I’ve often bemoaned the fact that my children were not brought up viewing the same movies I was. This may seem a trivial complaint but further introspection makes me believe there was more lost than simple entertainment. I’m 61 years old. I was born in 1951 – some say the same year television was invented. I remember marveling at old people who were born before man’s first flight – the Wright brothers …..not Icarus and Daedalus- and now I feel a kinship to them. It is often joked at times today by my generation that the reason couples had children back then was so the parents didn’t have to get up from their rocking chairs to change the channels – all three of them. There is a picture of me sitting almost exactly halfway between the T.V and my dad and grandfather. I was wearing a plastic army helmet and was probably watching “The World At War” narrated by Walter Cronkite. World War II had only been over for six years when I was born. I was raised seeing the destruction caused by German and Japanese dictators. I was also raised on westerns: “Gunsmoke” with (the original) Matt Dillon played by James Arness (who limped from a German machine gun bullet in his knee on the march to Rome), “Wyatt Earp” with Hugh O’Brien, “The Bounty Hunter” with a young Steve McQueen, etc. In order to go to movies my two sisters and I would take a little red wagon around the projects and empty lots soliciting empty soda bottles. We cashed those in at the local Safeway for two cents a piece. I learned how to fight protecting my sisters and our bottles. The large bottles were a nickel and the mother lode was an empty milk bottle that brought a quarter. Once our loot was cashed in we walked across the street to the Skytrain Theater and paid 35 cents a piece to watch movies all day. Being in Midwest City, Oklahoma the Skytrain sometimes doubled as a tornado shelter (maybe that’s how it got its’ name!). After being hypnotized by larger-than-life heroes, heroines and villains we would go back across the street to the luxuriantly air-conditioned Rexall Drugstore and buy cherry cokes or root beer floats in iced mugs for a nickel. In addition to teaching us capitalism at its’ most basic level it also taught us the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. It was truly a time when men were men and women were women.
Maybe it’s that nostalgia that makes me weep more often now at good movies. The reason I mention all this is that I saw some really good movies recently that I wish more of America would watch and feel the same way. Movies are about making people feel a certain way – or they should be. Instead of watching for “purient interest” as the Supreme Court once defined pornography or satisfying a Roman-arena lust for bloodletting we Americans should invest – yes, that’s a good way to put it – INVEST in movies that make us think and feel on a higher level than the beasts of the forests. If we vote with our pocket book – and Americans do every day- Hollywood will listen…slowly but they know really good movies consistently bring in considerably more profit than the preponderance of sludge they produce every year. And Halloween is a perfect time to write this.
I remember the movie director Peter Bogdonavich saying during a Turner Classic Movie interlude that “There are no old movies, just great movies you haven’t seen yet”. I remember my oldest son practicing casting a rubber weighted fishing line in our back yard when he was about five years old. He was standing on our picnic table (the “boat”) and caught the line in the overhanging tree branches. To my great surprise -and wonderment- he said “If only the boy were here!” This was a Spencer Tracey line in the Hemingway-based movie “The Old Man and the Sea” which we had watched at least a year before. I marveled at his memory and context. I still remember watching the original 300 Spartans with Richard Egan as a boy my son’s age. Color T.V and Cinemascope were big deals back then. Now I’m awed more by the digitization of images in just the introduction to movies than the actual story line. Movies (and music) do leave an indelible print -for good or bad- on minds young and old.
I’ve discovered a whole new universe in NetFlix foreign films. When I told my 82 year old mother that I absolutely loved watching foreign films she replied -a little hesitatingly- “Well,…. honey,…. when you see one your mother can watch let me know!” In addition to voting for Obama this was further evidence that her mind was leaving her – or how small her world is. I wonder how much of the rest of America believes that all foreign films are pornographic. What a pity. I feel I’ve rinsed the slime of hollywood off my body by subscribing to some very well written foreign films….and very pleased that my children enjoy watching them as well even if it means reading subtitles. Ah, perhaps there lies the rub….it often requires reading! Which brings me to the reason I’m writing. I just saw “The Best, Exotic Marigold Hotel” with several major British movie stars. By the way, if you haven’t tried watching British T.V. please do. If you can understand their “accent” you will have a barrel of laughs and see very well written plots of all kinds. The Marigold Hotel movie is about British senior citizens who travel to India and find reasons to go on living. Not a rare feeling in American senior citizens. But an American movie started me on this essay. I was channel surfing desparately trying to find something worth watching.on late night T.V. (another affliction of old-age…sleeplessness). I by-passed “Rocky Balboa” three or four times before I clicked on it and was delighted to see it was Stallone’s last “Rocky” movie. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it! Stallone captured the essence of any senior citizen who feels their best days may be behind him – and gives them reason to continue on. He hit a very deep nerve in his response to his son’s complaint about fighting another fight (symbollic in itself).
And finally, I want to highly recommend a “Bollywood” (Indian) movie: “My Name Is Khan”. It is in English. All throughout the movie I was hoping the plot originated from a true story. It takes place in America with a marriage between a Hindu and Muslim couple…..just before 9/11. Very powerful moral lesson. If only the reality weren’t so different. So, remember the commercial where the brothers sitting at the breakfast table say “give it to Mikey! He’ll eat anything!”? I say, “Try it! You’ll like it!”
