Overboard (1987)

• Information at Internet Movie Database
• Themes
  • Baptism, Rebirth/New Life, Conversion, Prodigal, Clean/Unclean
    • Goldie Hawn plays a spoiled rich woman, Kurt Russell a single parent carpenter / commoner. She abuses him in the beginning as lower than whale feces while he reinvents the closet on her yacht to accommodate her superfluous wardrobe. He kind of dreams about her (she is beautiful) but her jarring rudeness is more for even lust to overcome in fantasy, I think. She gets thrown overboard during a party at night (by accident) and strikes her head. Kurt Russell finds her and tells her she's his wife, mother of three boys (the boys cooperate). She can't believe it, of course, but ultimately learns to love and respect this odd lot family she's now a part of (unwillingly). Kurt (who never takes advantage of her, as far as I can remember) finally tells her (I think, or someone else does and he was going to). The rest is vague. I suppose she storms back to her yacht, absolutely can't stand to live without him and the kids, and rushes back into his arms when he and the kids show up to say they can't live without her. (submitted by Rev. Michael Phillips, Berwick, Pennsylvania)
  • Baptism, Conversion, Rebirth/New Life
    • First, it wasn't during a party that she was thrown overboard, it was while trying to retrieve her jewelry left on deck earlier that day. (She lost the gold and gained a life?) Most important -- her husband came back to get her (after he had stranded her in the hospital months before), and she got her memory back in a flash. She went off with him back to the yacht, but with her experiences as a poor mother of 4 fresh in her mind, she realized how selfish and superfluous her former life (and her mother, husband and shrink) all were, and told the captain to turn the ship around. A battle with her husband ensued, and, with Kurt Russell and the kids following in a coast guard yacht (courtesy of some friends), she was close, but not close enough to go back to the poor life, the one with values. Kurt Russell jumps overboard, then Goldie Hawn jumps overboard, and they end up together in a life raft, and it all ends happily ever after. SHE changed, and that's what makes the story a valid one for it's place in this directory. (submitted by Sharon Pajak)
  • Community, Grace, Conversion
    • Rich woman treats workers like dirt, falls overboard and loses her memory, worker rescues her and tells her she is his wife and mother of his kids. She gets attached to them all, gets her memory back. (submitted by Ann K. Fontaine)
  • Mothers
    • Joanna, the spoiled rich lady, owes money to Dean, a carpenter, and refuses to pay.  When he finds her suffering from amnesia, he convinces her that she is his wife, and the mother of his children.  The scene in which he leaves her with a list of daily chores, up to the point where she sits in a dazed stupor while the children try to throw grapes into her mouth is a funny look at how we sometimes view motherhood.  The point can be made that she does indeed become the children's mother, which is not about housework, but rather the love and nurture she gives them. (submitted by FUMC, Natchitoches, LA)
       

       

     

     

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