Bill earnestly, reluctantly talking about the ghost haunting his house and CR asking him if his reluctance to discuss it is because he thinks the ghosts are listeners of the pod just killed me. "You don't think they unsubscribed after BLACKHAT?". Fucking ROLLING.
I listened to this at the gym this morning and burst out laughing when Chris starts losing it. I listened to that section like 8 times I had to come here and see it. SO GOOD! This is a legendary Rewatchable!
In 2038, 15 years after the making of this podcast episode, I can see Bill, CR, and Sean meeting up for a weekend in Beaufort, SC, to reminisce about the good old days.
I love this movie. I'm of that generation. When I first saw it, the line "I was at my best when I was you guys", hit home. I remembered back to 1967 and 1968, I was an au pair from Denmark in Westport Ct. In 1967 I dated someone from late sommer to June 1968, we were more friend than anything, In July of 68 I met his best friend, and we had fireworks right away. Anyway for a couple of years, a couple of my girlfriends (also au pairs) the guy I was dating, and the one I use to date plus a some other, we would hang out, we partied together, there were something special about our friendship, and I didn't loose touch with my girlfriend, nor the 2 guys I dated, they were alway there for me, and although we live in different areas, Europe, Florida and I'm in California we stay in contact.
The opening of The Big Chill is so good, that it would work equally as well as the ending. Everyone driving off to bury their friend to the tune of You Can't Always Get What You Want. It's great.
THIS IS THE BEST RUclips PODCAST EVER SINCE THE BEGINNING OF RUclips OR THE INTERNET. Screw AOL chatrooms, this is where it's at. My parents had this on an SD VHS and I hated it because I thought it was a horror move- I never made it past the first five minutes. But I'm going to watch it tonight because I was only 4 then.
The Big Chill is a very good movie and so many movies that came after it did rip it off. The movie doesn't seem like a new idea if you watch it now, but The Big Chill really put this genre on the map with old friends connecting and basically being a hang out movie. It was very much made for 30 something year old baby boomers in 1983 and some of the things in the movie like Hurt still being messed up by the Vietnam war does date it a bit but the main story is timeless, and any generation can relate to these characters on same level when you're over 30.
The Big Chill is a classic and one of my favorites.. plus, definitely the movie that put that genre on the map (the most famous out of all them), like you’ve said… but Return of the Secaucus 7 came out a few years earlier, and it’s clear to tell that The Big Chill takes a lot from that one…
This movie is a favorite of mine. After many years and watches (with regard to the Oscar discussion), I think the best acting in the movie is Jo Beth Williams reacting to what the other characters are saying (the pained loathing as Richard drones on in the car, with Chloe at the wake, the stubborn look as Glenn Close tries to warn her off acting on her lust for Berenger).
Love this but I think you got offering up Harold wrong. It wasn’t out of guilt. Remember Meg talking to one of the kids on the phone? Glenn Close’s face says it all. This was a true friendship between these women
"You Can't Always Get What You Want" -- "Immediate disqualification due to its involvement with The Big Chill." "Oh, God, you're right!" Jack Black, High Fidelity.
When I was your age, this movie seemed like the most “boring” and “overrated” movie about people complaining. Did I watch the whole thing? Of course not, but did I have a wildly out of control opinion about things I didn’t know anything about, yes, I certainly did. Fast forward to when I’m in my mid 30s. By then, I had become a big film fan (like CR and Sean). And I finally watched this movie for the first time in full. I finally got why the movie was so great. It definitely is a movie about people talking, but it resonated much deeper. I had such a strong reaction to the movie that I watched The Return of the Secaucus 7 (a low budget indie movie by John Sayles that came out a few years before but covers the same concept). If you watch the movie and have a negative reaction, are bored by it, or don’t get it, I’d revisit when you’re in your 30s, closer to the age of the characters in the movie. Something about having more life experiences will make it easier to connect with the movie.
This is one of those films I’ve always known the title of, but have never seen. Just bought the Criterion disc, so sometime this season I will pick a night and see if it’s worth the hype.
NEW DRINKING GAME: Every time Sean feels the need to mention the race of the actors, or the director, or a key grip, have a big ole sip! Also, Happy Birthday Bill!!!
