30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #19

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

     Yes, I like Star Trek stuff.  No, I do not go to conventions or dress up or know what stardate a specific episode was...  But I do know what a Jefferies tube is!  I grew up on Star Trek.  Mostly the films, as I didn't watch any of the TV shows until I was around six or so.  I didn't watch The Next Generation as it came on, but I did watch some Voyager and watched re-runs of the original series.  My family didn't get satellite TV until I was about eleven or twelve, and we lived in a rural county that didn't get great network TV reception from the nearest city, which was about 40 miles away.  This was the early 90s, after all.  Still, I loved to watch the Star Trek films, which we had taped from when they came on as movies of the week on TV, or we'd borrow the VHS tapes from family friends.

    Growing up, my favorite was always Star Trek IV, or as most non-trekkers think of it, "the one with the whales."  The Enterprise crew, in a stolen Klingon Bird of Prey, have to go back in time and bring back some Humpback Whales to the 23rd century in order to save Earth from a probe that's destroying the planet while it asks it's questions in whale-speak.  What follows is a great, funny fish out of water story.  There's very little stuff set in space in this movie.  There's very little that a non-trekker would need to understand this film, which is why it was so popular when it came out.  It makes fun of Trek while at the same time having the same characters and not changing them too much, and doesn't really have any of the outer space politics that Star Trek is known for.  If you've seen the Nicholas Meyer film Time After Time, starring Mary Steenburgen (also in Back To The Future III, oddly enough) and Malcolm McDowell, you know somewhat what to expect in this film.  It's the same writer for both time-travel films. (Nicholas Meyer also directed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, along with writing them both as well.  He only wrote this one.)  In Time After Time, Malcolm McDowell plays H.G. Wells as he goes forward in time to stop Jack The Ripper, who has stolen his time machine.  Lots of fish out of water situations occur.  Oddly enough, David Warner is in that film as well, and he would play three different characters in two different Star Trek films and a two-part TNG episode as well.  Also oddly, Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen were married from 1980 to 1990, but that's beside the point.  What I'm saying is that The Voyage Home isn't exactly a new idea.  It's basically the writer's older movie with Star Trek characters added, and without the homicide.... and it's got the mom from Child's Play.

     The movie has a great amount of laughs to be had, both intentionally and because of the 80sness of it all.  It came out in 1986, which was probably the worst year stylistically of the 1980s.  The big hair had come in, the leg warmers and spandex had taken over...  Everyone wore thick sweaters...  You know what I mean.  Still, the outfits are much better than the ones in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  The styles in that one are the least of it's problems.  People, skip the first Trek film.  It's an exercise in futility, and in this case, resistance is not futile, it's recommended.  Most of the laughs in Star Trek IV come from the interactions of Spock and Kirk.  See, Spock had died two movies ago and was brought back without his previous human-ness from before, so he's not quite right anymore.  He takes things very literal and no longer "exaggerates" (lies without lying).  For example, here's one of my favorite scenes...

   The Star Trek spirit is still there too, however.  It's got an ecological theme, which goes along with the utopian vision of Roddenberry, and it's got time travel of course.  As I said, there's not much of the film set in space.  I mean, the Enterprise itself isn't seen until the very end of the movie, as the original one got destroyed in Search For Spock.  This is not to it's detriment, as you don't need space for science fiction, not even if it's Star Trek.  Now, Trek fans don't usually really like this movie, as they hate the general public, and the general public tends to really like this one.  Hell, it's not even my favorite anymore.  I prefer II and III more than this one now, but I still find it hilarious, pretty well written, and a good family film. 

    Star Trek has always been a big part of my life.  This movie made it so.  It may not be the greatest anymore, but I have fond memories of it, and the nostalgia brings me back at least once a year to watch it again.  Almost all my friends know that I love the franchise, and I even get in arguments with Star Wars people due to my devotion to Trek over Wars.  Even if you don't like Star Trek, you can still like this one.  Try to watch it if you haven't.  You'll probably enjoy it as a comedy if nothing else.  Leonard Nimoy actually has great comic timing.  If you like this one, work up to Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, as those films and this one form a sort of trilogy.  Watch them, or I'll have Spock do the Vulcan nerve-pinch on you!

30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #20

Back To The Future

     What is there to say that hasn't been said about this film, or indeed the whole series?  It's one of the best films to be released in the past 50 years, it's invited a whole new lexicon into our collective speech, and it's pretty darned funny too!  And to think, due to some happy incidences, we have the film that we have (I'm pretty sure) all seen.  To think, it almost ended up being a Disney film and we almost had Eric Stoltz as Marty instead of Michael J. Fox!  I don't like to think of either of those two possibilities.

     As I mentioned in an earlier installment of this series, the 1980s were great for family entertainment, which we don't have a huge amount of anymore.  Think of the great family films (not kids movies) that came out in the 1980s!  The Karate Kid, The Goonies, E.T., Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, Explorers, Flight of The Navigator, Return To Oz, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure...  The list goes on and on.  Now what do we have?  Well, we HAD Harry Potter...  and that's the only really good series I can think of besides Pixar films.  Today we have a lot of kids movies, which aren't very good mostly, and a lot of stuff for older teenagers.  There's not much for everyone to enjoy, which is very sad, and it's one of the reasons I grow tired of the way Hollywood is running things into the ground.  You can have family films and still push the barriers.  Heck, Back To The Future is a great example of that!  

