Sunday, January 23, 2011

ON MOVIES ~ Sickos...

Feature Presentation...
MONDAY MOVIE MEME

Molly looked around for a weekly meme about movies and did not have any luck. So therefore she decided to start her own! Andy will play along as well - hopefully you will too. Go to your blog and create your own post on the topic, linking back to us in your post, then come back and leave a link to your post here in our Comments section. If you don’t have a blog, just share your response in the Comments section.

This week's movie topic is all about Illness...

January in New England breeds lots of icky germs that turn into colds that make everyone miserable. Even if you don't have a cold, you know someone who does and you spend all your time avoiding them so you won't get it. No wonder Northerners get a rap for being rude sometimes. #1 - it is too cold to stop and chat for half of the year. #2 - we don't want to catch whatever you've got. The movies seem to have more sympathy for illness than we do. Here are a few examples we came up with. Share on your blog movies that contain a form of illness as its theme or feature a character who is sick or diseased, linking back here at The Bumbles. And don't forget to visit your fellow participants!
  • Awakenings (1990)
  • - A personal favorite film based on a memoir of the same name. Robin Williams portrays the doctor who uses a new drug to awaken patient Robert De Niro who has spent his adult life comatose due to an encephalitis epidemic in his teens.
  • A Beautiful Mind (2001)
  • - Wow. Russell Crowe really CAN act. He portrays real life mathematician John Nash who battled his schizophrenia on and off medication.
  • Knute Rockne: All American (1940)
  • - The movie was all about the famous Notre Dame football coach, but the coach's star player, George Gipp, had the most memorable line as he suffered from a strep infection gone bad. "Win one for the Gipper" said a dying Gipp to urge his coach to motivate the team to victory. The same line worked to propel Gipp actor Ronald Regan to the presidency too.
  • Terms of Endearment (1983)
  • - Cancer is the culprit in this heartbreaking tale with an all-star cast that makes it so effective. Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Jeff Daniels, John Lithgow. This is a story of relationships - and the key that love plays in all of them. Based on the book by Larry McMurtry.
  • Steel Magnolias (1989)
  • - Shirley MacLaine in another all-star cast (Sally Field, Olympia Dukakis, Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah, Sam Shepard, Tom Skerritt, Dylan McDermott) with the illness of diabetes at the center of what makes this circle of female friends across the generations so solid. Based on the play by Robert Harling who lost his sister to the disease. Who knew men could write women so well?!?! We both love this film - regardless of the "chick flick" label it wrongfully holds.
 Do you have a topic to suggest to the Monday Movie Meme? Or would you like to guest host? Let us know in the Comments section or send us an e-mail.

13 comments:

The Gal Herself said...

Terms of Endearment! Oh, how I cried (and cried) over that one!

I managed to come up with three others...

Lazarus said...

One of my favorite lines came from Tony Montana in "Scarface" as he was suffering from lead poisoning (he had been shot about 100 times but was still standing during the movie's climax): "Say hello to my little friend!" It's a memorable line and I was going to work it in one way or another...

Lulu said...

A beautiful mind is really good.

Here' my Movie Choices for this week.

Sandy Nawrot said...

It would have been easy to go down the cancer path with this one...so many movies where somebody dies! I took a slightly different approach, with only one token cancer movie. Love your choices! Here are mine:

http://sandynawrot.blogspot.com/2011/01/monday-movie-meme-sickos.html

Chris said...

I am playing today at Chris Chronicles

Marie Cloutier said...

Here's mine!First time participating: http://mariesmovies.blogspot.com/2011/01/monday-movies-illness-in-movies.html

kayerj said...

stell magnolias--I liked that one but didn't realize it was diabetes. So many movies about sick people, I think Hollywood loves to play on our sympathies. I had no trouble of thinking of movies today. Kaye—the road goes ever ever on

Unknown said...

There are a lot of movies that fit this topic and so many of them are sad. Fortunately some are also inspirational like Awakenings, great movie! What a tear jerker Terms of Endearment is & Steel Magnolias. Great list although I'm not familiar with Knute Rockne.

I've posted my choices!
Amy's Movie Picks

I hope you like them!
~ Amy

Unknown said...

Epic picks! Especially Steel Magnolias and Awakenings! My choices are HERE.

Anonymous said...

I only stole one :)

http://stacybuckeye.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/monday-movie-meme-illness/

Kwizgiver said...

It's always fun which movies pop into my head.

Great theme this week.

what if this is as good as it gets?: monday movie meme

Heather G. said...

You picked two of my choices!!! A Beautiful Mind and Awakenings...so I picked others.

Here are mine: http://gofita.blogspot.com/2011/01/monday-movie-meme-aches-and-pains-and.html

Kathleen said...

You have reminded me how much I really need to watch A Beautiful Mind again. That was such a stunning performance by Crowe and so not what I was expecting from him!