The Movie Hero (2003)

Director:

Brad T. Gottfred

Writer:

Brad T. Gottfred (writer)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Your audience is watching. Be the Hero.

Plot:

A man believes his life is a movie watched by an audience only he can see. |

Plot Keywords:

Audience | Epilogue | Delusion | Police | Face Mask

Awards:

6 wins

Cast

Jeremy Sisto	...	Blake Gardner / The Movie Hero
Dina Meyer	...	Elizabeth Orlando / The Love Interest
Peter Stormare	...	The Suspicious Character
Brian J. White	...	Antoine Thompson / The Sidekick
Carlos Jacott	...	Jonathan / The Doomed Fiancé
Frances Bay	...	Wise Old Woman
Alexis Arquette	...	Strange, Yet Attractive Woman
Marcia Strassman	...	Blake's Mom
Eric Pierpoint	...	Blake's Dad
Michele Specht	...	Secretary
Rob Boltin	...	Cop 1
Zach Johnson	...	Cop 2
Hiroshi Watanabe	...	Man On Bus
Dorothy Gibbs	...	Homeless Woman
Robert Sutton	...	Homeless Man (as Bob Sutton)

Also Known As:

Frame of Mind (International: English title)
The Movie Nut and His Audience (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo | DTS

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Elevation Properties

Quotes:

Blake Gardner: Thou movie, which art on screen, hallowed be they name. The time has come. Thou will be shown in theaters as well as home. Give us this day our daily film and forgive our bad choices, as we forgive those whose movies were so bad to choose. And lead us not into television, but deliver us from that evil, for movies are the picture and the sound, and the greatest thing in the whole wide world, forever and ever. Movies Rule!

Movie Connections:

References Rocky (1976)

Brilliant!! It works on TWO levels!

An incredibly insightful and daring film that works on so many levels that my friends and I are still talking about it and going "Whoa!" The dialog is impeccable, the acting and directing are brilliant and the premise is a very funny testimony to our current paradigm shift in consciousness.

It begins as a movie about a man who believes his life itself is a movie, and that he has a responsibility to live it very deliberately, offering all the drama and nuances that we, his audience, deserves to see....without boring or offending. While the people around him are convinced that he is crazy, we are not so sure, because after all, we are watching his movie, aren't we??

The writer/director who discussed his movie after the screening at the Ashland Film Festival, said he made this movie based on his own experiences making movies...and while it pays a hilarious tribute to the process of film making I think it goes even deeper. The very nature of performing for an "imaginary" audience invokes the same questions posed by such movies as "Matrix" and even the "Holodeck" on Star Trek, where we realize that we are the direct creators of our own realities. We are the writer, director and producer of our own life movies, which helps us out of the victim role and into the creator mindset. And yet, for all our omnipotence and freewill, life created in a vacuum, without feedback or accountability, is meaningless. Doing or being just for it's own sake feels empty, so we must have a more tangible reason for doing the things we do....hence our audience (or higher power, or inner critic or what have you) that helps us be more aware of and deliberate in our life choices. Makes us want to become the hero instead of the villain or the loser who gets dumped in the end.

So here we are, watching a movie about a guy wanting to create a meaningful movie (ie: Life) for us, his audience, who is watching a movie created by a guy (the director) who wanted to create a meaningful movie for us, his audience, who will hopefully leave the theater wanting to create a meaningful movie of our own lives....so as not disappoint our inner audience.

Whoa.