Ode To Dusty

I’m still sad that Philip Seymour Hoffman died. I’m not going to lie and say that I was his biggest fan and I’ve seen all of his movies. I’ve only seen a handful. I will shamelessly admit that Twister is my all-time favorite movie ever. I have seen the movie probably 100 times and every time AMC showcases the film I will stop what I’m doing and watch it. Oh, Chris has plans to take me to dinner? Not anymore. Bill, Jo and the gang are on.

When I was a kid we had this tiny 12-inch TV with a 2-foot long antenna that we would take with us when we went camping. It had a VHS player built in to it and I would sneak it out from our camping supplies and watch the movie over and over again in my room, well past my bedtime, until I memorized every line.

“YOUVE NEVER SEEN IT HIT THIS HOUSE, AND HIT THAT HOUSE, AND COME AFTER YOU!”

“CHRIST JO, IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK IT DID?”

The scene cuts to Dusty (PSH) and he’s standing in the rain, holding what’s left of a wind-blown umbrella over Melissa. She’s crying because she hears Bill say to Jo: “You gotta stop living in the past and look at what you got right in front of you?” and Jo says “What are you saying” and then Bill says “Me, Jo.” And that’s when it gets you because this is the point where you don’t know whether to cry for Melissa or be so excited because right then we all realize that Bill is still in love with Jo and he always was and always will be.

I fell in love with the idea of love when I saw how Bill loved Jo. But, I knew that I could never have someone as smart and sophisticated as Bill Paxton. And, I could never sport that khaki jump suit and white tank top the way Helen Hunt could. Oh, believe me I started walking up and down our dirt road every day after school because I had to get skinny. I started blow-drying my hair straight so it would look like Jo’s and I asked my mom for a khaki jump suit and white tank top for my birthday that year. I didn’t get one but I really thought about going to Joann Fabrics and getting the pattern so mom could make one in my size. I was a hefty kid.

I even went to the extreme of taking out my Lisa Frank spiral notebook out from my Lisa Frank backpack and wrote Twister 2. Plot: Jo and Bill have a vow renewal and really start putting Dorothy to work. Dusty along for the ride, of course. I told my dad about this idea and will never forget him saying to me “Oh yeah? Well I think there already is a Twister 2.” I was so pissed. He brought home the VHS two weeks later from the Movie Gallery. It wasn’t even a sequel it was just a bunch of people running around Oklahoma looking for tornadoes. “Storm Chasers,” they called themselves. Bullshit. Well you know what, they had nothing on Bill and Jo and Dusty.

Now all I have left of PSH is my Twister DVD. And the worst part for me about the whole thing is every article they’ve written about him since his death never once mentioned Twister as one of his best films, when it was really the movie that put him on the map. Capote? You mean, Dusty. I’m telling you right now. Dusty.

“ITS THE EXTREME!”

It’s a tragedy to have lost someone so incredibly talented and in such a real manner. Philip Seymour Hoffman, you left a mark on this world and in our hearts.