I'm wondering what's the oldest movie discussed on the podcast? But I'll search to see if they've done like Carey Grant or Katherine Hepburn movies. I'm just getting into this podcast. It's my new favorite.
Couple thoughts I've never seen this movie all the way through but it's beloved and i agree with craig thats what great about coming of age movies is there's a lot of relatable stuff that happens that are unique in a way that doesn't really make sense and random weird things that happen that movies like this do such a great job of nailing..
I guess i had a similar experience with this movie as CR, in that i wasn't the target audience, but it hit very close with my parents. They were roughly the same age as the cast members, and my father's closest friends were his college chums, even though most of them lived 100 miles away or more. I still enjoyed it, but it was secondhand. One gag i didn't appreciate was the conversation between Berenger and Goldblum in the car. Both snort and belittle the other's standing in their field, which just went over my head. Sam has a hit show, but is a little insecure because it's television. Michael gets flack about his gig because it's People magazine. As a kid I thought, so what? These might not be the most prestigious, but are high profile and pay well enough. I felt like this was one of the generational idioms.
Now that we're past the opinions of that bitter GenX writer whom Bill cites in that EW article, "Blame 'Chill' for talkative movies! Blame 'Chill' for soundtracks! BLAME 'CHILL' FOR BILL CLINTON!", it's worth revisiting a movie like this to see how the Baby Boomers saw themselves 15 years after their "revolutionary" prime. This movie insists they all became (or married) very successful people. For about 1 year or so, between Poltergeist and this, I had a weird pubescent crush on JoBeth Williams in 82-83. Adolescence is tragic. So is growing up GenX. We didn't even ideals which we failed to live up to, as our Boomer parents did.
As a Gen X person without any nostalgic ties to their era, I saw this movie intentional or not as a critical commentary of the self-absorbed nature of the boomer generation and its contrived mythos.
I see your point, but I’m not sure it’s a criticism of boomer navel gazing, or just a meditation on it. It doesn’t conclude much other than, this is a thing we affluent college-educated boomers do. Lawrence Kasdan revisited the theme with Grand Canyon, sort of an unofficial sequel to this, ruminating on affluent white boomer angst ten years later. It raises a few points again, but doesn’t seem to reach a conclusion on how they’re good or bad. Kasdan is similar in age and background to these actors and their characters, so i suspect these movies are semi autobiographical
I listened to the podcast and its quality drove me here. It is an instant relistenable. The segments on the breeding scene were fire. Although the notion of people navigating their biological clocks and careers is quite real, the subplot as it exists in the film never made sense to me and you three articulated why perfectly. You did an epic episode on a timeless (yet very time-specific) classic film. Your three things were definitely on!
"Equate" is a trickily empirical verb. I was just referring to what the fictional character was saying about herself and what her fictional friends all understood to be the case. If they weren't hearing Time's winged chariot, then some of their choices make a lot less sense. In the world outside of the film, there is infinite variety in the human experience.Even then, though, age isn't not a life stage, to some degree. Don't take everything so 100% cut and dry. It'll age you prematurely. @@obvioushieidude7668
Watching this on February 21, 2024... the whole discussion about getting summoned to impregnate another woman has a different bent for anyone watching the new Curb Your Enthusiasm season right now. Oh: and a little half-assed internet research tells me the Santini House (Tidalholm) is a 7-7. So plenty of rooms, so much so that no one should have needed to share one.
The main thing that makes the movie dated aside from the time period, is this false notion that everyone's in the same life stage at the same age. This idea that everyone experiences things at the same time. This is just not relevant to millennials (especially those in the latter part of the generation) and Gen Z. People in their 20s, 30s and even older are hitting developmental milestones at different times. For example, one person may be hitting that period where they have all these dreams and have a group of friends they grow along with, when they are in their teens/early 20s. Conversely, there are many people who don't even reach that period until their late 20s or early 30s or older. Some were very lonely in high school and college, some people didn't discover their hobbies and passions until later. It looks like Bill and the other two guys are still in that old fashioned, outdated mindset of assigning age to life stage. But I think we've evolved to a point where we realize everyone hits different stages in life at different ages. One thing that stuck out is your ignorant assumptions about people's social lives in college. Not everyone meets their closest friends in college, and not everyone settles into their identities, careers, etc. in their 30s. Everyone is different. And either people adhered more to these arbitrary milestones back then, or perhaps we've started to accept that not everyone has the same experiences and not everyone develops the same. Either way I'd recommend all 3 of you to get your heads out of the sand, and realize that your personal experiences are NOT universal. Also two more things. Older does NOT equate to being more successful and also NOT everyone has kids.