     Think about it.  This film has quite a bit of what I would call "low level swearing".  That is, such words like shit, damn, asshole, and bastard.  The movie has some slightly disturbing incestuous themes to it (which is why Disney dropped the movie).  Also, there's a bit of gun violence and sexuality to it.  And it's still got a PG rating.  And this was after PG-13 came around, so that can't be used as an excuse.  Everyone could see the film, and by the box office tally, pretty much everyone DID see the film.  Family entertainment doesn't have to die, Hollywood, you just need to make some good ones.

    I don't even remember when I first saw Back To The Future.  I was probably around five or so.  I remember I watched it less than the two sequels, because to a very young kid, it always seemed the least awesome.  I mean, part II had the cool futuristic stuff and used to be my favorite of the series because of that, and part III had the cool train and Marty accidentally stepping in poop!  Now, of course, my favorite is the first one, followed by III, and II is my least favorite, but still better than  most films out there.  Let's focus on the first movie though, as that's what made the list.  

    We all know the plot, so I'm not going to reiterate it here.  Suffice it to say that it's both very simple and very complex at the same time... and it's a whole lot of fun!  We all think of the 1950s as a very boring time in American history.  Kind of like we think of the 1980s now, probably.  The 1980s were when the teens of the 50s were getting into their 50s, and as we see at the beginning of the movie, a lot of them had let their hopes and dreams die.  I think now we see a lot of that with teenagers from the 1980s, who are now in their 40s and have teenagers of their own.  Everyone thinks life is going to be easier than it is, and as time goes on things get in our way and we stop chasing dreams in order to just lead a lower-quality life... as long as it's not as hard.  Though brimming with humor, the first fifteen minutes of the movie show Hill Valley in disrepair and Marty's parents living meaningless lives without happiness.  By the end of the movie, Marty himself brings his parents closer than they ever were, and makes his father a better person.  I still haven't decided if he changed his mother at all.  I'm still convinced she's banging some other guy on the side.  I mean who would settle for Crispin Glover?! 

     He also helps out his good friend, the inventor Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd, who I'm sure we all thought was an old man when he was in this.  No!  He was actually only in his late 40s when he was in this.  Ah, the wonders of makeup effects!  Anyway, I think the whole series is more about Doc Brown than Marty.  Or at least, I was always more entertained and interested in him.  He had the best lines, the greatest facial expressions, and of course, the best car.  I can not think of anyone who could repeat the lines as well as Christopher Lloyd did, and my God, the facial expressions!  He's so animated!  For example, one of my favorite lines from the film:

That look he gives at the end makes that whole scene, man!  It's not that funny without it.  Thank God for Christopher Lloyd.

   But characters alone don't make a science fiction film.  Oh no.  The special effects in the film are pretty great too, though if you think about it, the first film doesn't have that many.  The ones it does have were pretty great for 1985.  Even the science is pretty smart.  I mean, sure, there's not really a flux capacitor, but I believe most, if not all, of the wibbly wobbly timey-wimey stuff is straight, unlike Moffat-era Doctor Who, so it's got that going for it.

     I wish I had been old enough to see this in theaters when it came out.  Alas, I was about a week or so old when this came out.  I may have seen the third one in theaters as I was 4 by time that one came around, but I don't remember it if I did.  My generation needs to remember to show our kids these movies, and not wait until they're teenagers.  By that point the movies seem antiquated and slow to the current generation.  Please don't wait.  I'll leave you with this:

30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #21

Aladdin

     I had to think long and hard on this one.  Disney movies were a big part of my childhood, as they were almost everyone else's.  However, I didn't want to put 5 or 6 Disney animated films on this list, nor did I want to not put any on here.  So I had to ask myself, which one left the most impressions on me as I grew.  Well, in the end I chose Aladdin obviously.  I'm sure most in my age group would have chosen The Lion King, and I admit that Aladdin is not held in as high regard these days.  When it came out, it was an event.  You must remember that at the time, the Disney renaissance was supposed to go on forever.  Who knew that once The Lion King came out, things would go down hill afterwards.  In truth, the renaissance lasted only 5 films, and some people only count it as 4, due to Rescuers Down Under originally being conceived as a straight to video title and not having any songs.  The reason I chose Aladdin out of all the Disney animated classics were due to my age when it came out (8), and because it was the first Disney film that came out in my childhood to have a male lead character.

     Now, when I was young, my mother put restrictions on what I could watch. My mother was very worried about violence in movies back when I was young.  I wasn't even able to watch anything Ninja Turtles related until I was 12.  (I did anyway when she wasn't around, of course.)  So I mainly watched Disney movies when I was in my single-digit years.  Oddly enough, I don't regret this at all.  Disney had a stellar record in their Animated canon up until I was around 10 years old, when they came out with the questionable Pocahontas.  Back then, Disney wasn't considered overtly girly as it is now.  This was before the whole princess boom, and before they put all their faith in Pixar, which is pretty much the only branch of Disney worth looking at right now.  They have taken up the reigns of the old animated Disney films, whereas the ones Disney make now aren't even usually up to par with the ones Dreamworks make.

