I have been hit with some surprising emotions in regards to the death of Robin Williams. I think the world has. He’s been a part of our lives for nearly 5 decades and there is at least one movie that holds a memory for everyone. I’ve been seeing a lot of posts regarding 'Aladdin' and 'Mrs. Doubtfire' and naturally, 'Good Will Hunting,' the one that finally got him that elusive Oscar. But for me, these were my two favorites:
When I was in 7th/8th grade, one of my friends, Bert invited us all to his house every Friday night. During Football season we were all at the football games but on Saturday nights we were at Bert’s. His family had money. And they had a luxury basement with a giant (for the 80’s) TV where we could all watch stupid movies and be the obnoxious 13 year olds that we were. Our favorite without a question was, Good Morning, Vietnam. That movie was elevated to an almost Rocky Horror-esque state where we all said the lines along with the movie and got really excited for our favorite parts. I can still hear my friend, Alfredo, reciting Robin Williams monologues verbatim. It wasn’t only a great movie, but it was for me, the first glimpse into Vietnam. Yes, I was alive during the 70’s but this was the first movie I watched that addressed. My brothers had taken me to Apocalypse Now when I was little but shockingly, as a 5 year old, I didn’t quite get it. I had no interest in Platoon, not when Ferris Bueller and Top Gun were in the same theaters. So Good Morning, Vietnam was my intro. Learning the conditions in the jungle, the politics, the absolute powerlessness the media had to report what was going on and it really did spark my interest in learning about Vietnam and the 60’s in general. But mostly I remember sitting in a furnished basement in front of a huge television on a bean bag with all my friends drinking Jolt Cola and laughing so hard that my stomach would hurt for days. Those final days before we all hit high school and went our separate ways into our respective groups. Even if we remained friends, it was never quite that tight knit as it was on those Saturday nights at Bert’s house. I wore out the soundtrack. I wound up buying the cassette three times because I kept wearing it out. And still to this day when I see it, I can hear my friends reciting the lines along with it.
The second one was my junior year of high school. My brother had just moved back from going to school in California. One week night during the summer he said “Let’s go to a movie.” For us, that was a big deal. We lived in a small town and ‘going to a movie’ involved getting in the car and driving about 45 minutes over ‘the mountain’ to the thriving metropolis of Scranton. Not to mention that he said this at 9:00 at night. I looked at him like he was crazy and he explained that movie theaters have shows later than 7:00. Ah, the innocence of 17. We looked at the movie times and he said he really wanted to see this movie 'Dead Poets Society' even though it sounded really boring to me. It was playing 11:30pm. I just hoped I could stay awake. I mean a 2 hour movie about poetry? When we arrived, we were the only two people there. I guess midnight movies aren’t as popular in Scranton, Pennsylvania as they are in California. It was a private showing for just the two of us. And as soon as it began and we were introduced to this boys school in New England I was sucked in. We didn’t speak for the entire 2 hours. This was rare, I mean we’re Italian, we never shut up. But we were both riveted. I cried at many points during the film in the obvious places but the scene that got to me the most was when Robin Williams confronted a young, shy, Ethan Hawke and forced him to make the sound of a “Yawp” in front of the class to ‘ find his voice.’ He did too, even though he wouldn’t admit it, he did. We didn’t talk for most of the ride home. It was nearly 3:00am when we pulled back into our town. As we neared our house he said to me, “You know you can talk to me about anything, anytime, right?” I nodded. And he said “Anything, no matter what. I won’t tell Mom, I won’t tell anyone.” I nodded. And he said “Jenn…I’m serious. High school blows. And sometimes, so does life. But I’m always gonna be here.” I said, “I know.” And he nodded and said, “Cool.” And that was the last we spoke of that movie. Until 3 years later at my college graduation when they announced my name and as I walked across the stage I just heard “YAWP!” I looked around and made eye contact with my brother and just saw his arm in the air with a giant thumbs up sign. I laughed. That scene had done the same for him and yet we had never spoke about it.
These are just my two most prevalent memories and in thinking of them both now, I reminisced and laughed and smiled and was saddened. What a tragic loss and reminder of to never ever think you know the struggles someone else is experiencing no matter how big their smile is on the outside. I’ll miss him. I miss everyone in the aforementioned stories.
YAWP!
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