Glad to be back on Earth after their confusing adventures on Arrakis last episode, Sean and Cody sit down to Thanksgiving dinner and an extra helping of 1970s moral and environmental confusion as they analyze this Ang Lee-directed period drama from 1997. In The Ice Storm, set in Conn-ECT-i-CUT over Thanksgiving 1973, the loveless marriage of boring white guy Ben Hood (Kevin Kline) and his moody wife Elena (Joan Allen) is spiraling the drain while their neighbor Janey (Sigourney Weaver), her son Mikey (Elijah Wood) and the Hoods’ daughter Wendy (Christina Ricci) are all trying to hook up with various people. The gravy really gets spilled when a freak ice storm catches everybody at their worst and sets up poor Frodo for some shocking shenanigans. Environmental issues discussed include the history of weather, the real life Ice Storm Felix that inspired the novel the film is based on, design oddities in mid-century New England and the environmental aspects of the traditional American Thanksgiving feast.

How and when did the real Storm Felix turn Connecticut into a skating rink in 1973? What’s the “Glass House” and what does it have to do with this movie? Is Thanksgiving turkey really bad for the environment, or is there another side to that story? Who was the little girl who got napalmed in Vietnam in that famous photo? Why was Thomas Jefferson’s handwriting so small? How did Puritans in the 17th century react when they got naughty thoughts at night? How did Katie Holmes get into, and out of, Scientology? What’s wrong with creative writing workshops taught at Ivy League graduate schools? Is the Talking G.I. Joe doll quoted accurately in this film? Why is Ang Lee’s The Life of Pi definitely not on the list of future episodes? All of these questions and more are served up at the carving station on this special Thanksgiving episode of Green Screen.

The Ice Storm (1997) at IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119349/ The Ice Storm (1997) at Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-ice-storm/

Next Movie Up: Gorillas in the Mist (1988)

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