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| Picture from "Metropolis" |
The movies have a magic all their own. They tell us stories about romance, fantasy, superheroes, historical events, and tragedy. There's action that gets our hearts racing. There's epic music that helps us empathize with the characters' emotions.
If books nourish our imagination, then movies allow us to see the imaginary as reality.
The first movie I remember seeing in theaters was "The Lion King". It was big and epic. I remember how awesome it felt to see that movie on the big screen. My young mind was blown. (I also might have fallen asleep right before the end.)
Movies, much like books, can teach us important lessons and influence how we see the world.
I finally understood what death was while watching "Little Women" with my mother when I was three or four years old. My mother loved "Little Women" and would take every opportunity to watch the movie whenever she could. She enjoyed having me watch it with her...until Beth died. I experienced an epiphany. I realized how permanent death was and that one day mommy and daddy would die. My poor mother spent the next few hours trying to console me and get me to stop hysterically crying. I remember my dad coming home completely confused.
I've never been able to watch "Little Women" ever since.
There's a great tradition of passing stories down from one generation to the next. Whether the story is told orally, is written down, or is up on the big screen doesn't matter. Parents and guardians love sharing their favorites with their children.
My parents love watching movies with me.
My dad would watch "Star Wars", "The Goonies", and every Disney movie available with me while he worked on his trains in our basement. I don't know if I would have ever seen half the movies I have without him. Whenever I go to visit him, we watch movies. Our favorites are usually old war movies like "The Dirty Dozen" and "Kelly's Heroes".
My dad was also responsible for me becoming afraid of spiders after talking me into watching "Arachnophobia" when I was five. I had really liked spiders up until that point in my life. The movie pretty much killed my interest in them.
My mom introduced me to a lot of black and white movies like "Some Like it Hot", "The Thin Man", and pretty much every Carry Grant and Betty Davis movie ever made. She got me into fast-talking comedies with strong women characters like in "His Girl Friday" and "A Philadelphia Story". It did take me a lot longer to warm up to these movies (young me thought that only movies in color were worth watching for a long time), but once I did, I fell in love with film noir.
I'm not saying that movies are a better medium than books or audio or stage plays. Just that movies have a special place in my heart and tell entertaining stories. They aren't always good, but then some books aren't good.
While typing up this blog post, Krystle and I have been watching "Psycho". Krystle has never seen "Psycho" and might be one of the few people who had no idea what the twist ending was. I enjoyed listening to her theorize and speculate on what would happen next and who the psycho was. Her reactions to the dramatic moments were priceless and I got a real kick out of her gasping at the sudden changes in music when a murder was occurring.
We're moving on to the 1939 version of "Dracula". This should be fun (insert evil cackle).
The magic movies possess is wondrous and unique. We feel so many emotions while watching the story play out. We root for our favorite characters and sometimes hope the ones we hate die horribly (especially the annoying teenagers in slasher movies). We bond over our favorite movies and laugh at the bad ones.
One of my favorite quotes about movies comes from the Disney Channel Original Movie "Phantom of the Megaplex". Mickey Rooney's character tells the two main children that movies are a magical experience, even after children grow up and learn that there's very little that's truly magical in our world. It's a quote that has always stuck with me and thinking back on it makes me smile.
"When we arrive in this world, magic is all around us. You simply have to see a baby discover a butterfly or a toddler splash in the bath for the first time. Yet, as the years pass, simple pleasures aren't quite so simple to find. Myths and legends fall away. Santa's secrets are revealed. Card tricks lose their fascination. True wonder is hard to come by. But there's always... magic at the movies. Pirate ships, bicycles that fly, angels earn their wings, beautiful women marry handsome men and we all learn there's no place like home. To destroy that magic, to shatter those moments to me is a sin so grave it would almost be incomprehensible! If there truly is a phantom, my friends, I assure you it most definitely is not me"Until next week!
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