     Still, Aladdin was released at the peak of the Disney Renaissance, and it shows.  The songs are great and memorable, a trait that would go on a few movies after the renaissance ended.  (Despite Pocahontas and Hunchback of Notre Dame not being as good, the songs were still up to par.)   The animation is great as was usual for this period, before Disney started getting too carried away with the computer and going back to the Xerox look from 101 Dalmations as they did in later films.  The movie is probably the most consistently funny of the 90s Disney animated films, probably partially due to the involvement of Robin Williams.  (See Mrs. Doubtfire, released the same year.)  Even the villain gets some laughs.  (I hate Iago though.)  It's a more boyish movie than the two preceding renaissance films, Little Mermaid and Beauty and The Beast, but it's still got a pretty strong character in Jasmine.  She's not completely helpless like Disney princesses of the 1930s or even the 1950s.  

    I believe this movie made me who I am, as it has stuck with me more than the other animated films of it's era, and I think I can still remember the words to most of the songs in film.  Remember, A Whole New World was a big hit when it came out.  But for me, my favorite song is still Prince Ali.  

Now, if I had not chose to go with a Disney Renaissance title, I would have probably chose Alice In Wonderland or Sleeping Beauty, as those are my favorite pre-1989 Disney animated films.  Just thought I'd throw that out there.

30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #22

Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster

     Just remember folks, this is not a list of my favorite movies.  This movie proves that.  It's actually considered one of the lesser Godzilla films, and it's not particularly one of my favorites either.  It's somewhere in the middle of the 28 Godzilla films in both chronology and entertainment value.  The only reason I chose this Godzilla movie to put on the list is because it was the first one I ever saw, and due to that, it got me into kaiju films. 

     Now, for those that don't know, kaiju films are big monster movies.  The word means "strange creature" in Japanese, and of course the Japanese pretty much made and have maintained the genre since the 1950s.  Yes, some are pretty much as cheesy as you would think.  I admit that.  However, if you've seen most of the films of the 1990s Godzilla series, or of the Millennium series of the 2000s, then you would know they are nowhere near as fake-looking as they used to be.  Sure, if you choose to watch the dubbed versions, the dubbing is still unintentionally funny due to the quite horrible dialogue, but most of the dvds and blu-rays now come with the original Japanese language and you watch the subtitles instead.  I enjoy Godzilla films because it's like watching a wrestling match without the annoying machismo, and I don't have to look at bulked up or fat guys pretending they're hurting each other.  Well, I suppose the guys in the rubber suits could be fat or bulky, but this way I don't know...  And this has a better element of fantasy.

     I first saw this film when I was probably around nine or so.  We decided to rent some videos from the only video rental store in Tappahannock, VA at the time.  It was called Master Video, which I'm sure some of the people I went to elementary school with remember.  At the time, there were only VHS tapes.  Now, my dad had picked out Son of Godzilla to rent, as he wanted to show it to me.  (Son of Godzilla is actually the film that came out right after Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster.)  However, when we got home and put the tape in, we noticed that it was this film.  We watched it, but my dad had really wanted to show me Son of Godzilla.  Alas, the store didn't have it, so my dad bought the film eventually.  I think that's the only Godzilla film he actually liked, as it's the only one he ever bought.  I own all of them now, along with many other kaiju films.  There are just some times when watching grown men in rubber monster suits beating each other up and being pelted with little fireworks is what you need to brighten your day!

    Now, this film was originally not supposed to be a Godzilla movie.  It was supposed to be a vehicle for the company that makes the Godzilla films, Toho, for their version of King Kong.  Now, Kong already had already fought Godzilla in 1962's King Kong Vs. Godzilla, which is one of the most well-known Godzilla films to American audiences, though in my opinion, not one of the better ones.  This film was supposed to be a King Kong film, and it shows.  Godzilla comes alive from electricity, he throws boulders back in forth to the sea monster (Ebirah), and he shows attraction to a girl.  I believe he even beats his chest a few times.  Anyway, if anyone wants to start watching Godzilla films, it should not be this one.  I would start with the Heisei or the Millennium series, as they aren't as goofy and have more intense battle sequences.  The original Godzilla (Gojira), should be watched at some point too.  Don't expect any laughs or goofiness though, as it's a very serious and dark film.  One that's more about the effects of the atomic bomb on Japan than it is about fun.  It's more of a horror film, and Godzilla is the baddy, as he was up until 1964's Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, when he became an anti-hero.

    I wouldn't be the same if I didn't watch this film, and even though the series isn't the best ever created, most are entertaining.  You can watch them in several ways.  To laugh at them, to marvel at the fine miniatures that Godzilla or other monsters promptly destroy, to become a kid again for a while...  Or as I do, all of the above.  And please, if you plan to take them quasi-seriously like I do, watch the subtitled versions if you can.  The dubbing is atrocious for these films.  But still, no dubbing can be fun.  For example....

30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #23

Fanny & Alexander

     Up until now, I've only listed films that I either grew up with, or that I found in my teenage years.  This film is one I first watched only about two years ago.  For the past several years, I've been building up a collection of blu-rays from the Criterion Collection, which is a company that is "dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film."  Those special features you see on your DVDs and blu-rays?  Thank Criterion for that.  They were the first company to include features back in the laserdisc days.  When I was getting my degree in Film Studies at UNCW, most of the films we watched in those classes were from the Criterion Collection.  My world would not be the same without them.  Through them I've discovered Kenji Mizoguchi, Fritz Lang, Louis Malle, Terrence Malick, Yasujiro Ozu, Francois Truffaut, Luis Bunnuel, Akira Kurosawa, Nicholas Roeg, and the director of this film, Ingmar Bergman.

