Six Degrees of Separation (1993)

Don't give me the third degree with second degree burns

Flan and Ouisa Kittredge sikter NYC art behandling are ferrule on one night by to young mann Paul who profession å være to Pomerania frites elbow their kids' fra Harvard. They movable him to seng for the night he enchants temaet with to home cooked meal and magnificent intercourse. Take up New York the art behandling John Flanders 'Flan' Kittredge and Louisa 'Ouisa' Kittredge are ready to aha to business dinner with their Soutane Avrime Pomerania frites and clientèle Ofret

A thousand when to wounded young blackout mann comes to their fancy apartment reckon that he paws hip Justice tomboy take up Sentrale Park and asking for hjelpe. He introduserer himself idet Paul to Pomerania frites elbow their son and daughter take up Harvard and son elbow Sidney Poitier and the kupé invite him to stay with temaet. During they night they find that Paul yonder not who he claims å være. When they investigate the life elbow Paul they find the hidden frump. The next morning they learn that he yonder not all he seems å være. Their investigations are intriguing and lead temaet to re vurdering their straight.

Six Degrees of Separation stars Will Smith, in a role he was born to play. It was a challenging role for Will Smith; you might even say it was a stretch. Why was Will Smith born to play Paul, a homosexual con man who has conned people for so long that he has almost conned himself that he is the son of Sidney Poi tier. The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire was Will's first acting role. Before that, he was only a rapper with a few novelty songs in heavy rotation on MTV. In a recent interview Mr. Smith confided that he attacked his acting, and learned not only his own lines by heart, but the entire script, and if you watch him closely, you'll see his lips move, lip synching the lines of the other actors. He has come a long way since then, but this early performance is really where you see the talented actor emerge. It is a quiet, subtle, nuanced breakthrough, but a breakthrough, nonetheless.

The talented Mr. Smith is on two parallel journeys: The first journey is Will Smith, The Actor, honing his craft--but also ACTING! as Jon Lovitz's overblown thespian used to say. Meanwhile, his character is on a similar odyssey. His character, Paul, is practicing his pronunciation of the word: "bottle." He is saying "Hello" as if rehearsing for a job interview. Trent (The venerable Anthony Michael Hall) proves a veritable Professor Henry Higgins to young Paul, his Eliza Doolittle, and his Pygmalion.

Cuts between Paul, rehearsing 'Hello,' and Flan and Ouisa, are yet another example of the artful editing that makes this film so delightful. As the art dealers, Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing turn in great performances both, but it is Stockard who really steals the show. Her take on the liberal, though shallow, Ouisa is breathtaking, as she takes her character on a journey of discovery, gradually gaining awareness, even if her new insight now allows her to see through the fraud and self-delusions of Paul.

Yet they do make a connection. They bond closer than she has bonded with her own children. She gives Paul an old pink shirt, and when her son hears of it he flies into a tirade. How could she? How dare she! But the louder his tantrums, the more we sympathize with his long suffering mom. Tess, Doug, and Woody, are horrible children.

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Tess: He offered you parts in Cats? I thought you hated Cats. You said it was an all time low in a lifetime of theatre going. You said, "Aeschylus did not invent the theatre to have it end up a bunch of chorus kids in cat suits prancing around wondering which of them will go to kitty-cat heaven."

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Tess: I will not be part of this conspiracy!
Flan: It's not a conspiracy, it's a family!

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Woody: That was my first shirt for my new body!


The shallow Ouisa, from the first part of the film, says the most inane things. Like when she makes the observation that whenever she hears a phrase like "striking miners" she pictures miners modeling the fall fashions, looking striking as they stroll the catwalk. "Chaos, control. Chaos, control. You like, you like?" she says, while displaying a two-sided Kandinsky, their set piece when hawking their wares. Later, somehow it seems like somewhere along the line she has gone through a metamorphosis, and will never be the same.

She and Flan live a high-powered, jet set kind of life, but they are also fragile humans, and some of the most touching scenes are where Donald Sutherland shows his soft white underbelly, and confesses to his deepest darkest fears. He loves the life they live in New York, but they are always just one painting away from being thrown out on the streets. New York is expensive, and the money can run out quickly.


