What's Eating Gilbert Grape
The movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape was released on March the 4th 1994 and stars Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and Juliette Lewis and was directed by Lasse Holström. The movie is about a young man named Gilbert Grape who lives in the very dull town of Endora caring for his mentally disabled brother Arnie, and morbidly obese mother. Gilbert also has two sisters, Ellen and Amy, and a brother who left the family years ago. The family’s father tragically committed suicide. My question was, what did I think contributed to Gilbert’s mental breakdown leading him to hit Arnie?
Gilbert spends almost every hour of every day looking after Arnie. This of course made the brothers extremely close. Because of Arnie’s disability he knows no fear, this is shown when he repeatedly climbs the water tank. Even whilst hanging from almost 30 meters up Arnie is smiling and inching higher and higher. When he is eventually brought down the police try to take him down to the station when Gilbert steps in and promises that he won’t do it again, the police officer then says that he’s promised that many times before. This shows that this is not Arnie’s first time climbing the water tank. As they walk off Arnie even says that he already wants to go back up there and reaches for the ladder again.
Later in the movie we see Gilbert packing groceries into the back of his truck, then out of nowhere the cameras pan to Ellen who is chasing Arnie as he sprints for the ladder to the water tank, and he does in fact reach the ladder and get a couple of steps up when Ellen catches him and pulls him straight off. She then begins to punch him and pull his hair. Gilbert sees this and intervenes by pulling Ellen off of Arnie and tells her that “no-one ever hurts Arnie.” This is a pivotal scene because it is one of very few scenes where Gilbert shows some emotion. He is extremely mad and worried for Arnie. He again says “no-one hurts Arnie.”
Before we knew it the family was preparing for Arnie’s 18th
Gilbert spends almost every hour of every day looking after Arnie. This of course made the brothers extremely close. Because of Arnie’s disability he knows no fear, this is shown when he repeatedly climbs the water tank. Even whilst hanging from almost 30 meters up Arnie is smiling and inching higher and higher. When he is eventually brought down the police try to take him down to the station when Gilbert steps in and promises that he won’t do it again, the police officer then says that he’s promised that many times before. This shows that this is not Arnie’s first time climbing the water tank. As they walk off Arnie even says that he already wants to go back up there and reaches for the ladder again.
Later in the movie we see Gilbert packing groceries into the back of his truck, then out of nowhere the cameras pan to Ellen who is chasing Arnie as he sprints for the ladder to the water tank, and he does in fact reach the ladder and get a couple of steps up when Ellen catches him and pulls him straight off. She then begins to punch him and pull his hair. Gilbert sees this and intervenes by pulling Ellen off of Arnie and tells her that “no-one ever hurts Arnie.” This is a pivotal scene because it is one of very few scenes where Gilbert shows some emotion. He is extremely mad and worried for Arnie. He again says “no-one hurts Arnie.”
Before we knew it the family was preparing for Arnie’s 18th