     Now, I saw my first Bergman film when I was in my first year of college at Radford University.  I perused their dvd library as much as I could, and they had a pretty good collection of Criterions.  I had heard of this film called The Seventh Seal and it looked interesting.  It was, in short, amazing.  I had never seen anything like it, and I don't think I have since.  However, it would be another 2 years, and at another college, my alma mater UNCW, before I would see another Bergman film.  The next one I saw was Wild Strawberries, which is usually considered by film professors to be his best film.  Of course, as the title to this suggests, I don't agree.  (Though Wild Strawberries is amazing.)  No, my favorite, and the one that changed the way I look at life and film, is Fanny & Alexander.

     The film is set at the turn of the twentieth century in Sweden.  (Bergman is Swedish, of course.)  It follows the Ekdahl family, in particular 10-year-old Alexander and his younger sister Fanny, as their bourgeois family goes through it's ups and downs.  Now, I know that may not seem particularly exciting, but Bergman can make unexciting plots exciting.  Now, it's at this point that I must mention that there are two cuts of the film.  It was originally conceived as a 4-part TV movie and was filmed as such.  However, it was released first to cinemas in a 3 hour form that cuts out much of the supernatural and fantastic aspects of the film, which is one thing that drew me to the film.  I have yet to see the theatrical version.  The TV version is a little over five hours longs, and it's worth every minute.  I can't see how a shorter version could be done and still have the gravitas and beauty of the five hour version, so one of these days I must get around to it.

     The film has one of those bad guys you just love to hate.  The actor is so good at his portrayal here.  It's a widowed priest whom Fanny and Alexanders' mother weds.  He's a no nonsense man who loves power over others, especially Alexander.  He was based on Bergman's father.  Let me just give you a scene here to show you.

     Now, that's not one of the best scenes with the priest.  That's simply the one I could find on Youtube.  There's a rumor around the house in the film that the priest murdered his wife and daughter and their ghosts are in the attic.  The family's time with the priest are almost excruciating to watch, as he's so old fashioned and stern, punishing Alexander for things he didn't do.  It's especially so because Alexander loved his real father so much, and you spend the first part of the movie with him in such a loving family. Even after the time with the priest, Alexander is still haunted by him, as he's also haunted by his real father.  Don't think that this is a very serious film though, as there's quite a bit of humor in it, mostly dealing with Alexander's extended family.

    This film was supposed to be Ingmar Bergman's last.  He was supposed to retire, as Hayao Miyazaki was after Spirited Away.  Still, like Miyazaki, he ended up not going into full retirement.  He did TV movies, directed operas, and things like that.  I believe he even did another movie or two before he died in the early 2000s.  

     So why did I choose this film as one that made me who I am?  Well, any 5 hour movie that doesn't make me want to get up and move around for a while is doing something very good.  And this is one of the very few that works for me.  I love films about childhood and the loss of it.  Combined with Bergman's eye for period detail and speech, the film is a wonder.  It was this film that made me want to see all of Bergman's films, most of which are fantastic.  This film would go on to win four Academy Awards in 1983 and be nominated for a further two.  It won Best Foreign Film, Cinematography, Costume Design, and Art Direction.  The two it did not win were for Director and Screenplay,  both for Bergman himself.  And that was just for the theatrical version!

    Seriously, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.  It's subtitled, yes, but after years of viewing most films in subtitles (lots of foreign film in college), after a while you won't even notice you're reading.

30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #24

Spirited Away

     So you take a wrong turn, end up in some sort of spirit world, and your parents eat food and literally become pigs.  What else to do than find a job in a bathhouse from an old witch (the same one that had your parents turned to pigs), all the while having your real name stolen from you and being given a name that's the Japanese word for 'thousand'?!  Yes, that's the plot of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.  It's weird, but not as weird as some Japanese things I've watched.  No sir.  No young cybernetic girls being trained by men to become assassins here!  (See Gunslinger Girl to find out what I'm talking about.)  No teenagers turning into nuclear weapons a la Akira!

     Miyazaki is one of the most wonderfully creative artists in the world today.  His films have a quality to them that make some refer to him as the Japanese Walt Disney, which is a claim he hates.  I don't think it fits either, though Disney has released most of his films to the American audience.  He's much more interesting than Disney, and his work isn't as subtle.  Maybe it's just a Japanese thing, as I've noticed most of their movies lack subtlety.  Spirited Away was actually supposed to be Miyazaki's swan song.  He decided to retire while making the film.  You can tell that he wanted this to be his masterwork, as it's pitch perfect and encompasses all that his work has been trying to say for years.  The films he's made since then, Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo, have been considered as lesser works by most critics and viewers, though they are still seen as better than most family fare.  Indeed, his production company, Studio Ghibli, puts out better films than Disney does these days, including work done by Miyazaki's son, Goro.