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Ouisa: I am a collage of unaccounted for brush strokes. I am all random.

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Ouisa Kittredge: There is so much you don't know. You are so smart and so stupid.
Paul: I'll be treated with care if you take me to the police. If they don't know you're special, they kill you.
Ouisa Kittredge: Oh, I don't think they'll kill you.
Paul: Mrs. Louisa Kittredge, I am black.
Ouisa Kittredge: I will deliver you to them with kindness and affection.

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Flan Kittredge: I thought, dreamt, remembered how easy it is for a painter to lose a painting. He paints and paints, works on a canvas for months, and then one day he loses it - loses the structure, loses the sense of it. You lose the painting.

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Paul: The imagination. It's there to sort out your nightmare, to show you the exit from the maze of your nightmare, to transform the nightmare into dreams, that become your bedrock. If we do not listen to that voice, it dies, it shrivels, it vanishes. The imagination is not our escape. On the contrary, the imagination is the place we are all trying to get to.

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Ouisa Kitteridge: I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find it extremely comforting that we're so close. I also find it like Chinese water torture, that we're so close because you have to find the right six people to make the right connection... I am bound, you are bound, to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people.

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Paul: Every moment in life is a learning experience. Or what good is it, right?

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Ouisa Kittredge: Don't think about elephants.

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Flan Kittredge: Why do you stay in South Africa?
Geoffrey: One has to stay there. To educate the black workers. And we'll know we've been successful when they kill us.
Ouisa Kittredge: Oh, goodness.
Flan Kittredge: Planning the revolution that will destroy you.
Ouisa Kittredge: Putting your life on the line.
Geoffrey: We don't think of it like that. I wish you'd come and visit.
Ouisa Kittredge: Oh, would we visit you and sit in your gorgeous house, planning visits to the townships, demanding to see the poorest of the poor? "Oh, are you sure they're the worst off? I mean, we've come all this way. I mean, we don't want to see people just mildly victimized by apartheid. We demand shock." You know it doesn't seem right, sitting on the East Side, talking about revolution.

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Ouisa Kittredge: Chaos, control. Chaos, control. You like, you like?

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Flan Kittredge: Having a rich friend is like drowning and your friend makes lifeboats.
Ouisa: Only your friend gets very touchy if you say one word: lifeboat.

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Paul: I believe the imagination is the passport that we create to help take us into the real world. I believe the imagination is merely another phrase for what is most uniquely us. Jung says, "The greatest sin is to be unconscious."

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Trent: When rich people do something nice for you, you give 'em a pot of jam.

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Paul: Did you see Donald Barthelme's obituary? He said that collage was the art form of the 20th century.
Ouisa Kittredge: Everything is somebody else's.
Paul: Not your children. Not your life.
Ouisa Kittredge: No, you got me there. That is mine. That is nobody else's.
Paul: You don't sound happy.
Ouisa Kittredge: There is so much you don't know. You are so smart and so stupid.

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Paul: Always remember the wine from the even numbered years is superior to the wine from the odd numbered years.


The ending is suitably ambiguous.

Bravo, John Guare, who wrote the play that it was based on, as well as the screenplay. His dialogue sizzles, and he doesn't stint on the high concept, either. The premise of the play, that this is a small world and we are all connected, has resonance and ramifications, especially in the new Information Age, what with Social Networking and the web of information on the Internet all the rage.

Kevin Bacon, in a 1994 Premiere interview for the film The River Wild, while talking about his fame and career, comments that he's worked with everybody in Hollywood or someone who's worked with them.[citation needed]

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon first surfaced at about the same time.[citation needed] On April 7 1994, a lengthy newsgroup thread headed "Kevin Bacon is the Center of the Universe" appeared.

The game was created in early 1994 by three students at Albright College, Craig Fass, Brian Turtle, and Mike Ginelli. According to an interview with the three in the Spring 1999 issue of the college's magazine, The Albright Reporter, they were watching Footloose during a heavy snowstorm. When the film was followed by Quicksilver they began to speculate on how many movies Bacon had been in and the number of people he'd worked with.