"Nobody said it was going to be fun. At least, nobody said it to me." One of the best lines EVER.
Bill earnestly, reluctantly talking about the ghost haunting his house and CR asking him if his reluctance to discuss it is because he thinks the ghosts are listeners of the pod just killed me. "You don't think they unsubscribed after BLACKHAT?". Fucking ROLLING.
I listened to this at the gym this morning and burst out laughing when Chris starts losing it. I listened to that section like 8 times I had to come here and see it. SO GOOD! This is a legendary Rewatchable!
hahah nice bru, i listened to it at the gym too 💪🏋🏀
Had to bail on my bench press mid set when Chris did the "KAREENNNN you left the window opennnnn"
In 2023, I still watch it on VHS.
In 2038, 15 years after the making of this podcast episode, I can see Bill, CR, and Sean meeting up for a weekend in Beaufort, SC, to reminisce about the good old days.
Nothing better than when one of your favourite movies is covered on the rewatchables, and the episode itself is an instant classic.
I love this movie. I'm of that generation. When I first saw it, the line "I was at my best when I was you guys", hit home. I remembered back to 1967 and 1968, I was an au pair from Denmark in Westport Ct. In 1967 I dated someone from late sommer to June 1968, we were more friend than anything, In July of 68 I met his best friend, and we had fireworks right away. Anyway for a couple of years, a couple of my girlfriends (also au pairs) the guy I was dating, and the one I use to date plus a some other, we would hang out, we partied together, there were something special about our friendship, and I didn't loose touch with my girlfriend, nor the 2 guys I dated, they were alway there for me, and although we live in different areas, Europe, Florida and I'm in California we stay in contact.
I don't know the majority of movies on the rewatchables but I still listen, I quite often watch the movie afterwards 😅
I do the same. They really make the movies more enjoyable.
This is a legendary rewatchables
The opening of The Big Chill is so good, that it would work equally as well as the ending.
Everyone driving off to bury their friend to the tune of You Can't Always Get What You Want.
It's great.
THIS IS THE BEST RUclips PODCAST EVER SINCE THE BEGINNING OF RUclips OR THE INTERNET. Screw AOL chatrooms, this is where it's at. My parents had this on an SD VHS and I hated it because I thought it was a horror move- I never made it past the first five minutes. But I'm going to watch it tonight because I was only 4 then.
Is this thing on? - I laughed for the rest of the POD. Bill is just so damn smart and funny.
Can confirm, I’ve never seen this movie, quite a few that y’all have done, but have certainly watched after the pod! Keep it up!!!
Love the podcast, been listening for many years. Not gonna lie, finally seeing what the 3 of you actually look like is freaking me out a bit.
The last hour of this pod is throwing 100 mph in the jokes department. Awesome episode everyone!
The Big Chill is a very good movie and so many movies that came after it did rip it off. The movie doesn't seem like a new idea if you watch it now, but The Big Chill really put this genre on the map with old friends connecting and basically being a hang out movie. It was very much made for 30 something year old baby boomers in 1983 and some of the things in the movie like Hurt still being messed up by the Vietnam war does date it a bit but the main story is timeless, and any generation can relate to these characters on same level when you're over 30.
The Big Chill is a classic and one of my favorites.. plus, definitely the movie that put that genre on the map (the most famous out of all them), like you’ve said… but Return of the Secaucus 7 came out a few years earlier, and it’s clear to tell that The Big Chill takes a lot from that one…
This movie is a favorite of mine. After many years and watches (with regard to the Oscar discussion), I think the best acting in the movie is Jo Beth Williams reacting to what the other characters are saying (the pained loathing as Richard drones on in the car, with Chloe at the wake, the stubborn look as Glenn Close tries to warn her off acting on her lust for Berenger).