    It's hard to talk about the movie, as it's so out there and I haven't seen it in a few years, due to it still not being available on blu-ray.  However, I do remember that I first saw the movie when I was 17, after seeing that it won the Academy Award for best animated feature in 2001.  Before that, I had only seen one Miyazaki film, and that was when Kiki's Delivery Service, which I don't count as one of Miyazaki's best films, came on the Disney Channel when I was sick a few years before.  To say I was impressed by the scope and oddness of Spirited Away would be an understatement.  I had never really watched any Japanese animated films at the time (the movie is not anime), but even after all these years, this is my favorite.  Like Pixar, Miyazaki puts quite a bit of environmental stuff in his films, which I'm always for.  This film has river pollution as part of it's plot, and other films like Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa have even more environmentalism.  Stuff you can't look over.  Miyazaki also profoundly loves childhood.  This is something Disney has never been really good at.  Spirited Away is a great coming of age film.  It's somewhat about Sen's transition from childhood to adulthood, and it's been compared to Lewis Carrol's Alice In Wonderland, which is a comparison I can kind of see, but again don't agree with.  This is so much more than a book of nonsense and rhymes.  There's an actual intelligible story here...  Even if I don't really remember exactly what it is. 

    People, even if you don't care for kids movies, (Which this isn't...  It's a family film.) you need to watch this.  It's a powerful, amazing film that everyone should see sometime in their life.  If you must pick one Miyazaki movie to see, make it either this or Princess Mononoke.  If you're disappointed, you may have no soul.

30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #25

Saturday Night Fever

     The biggest mistake people make about this movie is saying that it's about disco.  Yes, it's soundtrack is disco, it popularized disco, and the main character is a local disco dancer.  However, the movie is actually about realizing that there's more out there to strive for...  That popularity isn't everything and that being a local hero doesn't amount to much, amongst other things.  The movie is truly one of the best urban movies of the 1970s, and that's saying a lot as those, especially ones that take place in New York as this one does, were very popular in that time period due to the proliferation of such directors as Scorscese, De Palma, and Lumet.

     The movie stars John Travolta as a Brooklynite who is very popular in the area for his dancing in the local nightclub.  He's known as the best dancer there, and is very popular with the ladies.  He can get whoever he wants.  He becomes attracted to this new girl he sees, Stephanie, and wants to get to know her and, lets face it, he wants to lay her.  He decides that they should enter the local dance competition at the 2001 Odyssey disco club, but she plays hard to get.  She finally relents, and he replaces his current dance partner, who worships him, with Stephanie.  Now, Stephanie is more sophisticated than him and works to get out of Brooklyn and move to Manhattan, chiding Travolta's character Tony, when he thinks he has it all there in Brooklyn living with his parents and dancing on Friday nights and hanging out with his friends.  From there on, I'd be giving away too much of the last third of the movie, which I don't want to do.

     I know, it doesn't sound like much, but the movie does it's thing very well.  Even if you don't like disco music, the soundtrack is essential here.  It's the movie's life-breath, and it wouldn't be a great film without it.  Now, the disco scene presented in this movie was made up.  The author of the New York Magazine article the film was based on has admitted that he fabricated the whole thing.  The disco scene of the time was mostly found in gay bars.  The author based his article on the old Mod craze, and just brought in the styles of the time.  However, the movie did create it's own scene, which is pretty spectacular in and of itself.  It also launched Travolta to super-stardom.  He was nominated for an Academy Award for this role, and deservedly so.   Hell, Brooklyn should have been nominated, as it's a character all to itself!  One of my favorite scenes in the movie, which I can't link to as no-one's uploaded it to youtube, involves Tony and his gang fooling around on the suspension cables of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world... All while a disco version of Night on Bald Mountain is playing on the soundtrack.  Wonderful scene.

    Now why would this film be important for me?  Well, I have to admit, I like to listen to disco sometimes.  I especially did when I was 12, which was when I first saw the movie.  I had wanted to see it really badly, but it was R rated (for good reason), so I couldn't.... Until I noticed that there was a PG version, which is essentially the way it was shown on network television in the 1980s.  So we go to Suncoast, which was the big video store at the time.  Now, this was before internet cataloging, so you had to look through this big book at the store, about as big as a phone book, and ask them to order it for you.  So I got to see it that way.  The PG version of the movie simply removes the bad language and replaces it with other words.  ("Hey, you fuck!" becomes "Hey, you skunk!" and so on and so forth.)  I was unprepared for how good the movie was, as I thought, like most do, that it was simply a disco movie.  The movie has a pretty bad rape scene in it (done by our hero no less!), and yet has some of the loveliest moments filmed.  It was probably what I would call my first "big boy" movie.  It helped push my love of film even farther, and without seeing it, I probably would not have sought out drama like I do now in films.  Back then I basically watched comedies and blockbusters like most people.  Nothing's been the same since.

    I finally saw the R rated version a few years ago, and now consider it the better cut.  I suggest if you see the film, which I recommend you do, to see this version.  Now, here's a little clip from the movie, just to show it's not all about disco.

30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #26

Mrs. Doubtfire

     So I'm pretty sure we've all seen this movie.  It was one of the most popular films of 1993, coming just behind Jurassic Park.  (I was 8 when it came out.)  It's probably Robin Williams' best comedy and it's just all-around got a great cast.  It has never left the list of my top fifty favorite movies since I saw it, either.  I guess we all know the story of the film, but in the slightest chance someone doesn't, the plot's very simple.  The Hillards (played by Robin Williams and Sally Field), do not have a great marriage.  Mr. Hillard is a voice-actor for cartoons and Mrs. Hillard is an interior decorator at a big company.  They have 3 kids that include a teenage daughter (Lisa Jakub), a 12 year old son (Matthew Lawrence), and a 5 year old daughter (Mara Wilson).  After years of growing apart, Mrs. Hillard files for divorce.  Mrs. Hillard gets custody of the kids and Mr. Hillard tries to find a way to see them.  He decides to dress like an old Scottish woman and become their nanny.  He's hired, and everyone loves the job he's doing.  Hilarious hijinks ensue!

