I saw terminal tonight

[HEyHEY]

Anyone seen it? I really liked it. Couldn't help but not buy into the whole thing about why he was stuck there anyway.

[SKKY]

1. Unbelievable movie, huh? Tom Hanks is definitely my favorite actor...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. It's based on a true story.

An Iranian refugee got stuck at CDG in Paris sometime in the 80s because he lost his papers. He's been living there ever since.

[HEyHEY]

3. Like he's STILL there?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Yep. Ever since 1988.

Here's the story: http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/airport.htm

[HEyHEY]

6. Fuck, can't anyone fucking help him?

[HEyHEY]

8. HMm..he's there of his own willl now though

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. Apparently he has become a bit unhinged

and refuses help. According to snopes.com:

"Nasseri is renowned throughout the airport for his refusal to ask for help. "We have a colleague who gave him clothes, but he returned them, saying 'I'm not a beggar,'" said Crystelle L'Hospitalier, a Lufthansa clerk. But he has to eat, and accepts occasional meal vouchers and francs from stewardesses and airport staff.

As the years have slipped by, it has become increasingly clear that Nasseri will never leave Charles de Gaulle. His airport years have made him "crazier by the day," on the topic of his future, said airport doctor Bargain. When he talks about flying to London, the staff here greet him with understanding smiles...."

[jellybelly]

10. shouldn't he be in a mental hospital?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Usually people can't be committed unless they are dangerous.

He isn't -- he's just an odd guy who lives in an airport.

[jellybelly]

4. is he still there?

:wow:

edit:everyone answered no.2...I was ignored:grr:

[OrwellwasRight]

17. Fictional according to the moviemakers

check here:

http://www.theterminal-themovie.com/main.html

but I guess they could have ripped it from headlines like Law and Order

[Rhiannon12866]

7. Yes, I saw the movie. I really liked it, as well, though it wasn't

F-9/11, LOL! I thought it was very well done, Tom Hanks played a very sympathetic character, and I totally believed that this could happen to someone, with the relentless and overwhelming bureaucracy that we're subject to, these days. I shared his frustration.
:scared:

[Floogeldy]

12. Do you mean "The Terminal?"

Okay, okay. It was good, but not great. I found it hard to buy into the scenario of the guy being abandoned to fend for himself in an airport terminal. That is so ridiculously dangerous.

But Catherine looked good and played her character well.

I did like the underlying message of the human spirit overcoming and adapting no matter the circumstances. That was positive.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. Check out the preceding posts:

It's based on the true story of a guy being abandoned to fend for himself in an airport terminal.

[Floogeldy]

16. I did

"The Terminal" is not about an Iranian in France. It was good, though.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. Well, no; of course it isn't.

American moviegoers wouldn't be interested in a rather sad story about some poor, unfortunate, mentally ill Iranian refugee who's been sitting around CDG for the last 16 years because of a series of screw-ups over his documentation. But the makers of "Terminal" have acknowledged that the movie's underlying premise was based on Nasseri's situation -- and that obviously it's possible to get stuck in an airport, because it happened.

[OhioBlue]

14. saw it - loved it. n/t

[OrwellwasRight]

15. Hate to be a naysayer

but I really did not enjoy the movie.

Having worked on immigration issues, I found the premise farfetched (the post above notwithstanding, the Terminal's official website says the story and character are "entirely fictional"), but even more farfetched were the fact that he was able to "walk" into a construction area with no alarm sounds and no secuirty tackles and that he was able to get a job at an airport with no SSN, no US documents, and no I-9. This is the age of the TSA and the DHS for pete's sake!

Also, I didn't enjoy looking at Tom Hanks wearing a towel around his waist.

Overall, I just found it slow and quite sad. It was not a comedy as the commercials billed it, and I think that was my biggest disappointment.

Nor, by the way, was Sideways a comedy. That movie was disturbing and depressing.

[CanuckAmok]

19. Catherine Zeta-Jones in a flight attendant uniform?

That's all I need in a movie. Plot be damned!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

20. The thing that bothered me about her character

was that flight attendants never, ever wear those high spike-heeled shoes.

[CanuckAmok]

21. They never ask perfect strangers out for lunch, either...

but some of us rely on the suspension of disbelief required by today's movie-makers ;)