I love movies. I love going to the theater to see some new story being told. I love sitting at home watching a familiar movie, knowing all the lines and what comes next and somehow still manage to be entertained. It's hard for me to remember a time when I didn't love movies, if such a time ever existed. My love for movies comes from a long time ago so let's go back to the beginning.
Going to the movies was kind of a special occasion. It also had to do with the fact that the town I lived in only had one theater and that theater only had two screens. So if you wanted to go to the movies then your choices were A or B. Today you can type your address into a website and it will not only tell you all the theaters within a hundred miles, but you can also see all their showtimes. Back then you looked in the newspaper and saw the showtimes for whatever you wanted to see. That was pretty much the only option. Now I can only remember seeing a few different movies at the theater while it had just the two screens. Also there wasn't any form of pre-show entertainment like there is now. You went in and found your seat and sat in a dimly lit theater staring at that golden curtain for what seemed like forever until the movie started.
One of my favorite parts was the previews that came on before the movie started. Today there are few surprises anymore with a movie's release. At least not for me. Unless you're living under a rock, it's hard to escape the barrage of information that's out there. There are already trailers for movies not slated to be released until winter of next year. In that year there will be multiple trailers, each one showing the same stuff, only edited slightly differently to make sure they have our attention. There will be behind the scenes pictures and interviews with the director and cast. While the movie won't exactly be old news by the time it comes out, the market will have been saturated. The marketing people hope that the hype will put us into a frenzy so that we don't mind dropping $10 for a movie ticket about giant robots or a talking dog. Anyway back then a movie preview was how most people got to see what was coming out. There weren't a dozen movie sites that spent their every waking moment trying to gather as much information as possible. So the preview would be something of a surprise because in most cases you didn't see it coming. In some cases the previews for upcoming movies were as exciting as the movie you paid to see.
I honestly don't remember what the first movie I saw in the theater was. I'd like to believe it was The Empire Strikes Back, but I would have been too young to remember any of that. I do remember though my father took me to see The Fox and the Hound. It's hard to remember what prompted the whole thing, but it was just my dad and me that went to see it. For a long time that movie was my favorite Disney movie simply for the fact that my dad took me to see it in the theater. Another one of those back then things. When a movie left the theater it went into some sort of limbo because you couldn't just add it to your Netflix queue or download a copy directly to your computer. Plus with Disney movies they had a tendency to put them in what they called the Vault. I watched that movie one time in probably twenty years so all I had was the memory. A couple years after that my mom and I were riding the bus home and she dropped the bomb that we would be going to see Return of the Jedi. I nearly went out of my mind with excitement and I remember chattering away about how great it was going to be all the way home. For some reason I was told to keep it quiet from my dad. More special torture from the parents. When the time came to actually see the movie I remember being hooked from the start. I really believed that Luke was in serious trouble when he was about to walk the plank. When he flipped over the bad guy and grabbed his lightsaber I think my brain short circuited a little bit. I would be hard pressed to tell you other significant memories from that year, but that time in the theater with my mom has stayed with me for nearly thirty years. Recently I made a point to go watch the live action GI Joe movie with my brother. I knew it would be awful. He knew it would be awful. We knew this and yet we paid ticket price because we wanted to sit in the theater together and revel in its awfulness. I couldn't tell you what the plot was, but I will remember staring at the screen and groaning at the sheer stupidity of it all and enjoying it because my brother was next to me.
For me many movies are a kind of marker for my memories. I remember going to see the live action Flintstones movies with friends in high school. The reason I remember that movie is because before leaving for the theater I had asked a girl that I liked if she wanted to come along. She could meet us there if she wanted and my friends and I headed out. Along the way we changed the movie time and went to a different showing. It didn't even occur to me that I was essentially standing her up. When we finally went on our first date I remember the movie we went to see and bought it on DVD because it reminds me of that moment in time.
Movies are all about imagination. Sure movies are made to make money and hopefully entertain, but if they had to choose, it seems like they'll go with the former rather than the latter. Not every movie can be Citizen Kane. When I was in high school I worked at the local video store and got to see just how many terrible movies were put out on a weekly basis. For a long time I wondered why this was allowed. Why spend millions of dollars on a movie that's going to wind up on the bottom shelf of Action/Adventure section? Then I realized that the people involved in those movies are just like us. They need to work. If you're working in your dream job then count yourself lucky. Most people are willing to accept whatever work helps pays the bills. If you're really fortunate you'll find a job that you can be passionate about. Most of the time though you accept the role in the movie Transmorphers 3: Revenge of the Changebots, just so you can say you're a working actor. They star in those movies in hopes that someone will notice them. It happened on the set of Leprechaun for one actress and she's gotten pretty famous since that terrible low budget movie. So while I still won't watch most of the movies that are released, I at least understand why they're being made.
Right now things are in kind of a transition period for movies. Much like what happened with music, it's becoming easier for people to get things directly rather than having to go out and find them. If you wanted to hear a new song by a band you liked, you listened to the radio or you bought their album. Sure someone could make a tape for you, but that was about it. These days you could ask ten people when they bought their last CD and a good portion of them would probably say they don't remember. That doesn't mean their music listening has gone down in anyway. They're just finding other ways to get to what they want without going the traditional route. Movies are starting to get into that realm as well. Today there are instant queues. There are movies being released to On-Demand services the same day they come out to theaters. Plus if you wanted you could go to your favorite torrent website and search for just about anything. Don't get me wrong, I like that we can watch trailers on our computers. We can get nearly anything on DVD. You don't even need to go to the theater anymore. You can watch everything on your computer, sometimes before it's even left the theater. For me though going to the theater is part of the experience. While I like watching a movie on my computer, it's not even close to the same feeling I get from going to the theater to see something for the first time. For me that's something I don't want to give up for the convenience of staying home.