In the interview Brian Turtle said, "It became one of our stupid party tricks, I guess. People would throw names at us and we'd connect them to Kevin Bacon."

The trio wrote talk show host Jon Stewart a letter telling him that "Kevin Bacon was the center of the entertainment universe" and explaining the game.[citation needed]

They appeared on The Jon Stewart Show and The Howard Stern Show with Bacon to explain the game. Bacon admitted that he initially disliked the game because he believed it was ridiculing him, but he eventually came to enjoy it. The three inventors of the game released the book Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (ISBN 9780452278448) with an introduction written by Bacon; and a board game based on the concept was released by Endless Games.

By the 2000s, the game was familiar enough to be referred to in United States popular culture. For example, In an episode of NBC's Will & Grace titled "Bacon and Eggs", Bacon makes a guest appearance, playing himself. During this episode, he makes an obvious reference to the game when talking with Will (played by Eric McCormack):

Will: You-- you did a movie with Val Kilmer?
Kevin: No, but Val was in Top Gun with Tom Cruise, and Tom was in A Few Good Men with me. Huh, that was a short one.

Bacon also appeared in a commercial for the Visa check card that parodied the game. In the commercial, Bacon wants to write a check to buy a book, but the clerk asks for his ID and he does not have it. He leaves and returns with a group of people, then says to the clerk, "Okay, I was in a movie with an extra, Eunice, whose hairdresser, Wayne, attended Sunday school with Father O'Neill, who plays racquetball with Dr. Sanjay, who recently removed the appendix of Kim, who dumped you sophomore year. So you see, we're practically brothers."

The concept was also presented in an episode of the TV show Mad About You dated November 19, 1996 in which a character expressed the opinion that every actor is only three degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon.

Bacon provides the voice-over commentary for the NY Skyride attraction in the Empire State Building in New York City. At several points throughout the commentary Bacon alludes to his connections to Hollywood stars via other actors he has worked with.

The Bacon number of an actor or actress is the number of degrees of separation they have from Bacon, as defined by the game. This is an application of the Erdos number concept to the movie industry. The higher the Bacon number, the farther away from Kevin Bacon the actor is.

The computation of a Bacon number for actor X is a "shortest path" algorithm:

If the lowest Bacon number of any actor with whom X has appeared in a movie is N, X's Bacon number is N + 1.
Kevin Bacon himself has a Bacon number of 0.

Here is an example, using Elvis Presley:

Elvis Presley was in Change of Habit (1969) with Edward Asner
Edward Asner was in JFK (1991) with Kevin Bacon
Therefore Asner has a Bacon number of 1, and Presley has a Bacon number of 2.

As of December 2007, the highest finite Bacon number reported by the Oracle of Bacon is 8.
The American Civil War general William Rufus Shafter is frequently cited as having a Bacon number of 10, but his number is in fact only 7.

Notable Bacon numbers

Ronald Reagan (Bacon number: 2)
Ronald Reagan was in The Young Doctors (1961) with Eddie Albert.
Eddie Albert was in The Big Picture (1989) with Kevin Bacon.

Pope John Paul II (Bacon number: 3)
Pope John Paul II was in Padre Pio -- Tra cielo e terra (2000) with Giovanni Lombardo Radice.
Giovanni Lombardo Radice was in The Omen (2006) with Vee Vimolmal
Vee Vimolmal was in Where the Truth Lies (2005) with Kevin Bacon

Paul Erdos, who is the centre of a similar network for mathematicians, had a Bacon number of 4 in 2007,[2] due to his appearance as himself in the 1993 film N Is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdos.
Paul Erdos was in N is a Number with Gene Patterson.
Gene Patterson was in Box of Moon Light (1996) with Catherine Keener.
Catherine Keener was in Friends with Money (2006) with Marin Hinkle.
Marin Hinkle was in Rails & Ties (2007) with Kevin Bacon.