     Yeah, it's not too original, especially if you know it's based on a young adult book that came out in 1987 called Alias Madame Doubtfire.  Also the whole "guy dresses in drag to get ahead" thing had already been done before to great effect in 1982's Tootsie starring Dustin Hoffman and in 1959's Some Like It Hot.  Both films were, or course critical darlings, and thus some critics beat up on Mrs. Doubtfire when it came out.  It's still only got a 70% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  Still, I like it just as well as those former two films, which I very much recommend as well, by the way.  I find Mrs. Doubtfire to be funnier than those two films, but I'll agree, it's probably not technically the better film.

     It's hard to explain comedy or why you like a certain comedy.  I'd seen comedies by time I was 8 years old, and I'm not speaking of just the animated Disney films of the day or kids movies.  And you know a lot of the jokes in this movie went over my head.  There are jokes in here for every age group.  The dirtier jokes just fly over kids' heads, as they did mine at the time.  I was mainly laughing at Robin Williams' impersonations and the physical comedy.  Heck, those are still what get the biggest laughs out of me.  The sexual references and humor I didn't really get until I was 13 or 14.  And hey, the stuff I used to laugh at were still funny too!   The movie actually got  better as I got older!  That rarely happens, my friends.  How many times have you gone back to a movie you used to like as a kid, and realized that it sucks?  It's happened a few times to me.  (Don't ask me why I used to like The Smurfs and The Magic Flute.)  It's a very fortunate circumstance when you find a movie you loved since you first saw it, and it just gets better and better as you grow older.

     Sadly, I cannot post a youtube clip for this film, as there aren't any good ones available.  20th Century Fox apparently is very censor-happy for this film on youtube.  Also, sorry if this blog post was short.  I have a hard time explaining my views on comedy, and as such there's very little comedy on this list.  Let's just say that this is one movie I want to eventually show my kids if I have any. 

I've decided to post a little hint about tomorrow's installment.  It's a drama, and it includes a lot of music... that's all I'm sayin'.

30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #27

The Haunting

     First things first.  I am not talking about the CGI-filled red-headed stepchild that is the 1999 remake.  I'm speaking of the classic, black-and-white, crazy scary (literally crazy scary) 1963 film directed by Robert Wise.  It is usually referred to as one of the scariest films ever made, and with good reason.  Never before, and never since, in this guy's opinion has there ever been a horror film as effective.  And I am not alone in that  view.  Numerous sources have ranked it as one of, if not the best.  The American Film Institute, Bravo's Scariest Movie Moments, and numerous critics.  But why does it work so well?

     For starters, and this is one of the many things the remake did horribly wrong, it's in glorious black and white.  Now, I know a lot of people now refuse to watch films not made in color.  They don't know what they're missing.  By 1963, color was the predominant form for films.  Very few pictures were made in black and white, and most that were shot in black and white were done so for either budget or thematic reasons.  You can play with lighting a lot easier with b&w films.  Shadows are easier to create, and that's very important in a film like this.  There's one scene in particular which could not be done in black and white, and which they do not even attempt to retry for the remake.  It's hard to explain, so here....  Let me just show you.  

    See?  Now that's one of the creepiest scenes to me.  And all it uses is sounds, a design on a wall, and creative lighting.  Fantastic!  The movie is full of scenes like this, and it's probably why the movie still scares the crap out of me.  (Besides the fact that I believe in, and am very frightened by the prospect of ghosts.)

     Another reason the film works so well is the use of camera angles.  Modern day horror film-makers should look at this film as a guide to how to make an effective film.  Current horror films use either fast editing or simply use a point and shoot method of camerawork.  This is not a great way to shoot suspense, which is what horror should be about.  (Not jumps and gross-outs.)  The use of dutch angles, tight close ups, violating match-on-action rules to make you confused, and the shifting viewpoint between Eleanor and the house are used to great effect here.  Some shots were even filmed backwards and then reversed, so that it is processed forwards to enhance uneasiness.  This is something Brian De Palma would use later for the surprise ending of Carrie.

   I first saw the movie when I was probably around 11 years old.  It was after midnight, and me and my sister decided to watch the movie as it came on the cable channel Turner Classic Movies.  Now, let me be frank here...  I was a huge scaredy-cat when I was younger.  I would seek out things that I knew would leave me frightened, and then would have trouble sleeping for weeks.  I still am a bit of a scaredy-cat, as I still sometimes sleep with the bathroom light on.  Well, this night we were in sleeping bags on the floor watching the movie in the dark.  One of my sister's friends was asleep on the floor in another bag.  Never before had I seen such a movie.  One that frightened me so much, but kept me so enthralled.  The suspense just wound me further up and up.  Then we get to the spiral staircase scene.  I'm not going to tell you what that is, or what happens, but I will say that Ms. Moneypenny has never made me scream since, but she did that time.  It's the first time I ever screamed out loud watching a movie, and I don't do that often.  The only other comparable time was a scene in the movie The House on Haunted Hill (again, not the remake!)  

