Early Retirement Extreme Forums

After reading the book (The Road) I found the movie utterly disappointing... Even Viggo couldn't salvage it.

An old movie suggestion that may be relevant; Inferno (1953). Robert Ryan plays a wealthy businessman left to die in the desert with a broken leg by his wife and her lover. They figured he had become so arrogant and completely dependent on his money that he wouldn't last a week.

I'm surprised no one mentioned "The Big Lebowski" yet... not even The Dude!!!
@Marius... I like your tastes - "About Schmidt" and "American Beauty" are also two of my very favorites.

@Chilly Glad you like those too. BTW, if you like The Dude, you may want to get ordained as a Dudeist Priest (it's free) http://dudeism.com/ordination/

Just watched the Curious Case of Benjamin Button... worth watching, if only for this quote:
Benjamin Button: [Voice over; letter to his daughter] For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

Since no-one has mentioned it still, I recommend Waterworld. I don't suffer from Western eyes which made it into a flop , since I seem to recall that this was a tremendous hit in India.
Roger Ebert: "The cost controversy aside, Waterworld is a decent futuristic action picture with some great sets, some intriguing ideas, and a few images that will stay with me. It could have been more, it could have been better, and it could have made me care about the characters. It's one of those marginal pictures you're not unhappy to have seen, but can't quite recommend."

Another one while keeping with the Water theme (here in ERE too, I am a sailing fan, as is Jacob, and living on a boat keeps coming up...)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World:
* It reproduces the authentic look and feel of life aboard an early nineteenth-century man-of-war.

* It reproduces the camaraderie (if you don't read too much into the class segregation) that you MUST possess to survive as a team. A timely antidote for modern "everybody-for-themselves" attitude.

* Refreshing to see children being treated on par with adults as responsible contributing members of "society" (again, if you don't read too much into it as child labour, cruelty and all that).
EDIT: The ERE book finally arrived!!!

I was just about to make a comment about Office Space on the Your Job? thread and thought I'd make sure it was on this list.
For those of you interested in ERE for the self-employment aspects I recommend more Mike Judge. His latest, Extract, is from his POV as the boss. Not quite as funny as Office Space, but what is?
Also, I was an extra in About Schmidt, but I've never seen it.

@Surio: I always liked Waterworld. It makes me wonder about what life would be if it should really happen. You'd be forced into a minimalist life, while a new kind of society emerges.
With regards to the topic: Yes man. It's a funny movie and it inspires me. It's all about trying new stuff and seeing opportunities. But you can't say yes to everything. So it's also about moderation and using your head.

The postman?

@Nagerusu,

Yes, Waterworld had a special appeal for me. As ipso defacto boffin among my friends, I was foreever being asked which ones on the boat were plausible ideas and which ones weren't. I recall trying and failing to build a Savonious turbine after being inspired by that film. But pleased to inform Box Kite was a success , that too in pre-Internet India! Woot!
However, Dmitry Orlov is pretty scathing of the Waterworld metaphor and of doomers asking him to choose how apocalypse will pan out? (Mad Max or Waterworld)....

@bigato: Good call. Dances with Wolves is a very good movie.
Do series count? Because at the moment, I'm watching an older series called Jeremiah and I think it fits the ere discussion pattern. It's about a virus that killed all parents, so the children grew up alone.

It's comparable with society changing radically: limited resources from the old world, back to hunting for food, people trying to take control over a certain territory, etc.

And the most important part: money is worth nothing anymore. It's back to trading goods.

@Hickchick "Also, I was an extra in About Schmidt"
A fine movie. Were you perhaps one of the local professionals they used to portray their real-life professions or one of the students at the university?

One of my favorite movies is The Mosquito Coast. The main character, Allie, is a quintessential Renaissance Man:
Charlie: My father was an inventor, a genius with anything mechanical. Nine patents, six pending. He dropped out of Harvard, "to get an education", he said. I grew up with the belief that the world belonged to him, and that everything he said was true.

Allie Fox: Look around ya, how did America get this way? Land of promise, land of opportunity. Give us the wretched refuse of your teeming shores. Have a Coke. Watch TV.

Charlie: Have a nice day.

Allie Fox: Go on welfare. Get free money. Turn to crime - crime pays in this country.

Charlie: [laughs]

Allie Fox: Why do they put up with it? Why do they keep coming? Look around you Charlie, this place is a toilet.

I don't know why I did not think this sooner! Here is ERE/oil peak movie that my 4 year old enjoys over and over again:
Little Mole and Dream (Part1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njhvjnn2W2w

Little Mole and Dream (Part2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R94UG1zkxiQ
Warning to puritans: The animation is from Europe and contains full frontal nudity. I here the creator tried to market these in US without success...

Anyone have opinions on Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story"? The story had quite a slant (no accountability on the consumers?), but it did give a little more fuel to wanting out sooner.

There is a 70's movie about an ex West Point guy who found a community and fight government. It is a true history. Finally the feds leave him alone. The final scene they are inside a church singing "give peace a chace"

A recent release is "The Company Men" with Ben Affleck, which is pretty ERE related. He plays the part of some corporate sales guy who gets fired. I have only watched a bit of it so far but it delves into the guilt that results after laying off so many people.
It's kind of interesting as well though because one sees all these white collar workers living fairly high consumption lifestyles. The movie gives off the impression that these people are entitled to this way of life and its up to the corporations to sustain their lifestyles (this is how the attitude has been so far).
Just still refreshing to know with ERE these soul crushing, mind wasting, time destroying careers can be avoided.

1) The Shawshank Redemption
2) Food, Inc.
3) Sicko
3) A Good Year

"In Time"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnGHQokMhZ0
"In the late 21st century, time has replaced money as the unit of currency. At 25 years old, aging stops and each person is given one more year to live. Unless you replenish your clock, you die."