Happy Birthday Bill !!!!!!!!!
Love this but I think you got offering up Harold wrong. It wasn’t out of guilt. Remember Meg talking to one of the kids on the phone? Glenn Close’s face says it all. This was a true friendship between these women
So glad you posted this here because when I listened to the pod, I yelled that The Best Man is the black Big Chill and it is elite.
deer hunter is my rewatchable
"You Can't Always Get What You Want" -- "Immediate disqualification due to its involvement with The Big Chill." "Oh, God, you're right!" Jack Black, High Fidelity.
I am about to turn 19, and my mom told me to watch this movie recently. The opening statements really hit home.
When I was your age, this movie seemed like the most “boring” and “overrated” movie about people complaining. Did I watch the whole thing? Of course not, but did I have a wildly out of control opinion about things I didn’t know anything about, yes, I certainly did. Fast forward to when I’m in my mid 30s.
By then, I had become a big film fan (like CR and Sean). And I finally watched this movie for the first time in full. I finally got why the movie was so great. It definitely is a movie about people talking, but it resonated much deeper. I had such a strong reaction to the movie that I watched The Return of the Secaucus 7 (a low budget indie movie by John Sayles that came out a few years before but covers the same concept). If you watch the movie and have a negative reaction, are bored by it, or don’t get it, I’d revisit when you’re in your 30s, closer to the age of the characters in the movie. Something about having more life experiences will make it easier to connect with the movie.
This was unreal 😂
This is one of those films I’ve always known the title of, but have never seen. Just bought the Criterion disc, so sometime this season I will pick a night and see if it’s worth the hype.
NEW DRINKING GAME:
Every time Sean feels the need to mention the race of the actors, or the director, or a key grip, have a big ole sip!
Also, Happy Birthday Bill!!!
I've never heard CR laugh that hard. Incredible 1:42:55
"Sorry I didn't understand you said your hog doesn't work, I was on ludes... I gotta get outta here."
I would love a Rewatchables on 10 Years, just gonna throw that out there.
Gen X is like 65-81. Simmons is full of it.
I'm wondering what's the oldest movie discussed on the podcast? But I'll search to see if they've done like Carey Grant or Katherine Hepburn movies.
I'm just getting into this podcast. It's my new favorite.
We want Billy Mcafee on the Rewatchables 😮
I identify with Chris's mom soundtrack story. I had the exact same experience. On that note: I identify with nothing said by Fennessey.
Is there a video for the Saving private Ryan Rewatchables??? Plezzzzzz put it on RUclips!!🙏🙏🙏🙏
The true Costner precursor movie from this era was Fandango.
Yes! That was the first movie of his that I saw. Seems to be one of those movies that got forgotten pretty quickly.
Couple thoughts I've never seen this movie all the way through but it's beloved and i agree with craig thats what great about coming of age movies is there's a lot of relatable stuff that happens that are unique in a way that doesn't really make sense and random weird things that happen that movies like this do such a great job of nailing..
No there isn't "a lot of relatable stuff" because everyone's experiences are different, and not everyone is at the same place in life at the same age.
@@obvioushieidude7668 context is a thing.. 😂
@@ZJ-ne9kn Okay, maybe I misunderstood your post. Care to elaborate?
1:34:34 Wayne Jenkins
I guess i had a similar experience with this movie as CR, in that i wasn't the target audience, but it hit very close with my parents. They were roughly the same age as the cast members, and my father's closest friends were his college chums, even though most of them lived 100 miles away or more. I still enjoyed it, but it was secondhand.
One gag i didn't appreciate was the conversation between Berenger and Goldblum in the car. Both snort and belittle the other's standing in their field, which just went over my head. Sam has a hit show, but is a little insecure because it's television. Michael gets flack about his gig because it's People magazine. As a kid I thought, so what? These might not be the most prestigious, but are high profile and pay well enough. I felt like this was one of the generational idioms.