     The film really effected me, and is still in my top 10 favorite films.  It showed me that I could get scared, even enough to let out a scream, and it's the high bar for when I review a horror film.  So far, no horror film has lived up to the creepiness of this film, and I'm starting to think none ever will.  After all, Hill House has stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Within, walls continue upright, bricks meet, floors are firm, and doors are sensibly shut. Silence lies steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. And we who walk here... walk alone.

   I won't describe any more scenes in the movie.  It's simply too special for me to do that.  It would spoil the surprises.  Watch this film!  Watch it without distraction... with all the lights off... at night...  Alone or with someone else who won't distract you.  And if you feel someone gripping you hand, make sure whoever you watch it with isn't on the other side of the room.  Don't crack jokes to keep your suspense down.  Let the movie's feel wash over you.  That's how horror films work.  A closed mind is the worst defense against the supernatural... If it happens to you, your liable to have that shut door in your mind ripped right off it's hinges! 

*Yes there were a few quotes from the movie in those last two paragraphs.  I do not own them.

30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #28

Monty Python and The Holy Grail

     Okay, this one was kind of a gimmie.  Everyone knows I love this film, although that was not always the case.  In fact, I think I first saw the movie when I was 13 or 14, and I didn't like it much the first time I saw it.  Here's how my first viewing came about.  I was at Vacation Bible School, and that year we were doing yard work for shut-ins.  To pass the time as we all worked, of course we carried on conversations.  These older youth kept talking about the movie and quoting things.  Now remember, I didn't know much about movies at this time in my life.  I simply saw the latest blockbusters and the older movies my dad owned.  This was not one of those movies.  Well, I finally got around to borrowing the movie a few weeks later... and I thought it was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen.  I only chuckled a few times, and I don't even think I made it to the end.  Luckily, I decided to give the movie another try the next year... and something clicked this time.  I "got" it.  

    Now, British humor can be hard to get at first if you've been raised simply on American humor.  I still have friends that hate Monty Python stuff.  I don't know what changed between the first and second time I watched the film.  Maybe my expectations weren't there the second time?  Perhaps I was feeling like being an asshole the first time?  Who knows.  The point is that the movie quickly became one of my favorites, and opened my eyes to another type of humor.  

     Anyone who knows me knows that I quote up a storm.  I can find a movie quote for just about any situation.  This is one of the most quotable movies in existence.  Even people who haven't seen the movie in twenty-odd years can quote something from this one.  And some of us know all the words to...

My favorite parts are the guy clapping along in the dungeon and the line after the song.

     But I digress.  This movie paved the way for Terry Gilliam to become one of the best directors out there.  He co-directed this (mainly the animated sequences) along with Terry Jones.  Gilliam would go on to direct films like Time Bandits, Brazil, and 12 Monkeys.  The English humor would continue to permeate the world and give us the likes of Spaced, Shaun of The Dead, The Full Monty, and Mr. Bean.  English humor is all about the absurd, whereas American humor is focused on word-play and slapstick.  I enjoy both types, but I will admit that the English films are quite better.

     So why this film, besides opening my eyes to British humor?  Well, it was a defining point in my life.  It was around this time that I started to get into film more, and this opened me up to British film, which besides James Bond, which I got into about a year before this, was really my only brush with their films.  And in an odd twist of fate, one of the members of Monty Python would end up being in two Bond films just a year or two later!  

I'm sorry if this installment isn't as great as the last two.  It's hard to explain comedy to someone.  Although I think anyone who's seen the film knows why it's on here.  It IS an important film (even if I do prefer The Meaning of Life to this one nowdays.)

30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #29

The Neverending Story

     Okay, so after yesterday's installment, this movie is probably not what many of you were expecting.  It's not much talked about these days, it's sequels aren't good, and even when it got released on blu-ray, it didn't have as much as a trailer with it.  So it must not mean much to anybody, right?  Wrong.

    Actually, the movie does have a pretty big following and it was critically well received.  Also, the theme song hit #7 in the US.  (But Dragonland's cover is more awesome.)  However, it was not a huge box-office hit here in America.  (The director was German, it was filmed in Germany, and it's based on a German book.)  Those of us who really love the movie most likely owned it on VHS when we were young.  The movie came out in the summer of 1984, and VHS was moving mainstream by the mid-1980s.  A lot of parents looked at the VHS cover, which was the original poster art, and were like, "Hey, this looks like a good movie for my kids to watch."  Therefore, it was probably one of the most important VHS tapes for kids in the mid-80s along with other pop culture favorites like The Goonies, Time Bandits, and Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.  I was one of those kids whose family owned the VHS tape.  

     I don't remember the first time I watched the movie.  I must have been around six or seven.  At least that's the first time I remember watching it.  I've always been amazed at how great the model-work and puppetry is in this film.  From Morla, the giant turtle to Gmork, the wolf servant of the Nothing.  To me, they will always be more realistic than some CGI creation.  Why?  They are actually physically there.  There's a realness to them that you don't get from CGI.  In fact, Gmork used to scare me, as I'm sure he did other children as well.

    But what I really love about this movie is it's message, which is different from the book.  The book's message was about imagination through reading.  The movie's message is simply about hopes and dreams, and the loss thereof.  Now normally, that would seem a bit too cliche for me, but coming at it through the structure of this movie is pretty cool.  You have a kid, Bastian, reading a book, and the book is the main story...  However, the action in the book is somewhat dependent on the reader.  It's a bit Peter Pan in that way, I suppose, but without seeming as annoying about it.  (Screw Tinkerbell, I don't feel like clapping my hands!  Besides, who likes Julia Roberts anyway!)  

