Big (1988)

Directed by Penny Marshall

Released June 3, 1988

Written by Gary Ross & Anne Spielberg

Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB

"After wishing to be made big, a teenage boy wakes the next morning to find himself mysteriously in the body of an adult."

It was as I was prepping this blog, by watching movie clips, that I remember how great this movie is. Not because of the cinematography, or the production quality, or the storyline, largely the acting, but the big (no pun intended) reason is because it just makes me happy. Big is one of those movies that reminds you what it was like to be a kid and it shows you what kind of adult you want to be. It is a movie that allows you to see a lot of yourself in the characters both good and bad. 

The main point I am talking about with this is the idea that if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. That is the kind of philosophy I am trying to live my life with, as a second semester senior trying to find a job. I want to be like Josh. Yes, he is a kid who is posing as an adult, so he is not really looking at this job as his career, but you see my point. Just look at this scene. 

The other people in the room don't get Josh's point because they don't like their jobs. They see their jobs as sales numbers and making money, but Josh sees it as bringing fun and entertaining toys to kids. He is still a kid so he sees the job as an innovative way to create the things he wants to see. He doesn't care about the sales and the numbers of the company, he just wants to make fun toys. That is something that is hard for adults to see, especially when they hate their jobs. If they love what they do then it would be easier to look at toys with a child's viewpoint in mind, as opposed to an adult's that skewed with numbers. It is also easier for them to be creative and innovative when they are passionate about their job. That is because they care enough to make something special.

Now before we get too far into this, let's talk about the idea of this movie for a moment. Waking up one morning as a full grown adult when you are only a kid...THAT'S TERRIFYING. Okay, if you were a 16-18 year old or a college student, turning into an adult wouldn't be as bad because you at least know some basics. You know that taxes are a thing, grocery shopping might be hard at first but you could manage, chances are you have had at least a part time job at that point, and you have seen PG-13 movies so you know about other adult things. But when you are 12 and skip all of that knowledge it is a lot scarier, which is evident in this movie. It is a huge leap physically and mentally.

Which brings me to my favorite point of this blog........TOM HANKS! Full disclaimer, Tom Hanks is my favorite actor of all time, so I am completely biased when talking about this. But his portrayal of a kid trapped in an adult's body is too perfect. Which this could have gone very wrong because like I mentioned above, it is hard as an adult to look at things from a kid's point of view. Tom's facial expressions, lack of paying attention, even the way he fidgets emulates a child to a T. It is so perfect which I think is the biggest reason that this movie is such a joy to watch, because it is believable. It terms out they created a great system for how to get Tom to portray this character so well. They took the actor who played young Josh, and had him act out all the adult Josh scenes. Then Tom watched his performance and tried to channel young Josh's actions and behaviors to match adult Josh's mental state. It clearly worked out in Tom's favor. 

It is hard to talk about Big without showing the iconic piano scene. This scene both shows the power of Tom Hanks portraying a child and the idea that you need to love your job/work. Fun fact about this scene, Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia had stunt doubles on set ready to do this scene if they couldn't. The men were determined to do it right without them, which they succeeded in doing and I think it makes the scene better. While it clearly isn't perfect, it is defiantly authentic. You can see how much fun they are having and how hard they are trying to get it right, but it's not realistic that it would be perfectly done by their characters. So I think having it without the stunt doubles was the right move.

It is also hard not to talk about this movie without the famous, and very strange, handshake between Josh and his best friend Billy. It is things like this, a goofy handshake, that reminds me how good childhoods used to be. Back when you went out and played outside, rode your bikes, played with your imagination, and came up with goofy songs or stories. Now-a-days kids just play video games or on their iPads. There is not as much imagination which is something else that I think this movie shows well. The power of imagination and coming up with something new so that you are not doing the same thing over and over again. 

**Side note. I realize I have more video clips for this blog then actual analysis, but I just have nothing bad to say about this movie. It is one of those movies that is so good and you can't fully explain why or you can't give an analysis because you just know it is good. So as opposed to trying to explain that, I thought that showing more clips proves this point better. If you have any thoughts or opinions I would love to hear them!

Paul: "What is so special about Baskin?"

Susan: "He's a grown up."