Meg Tilly apex is definitely Agnes of God
Now that we're past the opinions of that bitter GenX writer whom Bill cites in that EW article, "Blame 'Chill' for talkative movies! Blame 'Chill' for soundtracks! BLAME 'CHILL' FOR BILL CLINTON!", it's worth revisiting a movie like this to see how the Baby Boomers saw themselves 15 years after their "revolutionary" prime. This movie insists they all became (or married) very successful people. For about 1 year or so, between Poltergeist and this, I had a weird pubescent crush on JoBeth Williams in 82-83. Adolescence is tragic. So is growing up GenX. We didn't even ideals which we failed to live up to, as our Boomer parents did.
Watching 01-05- Screenwriter's Day
As a Gen X person without any nostalgic ties to their era, I saw this movie intentional or not as a critical commentary of the self-absorbed nature of the boomer generation and its contrived mythos.
I see your point, but I’m not sure it’s a criticism of boomer navel gazing, or just a meditation on it. It doesn’t conclude much other than, this is a thing we affluent college-educated boomers do.
Lawrence Kasdan revisited the theme with Grand Canyon, sort of an unofficial sequel to this, ruminating on affluent white boomer angst ten years later. It raises a few points again, but doesn’t seem to reach a conclusion on how they’re good or bad.
Kasdan is similar in age and background to these actors and their characters, so i suspect these movies are semi autobiographical
I listened to the podcast and its quality drove me here. It is an instant relistenable. The segments on the breeding scene were fire. Although the notion of people navigating their biological clocks and careers is quite real, the subplot as it exists in the film never made sense to me and you three articulated why perfectly. You did an epic episode on a timeless (yet very time-specific) classic film. Your three things were definitely on!
Not everything is "navigating their biological clocks and careers" by a certain age. Age does NOT EQUATE to life stage!
"Equate" is a trickily empirical verb. I was just referring to what the fictional character was saying about herself and what her fictional friends all understood to be the case. If they weren't hearing Time's winged chariot, then some of their choices make a lot less sense. In the world outside of the film, there is infinite variety in the human experience.Even then, though, age isn't not a life stage, to some degree. Don't take everything so 100% cut and dry. It'll age you prematurely. @@obvioushieidude7668
Watching this on February 21, 2024... the whole discussion about getting summoned to impregnate another woman has a different bent for anyone watching the new Curb Your Enthusiasm season right now.
Oh: and a little half-assed internet research tells me the Santini House (Tidalholm) is a 7-7. So plenty of rooms, so much so that no one should have needed to share one.
I think if you're a white dude around 40ish there's a great chance this was your mom's favorite movie.
We all sell out. Who wants to live on the streets?
Big Lebowski
Space Jam is still the best movie soundtrack of all time but this one was good
The main thing that makes the movie dated aside from the time period, is this false notion that everyone's in the same life stage at the same age. This idea that everyone experiences things at the same time. This is just not relevant to millennials (especially those in the latter part of the generation) and Gen Z. People in their 20s, 30s and even older are hitting developmental milestones at different times. For example, one person may be hitting that period where they have all these dreams and have a group of friends they grow along with, when they are in their teens/early 20s. Conversely, there are many people who don't even reach that period until their late 20s or early 30s or older. Some were very lonely in high school and college, some people didn't discover their hobbies and passions until later.
It looks like Bill and the other two guys are still in that old fashioned, outdated mindset of assigning age to life stage. But I think we've evolved to a point where we realize everyone hits different stages in life at different ages. One thing that stuck out is your ignorant assumptions about people's social lives in college. Not everyone meets their closest friends in college, and not everyone settles into their identities, careers, etc. in their 30s. Everyone is different. And either people adhered more to these arbitrary milestones back then, or perhaps we've started to accept that not everyone has the same experiences and not everyone develops the same. Either way I'd recommend all 3 of you to get your heads out of the sand, and realize that your personal experiences are NOT universal. Also two more things. Older does NOT equate to being more successful and also NOT everyone has kids.
Very well said. Your comment even applies to the trio above (Chris Ryan's older than Sean age-wise).
I agree with your overall point, but I think movie does a pretty good job of giving us different characters facing different problems.
Old debate, but Sayles' The Return of the Secaucus Seven is still a better film. Independent cinema is always better than Hollywood product.