I am surprised at wikkid's vote for Gump for some reason.
It is awfully simplistic seeming for my usual tastes. Having briefly become friends with the starin the early 80s, i was rooting to like it, so that's a factor. But i remember seeing it as well as i remember seeing any movie for some reason. the story of it is strange, which shouldn't surprise anyone....
I saw it in Reno with one of my whales. One of the side benefits of being a good racing handicapper (hi,
@otb_lifer - derby trail isnt the same without you) is that rich people seek you out to pick for them and give you outrageous gifts, lots of drugs, take you on trips for doing so. I saw Forrest Gump with one of em, the most oddly rich guy i ever knew, and that's saying something.
Richard was in his 50s, good-looking tanned, immaculately casual guy - like the British Baking Show guy - who'd been a beach bum most of his life then vroomp came into extraordinary wealth. He was a deepsea diver who noticed something on a casual dive in Fla, went to a professional treasure hunter and his find ended up being a Spanish galleon worth tens of millions of dollars. Richard got almost 8 figs out of it, gave it to a financial planner, went back to diving cuz he liked it. They had another good-size find, he took that money to his financial planner who told him, btw, he'd almost doubled the 1st money he gave him. "Cool" said Richard, and went back to diving. People started making fun of the diver worth $25mil who didn't even own a boat and lived in a one-bedroom apartment. Richard didn't like being made fun of so quit the biz and moved to Reno for some reason.
Richard sat down at my poker table one evening and the players had been talking about the Derby, which i had won a future bet on. Richard listens to our talk without saying a word, comes to me on a break and asks if i'd teach him how to handicap. Said sure, never thinking i'd see him again. The casino host was my best friend in town and asks me, "You know Richard?" "Richard who?" "The whale you were talking to" "Whale?! He was playing a $2-10 stud game. Some kind of whale" My pal tells me every casino in town is trying to get this guy, there's an 8-ball, maybe more in it if you rope him to us. Yeah, sure.
Richard found out where i played the horses and came to see me, i showed him the way i played, he didn't seem to get it, so i picked him some horses, they did pretty well, i find out at the end of the day that while i'd made a couple hundred bucks he'd made over 20K on my picks and thanks me by taking me to like a $500 dinner. I get a call later in the week, it's Richard (i never gave him my #, i never gave anybody my #) says, "Wanna go to the Belmont?" "I gotta work" "OK". Go to work that night, my boss tells me i'm off Belmont weekend cuz Richard told the Flamingo they could have his business if they gave me Belmont week off. Got to snort that 8ball on the job, too. Worked out great cuz the Tony Awards are always the same weekend as the Belmont Stakes and my cousin was nominated for best choreographer and Richard & Mary & I got to party with him and fancy show folk, i got him in a Park Ave card game i knew about which he loved, we ate great, lived great, partied great, all on his dime, Richard even bought Scary Mary a powder blue cashmere sweater that cost over $1000 that was her greatest consolation on her real sick days and she died in it.
He took a house at DelMar that summer and called me every morning for my picks and flew us down twice. Flew me to Churchill for the Breeders Cup where we made a killing, i remember. He'd invite me over to this big house in the foothills that never had much furniture but always had 3-4 scantily-clad women (tower hookers and the odd amateur) padding around. He'd just sit in the sun, never talked much, didn't ask me to talk much, he'd go upstairs with one of his friends, another of his friends would asked me if i wanted to go upstairs. It was wonderfully weird, but i stopped going after awhile.
Anyway the movie. We played the horses one day, Richard made a lot of dough, took me to dinner, asked me if i wanna come over. Said no, he said movie? Sure. We went to see Gump, I was enjoying it, Jenny got mad at her house (my Mary was molested by her father), Jenny has a son without telling Forrest (i have a son i never got to hold) Jenny goes & dies (my Mary had already outlived her bone cancer prognosis). My eyes start welling up and, before you know it, i am sobbing uncontrollably, something i'd never done, wouldnt do in public. Richard put his arm around me the rest of the movie, never said a word (i LOVE people who dont talk) while i pulled myself together after the crowd had filed out, walked me across the street to a bar, put my favorite drink in front of me and sat beside me til i came around. He never asked why (at Mary's request, we had never told Richard that Mary was dying, the apparent reason behind my falling apart over frikkin Gump), never treated me differently, we had the same weird routine the rest of the year til he went to Florida to do some diving and we never heard from him again.
I've never told this story before, you can tell it hasn't been formulated for effect or everything, but that's my story of Gump. Don't say nuthin bad about Gump to me or i'll have Simey upperdeck you.