monroe

15)   Peaches, because they’re the best fruit – no arguments.

16)   Ranting.

17)   Seeing your words strike chords with people in a beautiful way.

18)   Paul McCartney’s eyebrows.

19)   Nature and knowing that I will never understand it all, but being able to appreciate its beauty.

20)   Having weird dreams.

21)   Blurry photographs that make your face look all stretched. They make me laugh so much.

22)   Making people jump.

23)   Making my dog jump.

24)   Old people enjoying something rude – like the old couple watching ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ next to us last week.

25)   My Mad Fat Diary.

26)   Dorky men with good bone structure.

27)   Steve Urkel.

28)   Doing Stewie and Lois impressions.

29)   Seeing people cooing over/playing with their baby in public.

30)   Walter Matthau in ‘Grumpy Old Men’

31)   Really bad jokes.

32)   When people make sitcom references and you get it.

33)   Spotting lookalikes and sound-alike’s.

34)   When American people are obsessed with Britain, our culture and British TV

35)   Adrian Edmonson and Rik Mayall’s existence.

36)   When a comedian makes a joke and you relate to it, instantly making it a billion times funnier.

37)   Bob Ross and his happy little trees – I don’t even paint; I just like to listen to him while I work.

38)   My skinny little spaniel, King Charles II.

39)   Shakespearean insults. Damn you a beef witted, gleeking bum bailey.

40)   The atmosphere at music festivals.

41)   Donating to charity and feeling good about it.

42)   Spotting innuendos in children’s shows – like this scene in ‘Rainbow’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc

43)    Horrible Histories.

44)   Reading 50 Shades of Grey while drunk with your best friend. Best thing ever.

45)   Someone asking for directions and not knowing the way yourself.

46)   Spinning around in a flowing dress.

47)   Places with funny names.

48)   Looking through all of my old schoolwork and notes between my friends.

49)   Motivational speeches.

50)   Being as sarcastic as possible at any given moment.

51)   Going to the cinema and coming out when it’s really dark.

52)   The fact that Richard Osman looks like Fireman Sam.

53)   The banter between Xander and Richard on ‘Pointless’.

54)   Having long curly hair.

55)   Sparkling wine in the summer, sitting in the garden.

56)   Men who are openly feminist.

57)   Talking in a stupidly dramatic voice to make a point about something petty.

58)   Joan Baez’s guitar playing style.

59)   Singamajigs. I want one SO much.

60)   Aching for ages after a workout. You know you really hit it that day.

61)   Imagining the house you will have in the future, and where you’ll live.

62)   Doing the David Brent dance at any given moment.

63)   Having super long baths.

64)   Wearing clothes that have just come off of the radiator.

65)   Leaving champagne on your tongue so it fizzes.

66)   Pencil skirts.

67)   Crossing off the last thing on your to do list.

68)   Having lots of books to read throughout the summer break.

69)   Immature ‘69’ jokes.

70)   Being in absolute awe at an actor when they create a phenomenal performance – like Chiwetel Ejiofor in ‘12 Years a Slave’ or Jeremy Sheffield in ‘Hollyoaks’.

71)   Those Starburst Cake Bars you used to be able to buy and my memories of eating them on primary school trips to Osborne House.

72)   Smelling someone else’s dinner as you walk home to have yours.

73)   Wearing no bra under a sweater.

74)   Baking, in every sense.

75)   Inside jokes.

76)   When you say something at exactly the same time as your friend.

77)   Cluedo.

78)   Smelling cigarette smoke when someone else is smoking.

79)   Playing Slender while drinking.

80)   Lambs.

81)   When you smell your perfume on yourself and demand that the nearest person smell you.

82)   Knowing the Duke of Edinburgh exists.

83)   Jeremy Irons’ voice.

84)   When Daffodils make their first yearly appearance.

85)   When my dog’s been lying in the sun on my bed and his fur is super warm.

86)   Liza Minnelli.

87)   Looking out of the window at night to watch the sun go down.

88)   ‘Homer...sexual’ and other obscure Simpsons quotes/references.

89)   Knowing that everyone unanimously agrees that a cover version of The Beatles is never going to be as good as the original.

90)   That my best friend’s boyfriend knowing all the lyrics to ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice Girls and ‘Talulah’ from Bugsy Malone.

91)   Sharon Tate.

92)   Telling people why you admire them.

93)   The Hugh Hefner and his love of strawberry ice cream.

94)   The character Neely O’Hara from ‘Valley of the Dolls’.

95)   Receiving knitted gifts.

96)   Good old fashioned musicals.

97)   Yankee Candles.

98)   Wearing a dressing gown around the house on Sundays.

99)   Knowing that Viking helmets didn’t have horns, and other petty historical trivia that nobody cares about.

100) Hearing someone in Britain over-pronounce a French word.

Think of all the little things that you’re thankful for. What cheers you up when you’re feeling low? Make a list and practice positive thinking.

Love, Eloise.

@MissEloisabeth