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JMCKUSICK

(6,977 posts)
Thu Jul 9, 2026, 09:02 PM 10 hrs ago

If you ever need a recommendation for a great movie,

The Professor and the Madman fits the bill.

I don't like Mel Gibson as a person, but he and Sean Penn, especially Sean Penn make this movie extraordinary in my opinion.

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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If you ever need a recommendation for a great movie, (Original Post) JMCKUSICK 10 hrs ago OP
Sean Penn is a factor in MANY good movies. Captain Zero 9 hrs ago #1
Message auto-removed Name removed 9 hrs ago #2
Not at all, I should have included that. JMCKUSICK 9 hrs ago #3
I recorded Sid and Nancy from tv and still have it on my DVR IcyPeas 8 hrs ago #5
Post removed Post removed 7 hrs ago #9
Time traveller? sarisataka 7 hrs ago #10
The book was so interesting. I never saw the movie because... mel gibson IcyPeas 9 hrs ago #4
I'll bet the book was better. JMCKUSICK 8 hrs ago #6
lol, oh yeah, by a factor of ten. Brother Buzz 7 hrs ago #8
The movie was engaging, but the book by Simon Winchester was riveting. Brother Buzz 7 hrs ago #7
Thanks for the additional info Brother JMCKUSICK 5 hrs ago #11

Response to JMCKUSICK (Original post)

JMCKUSICK

(6,977 posts)
3. Not at all, I should have included that.
Thu Jul 9, 2026, 09:49 PM
9 hrs ago

It's on an app called Fawesome and free.

On a side note, that app also has Sid and Nancy, a cult classic about the Sex Pistols.

IcyPeas

(26,040 posts)
5. I recorded Sid and Nancy from tv and still have it on my DVR
Thu Jul 9, 2026, 10:26 PM
8 hrs ago

Also one of my favorite movies. It's a bleak, sad, crazed, drug fueled love story. I know a lot of people won't watch it because ... Sid Vicious... but it's a good movie of its time.

Also, Nancy's mother wrote a really good book about her:

And I Don't Want to Live This Life: A Mother's Story of Her Daughter's Murder
Deborah Spungen

For most of us, it was just another horrible headline. But for Deborah Spungen, the mother of Nancy, who was stabbed to death at the Chelsea Hotel, it was both a relief and a tragedy. Here is the incredible story of an infant who never stopped screaming, a toddler who attacked people, a teenager addicted to drugs, violence, and easy sex, a daughter completely out of control--who almost destroyed her parents' marriage and the happiness of the rest of her family.

Response to JMCKUSICK (Reply #3)

IcyPeas

(26,040 posts)
4. The book was so interesting. I never saw the movie because... mel gibson
Thu Jul 9, 2026, 10:03 PM
9 hrs ago

It's amazing to me that a story about the making of a dictionary could be so captivating and interesting. But it is.

Written by Simon Winchester, OBE

The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. ....


Brother Buzz

(40,707 posts)
7. The movie was engaging, but the book by Simon Winchester was riveting.
Thu Jul 9, 2026, 11:36 PM
7 hrs ago

The movie kinda glossed over his early years, and how Dr. William Chester Minor, a man with high morals and ethics, was driven insane by the atrocities of the Civil War. Ordered to brand a “D” on the cheeks of Irishmen who deserted and were captured, pushed him over the edge.

Dr. William Chester Minor was born and raised in Sri Lanka by US missionary parents, and returned to the US for college. A boatload of the words he submitted to OED originated in Sri Lanka. One word I remember was serendipity, possible the most pleasing word in the English language.

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