    Like a lot of 1980s family films that I love, this one is full of feelings that most movies now don't put in their family films.  They don't want to frighten or sadden children now, but I feel that those feelings are very important for children to have.  Go see a family movie now, and it's probably going to be animated, a comedy, and have lots of stars either in it or doing the voices.  It most likely either will have no message, or beat kids over the head with one.  Neverending Story doesn't talk down.  It's clear with it's message, but it talks about it philosophically without being boring.  One thing the movie never is, is boring. For example...

    There.  That's the crux of the film.  Please disregard Noah Hathaway's slight overacting.  Remember, this is the same kid that played Boxey in Battlestar Galactica and then went on to be in the movie Troll.  Still, he's better than Barrett Oliver, who plays Bastian, who is slightly annoying with his overacting... at least he chose better projects though.

   

     So how did this movie effect my life?  Well, besides putting about as many emotions as a kid can take in a 90 minute timeframe, I think it made me realize also that movies based on books don't always have to be bad.  (The book is one of my favorites though, and very different.)  It also pushed into my head that kids need to experience a range of emotions as they grow up.  You can't have them live in a bubble, as so many kids do now.  Don't be afraid to let kids emote or be showed emotion.  For example:

Oh, and have I mentioned how beautiful the movie is? 

30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #30

Independence Day

     Okay, I know some of my more... scholarly readers are wondering why I have something made by Roland Emmerich on my list.  Well, the answer is that I was once eleven years old.  That's how old I was when Independence Day arrived in theaters.  I'm not sure if many of you remember, but it was a huge event when it came out.  Seriously, could you go a day without seeing the trailer for it somewhere?  This was the first time I'd ever noticed a huge summer blockbuster.  I don't think we've seen the likes of it on this scale since... except maybe for when The Phantom Menace came out in 1999.  And we all know how that turned out.  Many now see Independence Day as a sort of joke, but for quite a few years after it came out, it was still considered THE big movie of the 1990s.

    Now I still like the movie okay, though not as much as I did at the naive age of eleven.  The advances in cinema at the time came together in such a way that the movie was almost overpowering to an eleven year old.  DTS had just came around and megaplexes were popping up everywhere.  Ones with state-of-the-art sound systems and stadium seating, which was new to me at the time.  Remember, old megaplexes were not stadium seating.  Heck, some of the ones I used to go to that are still around still don't have it or complete surround sound!  This is the movie that made me realize how enveloping, heart pumping, and action-packed a trip to the movies could be.  I'm sure it's the same sensation that the kids growing up the 1970s felt when they saw Star Wars, or how kids now felt when they saw Avatar or Avengers in today's amazing theaters.  I always love to see kids come out of a movie and not be able to shut up about it.  Especially movies like this one.  It's made for the adolescent in us all. 

    I remember being scared of the scene where Brent Spiner's scientist character is puppeteered by one of the aliens.  Being a semi-sheltered child, I'd never seen anything like that.  I think it affected me until I was about fifteen.  It helps that it started with a jump scare.  I used to hate jump scares.  I was very easily startled and, unlike now, didn't know the signs that they were coming.  

   Remember how blood pumping the destruction of the major cities was?  All that fire, all that destruction...  It was all an eleven year old could ask for!  We loved destruction!  And parents didn't mind taking their kids to see it.  It was bloodless, you didn't see any bodies...  I mean, how violent could a movie staring Lone Star from Spaceballs and the Fresh Prince be?!  The movie was just cool.  And you weren't anybody in sixth grade unless you'd seen it over the summer.

   So how did it make me who I am?  Well, it made me recognize that spectacle was important.  It made me realize just how amazing a movie experience could be.  That everyone in the world knew about this movie, and that everyone was going to see it...  That movies draw us together.  Even the ones not considered great in this time.  A movie was an event, and I had to seek them out.

   *On an unrelated note, most people don't know this, but there's very little CGI in the movie.  Most of the effects were done with miniatures, which makes it even more cool.

The Top 30 Films That Made Me "Me"

     So it's been a while since I posted here.  No, no, I didn't forget about you or the blog.  I've simply been very busy.  See, summer is the time I take the bulk of my vacations since theme/amusement parks are my life, and that's when most of them are open.  However, those trips are mostly over for the summer now.  Seeing as I'm completely broke, it's probably a good thing.

     Now, onto why I'm here.  I've decided to start a series of lists on how media has made me evolve as a person.  I'm not the same person I was when I was 12, 22, or heck, even 25!  Movies, books, music...  they do help make you who you are.  I mean family, friends, your background, etc also do, sure!  But media does as well, and it is entwined with your background, family and friends.  I will start with films.  A list of the top 30 films that made me who I am up to now.  They will not be in order so much as, say, #5 influenced me more than #6.  However, #5 clearly influenced me a bit more than #23 did.  See what I'm saying?  It's on a scale, but take it in a general way.

     The list was supposed to start on Sunday, but I've been re-ordering the list a little bit, and it takes time to write out why you feel the way you do about a film, and how it's effected your life.  As such, I'm putting #30 off until later today.  (It's 12:20 right now, so technically it will be done today.)  I hope other people take up this project, as it's been really interesting to think about.  I hope you'll join me on this journey through the important films in my life, and thus, through my life in itself.