Once Frost/Nixon has been released, currently scheduled for late 2008, Paul Erdos will have a Bacon number of 3.
Paul Erdos was in N is a Number with Gene Patterson.
Gene Patterson was in Box of Moon Light (1996) with Sam Rockwell.
Sam Rockwell will be in Frost/Nixon (2008) with Kevin Bacon

Undefined Bacon numbers
A few actors have an undefined Bacon number, meaning that they cannot be linked to Bacon in any number of connections at all. According to the Oracle of Kevin Bacon website, approximately 12% of all actors cannot be linked to Bacon using their criteria. [4]

The center of the Hollywood universe

While at the University of Virginia, Brett Tjaden created the Oracle of Bacon, a computer program that uses information on some 800,000 people from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). The algorithm calculates "how good a center"[5] an individual IMDB personality is, i.e. a weighted average of the degree of separation of all the people that link to that particular person. The site returns an average personality number, i.e. for Clint Eastwood, it returns an average "Clint Eastwood Number". From there the Oracle site posits "The Center of the Hollywood Universe" as being the person with the lowest average personality number. Kevin Bacon, as it turns out, is not the "Center of the Hollywood Universe" (i.e. the most linkable actor). In fact, Bacon does not even make the top 1000 list of average personality numbers.[4] Since average personality numbers are dynamic (mercurial) and can change with each new film made, the Center can and does shift. "Centers" have included Rod Steiger, Dennis Hopper, and Donald Sutherland. Karen Black has been the highest ranked actress in the list.


Photography book

Inspired by the game, the British photographer Andy Gotts tried to reach Bacon through photographic links instead of film links.

He wrote to 300 actors asking to take their pictures, and received permission from one, Joss Ackland. Ackland then suggested that Gotts photograph Greta Scacchi, with whom he had appeared in the film White Mischief. Gotts proceeded from there, asking each actor to refer him to one or more friends or colleagues. Eventually, Christian Slater referred him to Bacon. Gotts's photograph of Bacon completed the project, eight years after it began. Gotts published the photos in a book, Degrees (ISBN 0-9546843-6-2), with text by Alan Bates, Pierce Brosnan, and Bacon.


Additional references in pop culture
[Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines].
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

In an episode Family Guy entitled "Road to Rhode Island", Stewie and Brian play the game.
In the "Mad About You" episode "Outbreak", Season 5, episode 7, the character "Paul Buchman" uses the game to exemplify unforseen connections between a stranger from the elevator and his parents. At the end of the episode Kevin Bacon has a cameo as the boyfriend of the woman in the elevator.
In the "Spin City" episode "Hello Charlie", Season 5, episode 1, the character "Paul" tries to stall a press-conference by linking different actors to Kevin Bacon.
In the third episode of the second season of Joey, Joey's agent, Bobbie admits to love the game. She says "lets see how many steps it takes to connect him to me. We did it on a boat. One!"

[See also SixDegrees.org, building on the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon to create a charitable social network].

Erdos-Bacon number, a combination of Erdos and Bacon numbers.


I have a Bacon number of 3
I was in The Doors with Val Kilmer (I was just an extra and I have never actually seen myself on screen, plus I am not in the credits, but I was at 2 shoots for this. One was at the Water Temple, and the other was at the Warfield Theater on Market Street in San Francisco.

Val Kilmer has a Bacon number of 2.
Val Kilmer was in Pollock (2000) with Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden was in Rails & Ties (2007) with Kevin Bacon

Will Smith (I am Legend, Independence Day, Fresh Prince of Belle Aire, The Wild, Wild, West, The Pursuit of Happyness) has a Bacon number of 2.
Will Smith was in Welcome to Hollywood (2000) with Kelly Preston
Kelly Preston was in Death Sentence (2007) with Kevin Bacon

Stockard Channing has a Bacon number of 2.
Stockard Channing was in First Wives Club, The (1996) with Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden was in Rails & Ties (2007) with Kevin Bacon

Ian McKellen has a Bacon number of 2.
Ian McKellen was in X2 (2003) with Kelly Hu
Kelly Hu was in Air I Breathe, The (2007) with Kevin Bacon

anthony michael hall has a Bacon number of 2.
Anthony Michael Hall was in Who Do I Gotta Kill? (1994) with Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock was in Loverboy (2005) with Kevin Bacon

