The Magic of Movies


I guess it is about time I start to discuss one of my true passions. I love film. Consider this my love letter to film. I suppose what I like the most about film and going to the movies is the aspect of escapism. I like the fact that no matter how fucked up life gets, you can suspend your disbelief for two hours and become part of an existence that is far from your own. Movies are intended to be seen in a theater. I like old school theaters. There is one in my hometown called The Lincoln. It is pretty sweet. Most of the theaters I have been to have no sense of grandeur or present a spectacle for the audience. Films are entertainment and I believe that when they are presented in a way that is entertaining and genuinely catches the interest of the audience they will be successful. This year has been really dismal in terms of film, both financially and artistically. Part of the reason I think that said decline has occurred is because screenwriters have become increasingly lazy and the general public does not want to remain complacent in the constant regurgitation of dick and fart jokes.
When I was younger I remember being amazed by film. In the 1980s there were several movies that every kid saw and idolized. Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, A Christmas Story, Santa Claus: The Movie, and, of course, Transformers: The Movie. None of these movies were Academy Award contenders but they had a quality that made them instant classics. They created a world which was tangible to its directed audience and a world that was universal. When I went to the movies as a kid, I remember seeing the audience and the way they were just mesmorized by the images they saw projected on the silver screen. I always liked the way that the audience would create this artificial community that came together to exist and evaluate the story being told. One thing about the previously mentioned movies is that they all had great stories. Most plot lines now are as thin as the actresses cast in the films.
There are moments that occur in film that resonate in my mind and just make the entire experience so enjoyable for me. When I saw The Shawshank Redemption, I remember being in the theater and there were only about 10 other people in the theater with me (the film was not a big domestic success), but it was the first time I remember seeing someone stand up and cheer at the end of a movie. Morgan Freeman's haunting narration coupled with the superb acting culminated in a movie that inspired hope in the uninspired and transcended itself. I also remember seeing There's Something About Mary and witnessing the birth of the gross out comedy. The Farelly brothers made Kingpin earlier, but it bombed at the box office. Its unfortunate that it did because it is by far THE most underrated comedy of all time. There's Something About Mary was ultimately successful because it had a pretty sentimental story behind all the perversion and obscenity. Its the same formula that has always worked: boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy looses girl, girl realizes that the "nice guy" is actually the right guy, they find each other and live happily ever after. If you don't believe this formula works please examine Shrek, Serendipity, The Wedding Planner, Sleepless in Seattle, Sweet Home Alabama, The Notebook, Romancing the Stone, Pretty Woman, and every Meg Ryan romantic comedy ever made.
Film is the ultimate medium. It has the capacity to transcend all the trivial boundaries that society places on itself. When used correctly, film can awaken the social consciousness. I remember when Do The Right Thing, Boyz in The Hood, and Higher Learning came out. They all touched on race relations at a time when American was trying to deceive itself into believing that race was not an issue. The truth is that our very nature as human beings creates a natural inequality amongst ourselves. What is equal? I'm 6'4, large black man. Not every person fits that description. What the previously mentioned films did was demonstrate the nature of man in contemporary society and demonstrate how existence, particularly the existence of African-Americans has not progressed as far as we like to believe in the 20th century. When I saw Do the Right Thing and saw Rosie Perez dancing to Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" my social consciousness first awoke. As a child, you don't want to differentiate yourself from your friends. Most of my friends were Caucasian, but after seeing the way the way the world worked and the social stigmas associated with being a black male I began to question my own existence in juxtaposition with my station in life. The singular best film about race and the nature of racism in my opinion is American History X which dissected the essentials of racism and has such visceral imagery that whoever watches the film walks away forever changed. Edward Norton's performance was both powerful and pathetic. His corruption and initiation into the Neo Nazi movement and eventual enlightenment just created a real sense of consequence and induced a desire to examine the human psyche and how it can be augmented in order to justify an ideal, no matter how ridiculous and damaging it may be.