Monday, July 13, 2020

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Ghost (1990)

Sam: I'm proud of you, Oda Mae.
Oda Mae: You know something, Sam? I don't care if you're proud of me. You just stay away from me from now on. What is that nun going to do with it? She can't even buy underwear.

A happy 30 to Ghost today! I assume it depends on your age but I was the exact right age when Jerry Zucker's smash success romance came out for it to be a very big part of my life -- all I did at 12 was watch movies and Ghost was just risqué enough to feel grown-up but platitudinous enough to translate easily to my know-nothing self. Basically it's an ideal PG-13 movie. You get sex and you get violence, which is to say that you get Tony Goldwyn spilling something on his shirt in an effort to woo...

... and you get Tony Goldwyn getting dragged away by shrieking hell demon ink-blots. Basically all I ever wanted as a 12 year old. Those two things. Anyway that's my way of saying I've seen Ghost more times than I could ever count, enough that its dialogue is entirely burned into my brain even though I haven't actually seen the movie properly in a good fifteen years, I'd wager. I still think all of Whoopi's scenes are the film's highlights (well, save all the Tony Goldwyn stuff I just mentioned) but I do get a little angry now here in 2020 when I realize that she beat Diane Ladd's performance in Wild At Heart for Best Supporting Actress...

... which is where my vote as an adult would now go. Justice for Miss Marietta Fortune!!! Heck I'd probably even vote for Annette Bening's work in The Grifters or Lorraine Bracco in Goodfellas before Whoopi? Although I do love that Whoopi has an Oscar. She just should have gotten it for The Color Purple, is all. Anyway in summation here on Ghost's 30th anniversary I ask you to put yourself in Demi Moore's no doubt sensible shoes and answer the following... 

survey solutions

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't seen Ladd's performance (I know) but I also love Whoopi having an Oscar even if it should've been for TCP. I think part of what makes her Ghost win seem less than worthy is that she was so perfectly cast and did such a great job that she made it look easy. You don't see her REALLY TRYING to act REALLY HARD the way so many Oscar-winning (and Oscar-winning-wannabes) performances do.

shaun said...

HARD AGREE with anonymous -- she made it look easy, but it's a very memorable, entertaining performance. I love Ladd's performance, too, though. It's weird that this came up, as I was just talking to the hubs about Whoopi's Ghost performance the other day.