The Superman III Philosophy of Life
Does the name Gus Gorman mean anything to you? It didn't mean anything to me, but thanks to Google and the IMDB, I now know that it's the name of Richard Pryor's character in the movie Superman III. What I remember most about Gus Gorman is what he's since become most famous for: his idea to steal the fractions of cents in savings account interest which banks round down to the nearest cent.
Here's what I'm wondering. Do you think you could take Gus Gorman's idea and apply it to life, but substitute time for money? What if you decided to "steal" as many extra seconds as possible, by cutting all the wasted time out of your own life, and taking it from everyone else? I think you could gain hours, even days, of extra time in your life to be productive, if only you made two minor adjustments to the way you conducted your life:
- Running instead of walking at all times
- Cutting in front of people on line when they leave a gap larger than one yard
It's unfortunate that there's a social stigma against travelling by means of sprint. And granted, this new method of transportation, if it were to become a widespread practice in society, probably would require new rules and forms of punishment, or at the very least, sidewalk traffic lights. (A crowded subway station is tough enough to navigate without everyone running.) Nevertheless, for the time being, a small, elite group of individuals could succeed in sprinting from point A to point B.
If you would like to be part of this elite group, please do so and report your findings to me after a month or two of testing. I will then determine whether I shall join your group, or remain as a lowly walker.
The Office Space Philosophy of Movie Plots
Office Space, which ranks among the best movie comedies of all time, did something which no movie, to my knowledge, has ever done before. It brazenly stole its central plot line from another movie and loudly proclaimed doing so.
Not only was the stolen plot line used in a traditional sense, providing the characters with a specific course of action, but the movie turns the theft of the plot into humor, by having the characters actually refer to the movie they were stealing from. In a word: fucking genius.
(If you haven't seen the movie, you may not want to keep reading, though I don't think knowing about this is going to affect your enjoyment of the movie.)
By now, you probably know that I'm referring to the above Gus Gorman idea to collect rounded bank interest. If you think about it, the theft of this plot itself is almost like pulling a Gus Gorman. It's the theft of something that wasn't utilized and putting it to better use.
I don't think anyone out there is going defend the sanctity of the Superman III script. Well, with the possible exception of David and Leslie Newman, the writers of Superman III, except that David Newman is dead, anyway. (David Newman, the co-writer of the Superman movies and Bonnie and Clyde, not David Newman, the composer of the Serenity score.)
Fortunately, the copyright laws allow for parody, though I'm not sure they allow for satire (link via this interesting Reason article).
You have to admit, though, it would be quite amusing to learn that the producers of Superman III were suing the producers of Office Space. They might argue that if anyone were to watch Office Space first, they would assume the movie is so stupid that they'd never rent or purchase it, thus depriving the Superman III producers of potential revenue.
Now that I think about it, maybe the Office Space reference to the movie they lifted the plot from is just a footnote.
The Philosophy of Movie Spoilers
You may have noticed that I have chosen to include a spoiler warning to protect virgin eyes from Office Space's recycling of the Superman III plot, but I didn't grant the same courtesy regarding the Superman III plot. My reasoning is as follows: once another movie references a movie which is a second or greater sequel of another movie, you have free reign. Fortunately, most of the world has already seen the last three Star Wars movies, so I won't be able to ruin those for you, too. That is, if they were ruinable.
