Hello and welcome to our first installment of what we hope to make a regular column here on Film School Rejects: Fitness & Film. This title may prove temporary if one of our genius readers can come up with something better – and hey, if you do, I’ll send you an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. For real. What Fitness & Film aims to accomplish is melding the worlds of… yeah, that seems obvious once you start writing that sentence. But the common perception of most film fans and film writers especially is that we’re a fat, lazy, doughy lot. While we perhaps at one point earned that reputation, there is no reason why film and fat must go hand in hand. Many of the Rejects team are athletic (Dr. Abaius is a Cross-Fitter, Rob Hunter a tennis player, and both Kevin Carr and Neil Miller have shed pounds, calling into question their “Fat Guys” reputation) and several of our online writing compatriots are gym rats.

On the inaugural edition of The Stretch, I clear the air about The Day the Earth Stood Still and its anti-Communist message.