25 Movies: Part 1
There’s another meme working its way through the Facebook ecology that has grabbed my attention. It works like this:
Think of 25 films that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over. These are the films that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the films that no matter what they were thought of stylistically shaped your world.
Because I need to generate some content on this blog, I’m gonna take my time with this and stretch it out. So, without further adieu, here is the first installment of the 25 movies that shaped my world (in no particular order).
1. Adapation
Dawn and I went to see this on our first unofficial date. While that in itself is meaningful to me, that’s not why it’s on this list. Let me put it this way, about halfway through Adaptation, I turned to Dawn and whispered, “I feel like this movie was made just for me.” It was a movie that spoke to every creative question I had in my head at the time. There didn’t seem to be one scene, one line, that wasn’t written explicitly to me. The best part was that Dawn felt a similar way. It was like Charlie Kaufman had been taking notes during our conversations. Just a perfectly timed movie for me…for us.
2. Cool Hand Luke
During my senior year of high school, I was a member of an English class that could only be compared to Mr. Kotter’s Sweathogs. It was a who’s who of goof-offs, and our teacher, Mr. Babcock (Babo!), was King Goof-Off himself. Knowing that he’d never get us to sit down and read anything, he decided instead to show us Cool Hand Luke, the ultimate movie for non-conformists. But you see, he didn’t just show it to us once. We watched it again and again and again. Some of you were in that class, so correct me if I’m wrong, but I suspect we watched Cool Hand Luke at least six times over the course of our final semester. It was almost like A Clockwork Orange, except instead of being condition to treat people well, we were being conditioned to knock the heads off of parking meters.
3. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
First and foremost, I have to say that I’ve been a huge Lord of the Rings fan since the books were first introduced to me by Mr. Joshua Bloom during my high-scool days. Now, cut to several years later, when I’m living in Brighton, MA, and the first movie is coming out. There were a couple of us going to see it. I know there was me and Schwartzie, and I think there were at least two other people, one of which I’m sure was Fraggos, but I have no idea who the others might have been. You can make your own assumptions as to why I don’t remember. Anyway, we get to the theater a little bit late, and when we walk in, the lights are out and the movie is a hair away from starting. Also, the place is packed. So we all split up because we’re gonna have to sit by ourselves (which, for reasons you can assume, made me a little paranoid). Thankfully, Schwartzie and I found two seats together, so I didn’t have to sit alone. Just as we sit, the movie starts. Not more than four minutes into the prologue, and it was just like…wow! Without a doubt, The Fellowship of the Ring was, hands-down, the single best movie-going experience of my life. An exciting, emotionally-involving spectacle. Exactly what a big-time movie is supposed to be.
4. Mulholland Drive
This movie can only be defined in one way: masterpiece. It is the epitome of 20th century film, by which I mean, it is the only movie I’ve ever seen (except maybe Inland Empire) that was conceived and conveyed entirely in the language of the cinema. It’s a movie that can’t be summarized by its plot, or limited to its cinematography, or captured in a clip. You must experience it from start to finish if you’re gonna understand its power. Movies simply don’t get better than this. As for Inland Empire: if Mulholland Drive takes the medium to the limit, Inland Empire takes it a few steps beyond…to its detriment.
5. The Life & Death of Peter Sellers
This was an HBO movie that just simply “did it” for me. It’s directed by the same guy who did Nightmare on Elm Street 5, Predator 2, and a bunch of episodes of 24, so it’s weird that it’s on here, but like Adaptation, this movie seemed to speak to so many creative questions going on in my head at that time. The movie stars Geoffrey Rush as Peter Sellers, and while I could be moved watching Geoffrey Rush pack a bag of groceries, his performance in this movie is ridiculous. Just an incredible performance. Add on the fact that Peter Sellers was such an incredible actor in his own right, and you get an incredible actor portraying an incredible actor in a movie that has postmodern pretensions…well, it was just my cup of tea. If you haven’t seen it, add it to your queue.
[To be continued...]