Where's Arnie?

If you know Arnie, you know that he is always disappearing. Gilbert never knows where he will find him, but we all know his favourite places, and one of them is his favourite branch in his favourite tree!

He is fascinated with a certain water tower in town, and whenever Gilbert's back is turned, away he goes....up the water tower, much to the chagrin of the townspeople and Gilbert! To convince him to come down, Gilbert calls to him through the loudspeaker...

"Match in the gas tank...BOOM....BOOM!"

Mr. DiCaprio was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for this amazing and heartwarming performance, an accomplishment that has garnered for him an endless stream of praise and respect from all facets of the entertainment industry. He is without a doubt the most sought after young actor in the industry today, and much of that attention is due to this role...Arnie was so spontaneous and natural; there wasn't a contrived moment in the movie for Arnie....Leonardo became Arnie and left his mark on the industry forever with this wonderful character!

Here is an excerpt from a recent article on Leonado's performance in WEGG;

"Next for DiCaprio was the project that would prove to be the turning point in his film career. The quirky, offbeat ?What?s Eating Gilbert Grape? was the story of a young man and his family, which primarily centered around his mother, and his mentally handicapped brother. Gilbert Grape, played by Johnny Depp, longs to leave his mundane life behind, but has deeply rooted obligations to a mother who has not left her farmhouse for seven long years, due to her husband?s death. and his mentally challenged brother Arnie, played brilliantly by DiCaprio. To prepare for the role, DiCaprio studied and met with several mentally challenged individuals. He was relentless in his dedication to details, mastering gestures and speech patterns to the letter. The performance was flawless and intense. Being a relatively "unknown" actor at the time, many thought that perhaps the part was being played by an actor who was indeed mentally challenged. For his work, DiCaprio earned nominations for both Golden Globe and Academy Awards. In addition, he won several highly coveted critics? awards."

Here is an excerpt from the DOLs'Speak section of ROAR from one of our most eloquent postees, ILYA:

[ilya20] - Jul 12, 1998 from the LD Board Arnie is my all time favorite movie character and this movie was revelation to me. I haven't had much knowledge about mentally-challenged people. All information on them are basically from movies. Since Dustin Hoffman and Tom Hanks got their Oscar from Rainman (for Autistic) and Forrest Gump (for mildy retarded), I thought all mentally-challenged people are very mechanical, incapable of showing emotions or lack of emotions, very dull...Then I watched Gilbert Grape last September (when I became a converted fan of TBO). I never knew a retarded person could have emotions (silly me), from utter frustration to pure joy. I've never seen such an endearing performance in my life. I will never forgive the Academy to award D. Hoffman and T. Hanks for their performances. I will never forgive myself for being stupid to believe their performances. I will never forgive the Academy for not giving TBO an Oscar for the Arnie role. My favorite scene is at the beginning...Arnie is trying to catch the grasshopper in front of his dirty, white house and kills it at the mail box, while Gilbert narrates. Doctors said we'd be lucky if Arnie lives to be 10. Well, ten came and went. Now, doctors are saying "Anytime, Arnie can go anytime. Some days you want him to live, some days you don't. This was the time I totally fell head over heels in love with TBO and Arnie.

Has anyone seen Arnie?
I haven't seen him, have you?
I know where he could be.....maybe...
I hope he's not up there again!

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