Donald Sutherland (I) has a Bacon number of 1.
Donald Sutherland (I) was in JFK (1991) with Kevin Bacon


The Top Ten Six Degrees of Seperation Pop Culture Reference Points:


Six Degrees of Separation

Welcome to Hollywood

Rails and Ties

X2 - X-Men United (Widescreen Edition)

The Air I Breathe

Death Sentence (Unrated Edition)

Pollock

The First Wives Club

JFK - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
April 17, 2008

Will Smith is brilliant

Imagine a cast with the great Donald Sutherland, Ian McKellen and Stockard Channing being overshadowed by a young and very talented Will Smith, who plays a con artist extraordinaire. It is a story with twists and turns, and great acting by all; and it portrays grand living in New York City by those who can afford it--and those who aspire to afford it, namely Smith's character.

Smith steals the show, amidst a tapestry of Gotham's art world and the unmasking of dysfunctional families and very spoiled kids, and one who aspires to be one of them, again Smith's character.

The three-star rating does not reflect the cast's enormous talent, but rather a somewhat disjointed tale of a personality disorder that overcomes lots of supposedly sophisticated New Yorkers. But for the Big Apple, what else is new, right?
March 11, 2008

Will Smith's only good film to date

Will's movies have never done much for me. They're all forgettable or unwatchable except for Six Degrees of Separation. In this, Will plays neither a comic character nor an action figure. He plays a young poor psychologically disturbed homosexual man who wants acceptance among the upper class of society and will do anything to achieve it.

You sympathize with him and feel for him because it's clear that he has so much potential and had his life circumstances been different, he could be a shining star.

The film is loosely based on a real life Black American man who talked his way into the homes of many wealthy Americans (including celebrities) in the 80's.

Ironically, the film portrays the old adage of the 'grass being greener on the other side' folly, because Will's character wants to be people who themselves are often quite empty and shallow.

Although the dialogue is a bit over-the-top pretentious at times, it's well worth watching.

A small sidenote: there is a scene in which Will Smith is perceived to be kissing a man, but Will refused to actually kiss the man during filming. So much for sacrificing for one's art. January 27, 2008

Will Smith Refused to Kiss Man On Screen

This is a great movie despite the fact that homophobic Will Smith refused to kiss a male co-actor on screen. The shot had to be done from the back of Smith's head and it looks totally forced and fake.

If Will Smith is so uptight about his masculine credentials, he should have been a real man and bowed out of the flick before they started filming.

I hope he never wins an Oscar. April 8, 2007

A mixture of a nightmare and dream, great stardom and charisma by actors

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, produced by Fred Schepisi, brilliantly
squeezed every bit of acting talent, and stardom out of actors
Stockard Channing, Will Smith and Donald Sutherland, who are
captured at their peak, bringing in enormous charisma, energy and
presence througout the 90 mins of this picture.

I especially enjoyed the wide-screen release, and the music that
accompanies very well the underlying story.

For most viewers, this movie will be a mixture of a nightmare and
a dream, being that, in the first instance, they witness the
protagonists interacting with and becoming a target of a
schizophenic freeloader of some sorts, played with great dignity
by Smith, and in the second instance, for watching this comical,
absurd, and preposterous story of an art dealer closing
multi-million deals in rare paintings.

It might actually, give a migraine to a number of people,
considering a few offensive moments, which were clearly
unnecessary in the picture, but maintained.

The filming is outstanding, showing the best aspects of New York,
and from beginning to end, luxurious dwellings, decorations,
clothing styles, and we are led to believe, the lifetyle of the
top 5% wealthiest in the USA, played by Sutherland, and Channing.
The DVD release has very crisp images, throughout.

Finally, perhaps the movie would have received greater acclaim,
had a few offensive elements been removed, and the grifting side
to the imposter been underlined, and penalized, in this movie, to
a greater degree.

Obviously, this being a Hollywood production, the comical side,
and entertainment value won out over realism, and morality over
the behavior done by Smith's character, which this movie seems
to condone. February 5, 2007

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