I love movies

I love movies. I have a collection of DVDs that has outgrown my cabinet shelves and yet I continue to collect. While my collection of books is larger, there is something about movies that appeals to me. Although books begin and end my days, they require a little more effort to get involved in than movies. If you ever watch a movie based on a book the movie will usually pale in comparison. However, a movie allows you to see things that sometimes your imagination does not. Film showing the sun setting over the Pacific will never do the real thing justice. If you have never been privileged enough to witness that sunset in person, then a movie can at least give you a sense of what it would be like.
Whether you are a movie buff or just an occasional observer, movies have a way of marking our development as a people. Some movies give us a picture of the past while others show us what the future could look like. Watching historical movies is a great way to entertain kids while teaching them history. Yes, I know that not all historical movies are completely accurate in their depiction of past events or people but better way to learn a little about Mozart, Jesse James, William C. Wallace, or Marie Antoinette than through an entertaining film?
There was a time when I could tell you my top ten favorite movies. However, I have decided that trying to compose this list is impossible in this evolving media. It would be like saying my favorite food is strained peas because I liked them as an infant. What I can tell you is that we all have different reasons for enjoying different types of movies. One of my daughter’s favorite movies was Napoleon Dynamite. I don’t think she really liked the film. I think she just liked the reaction she got from her mother and me when she would make us watch it.
What often makes a movie for me are the lines that are worth quoting long after the movie is gone. Braveheart’s “they may take our lives but they’ll never take our freedom!” is a classic that is often quoted. A round of golf is seldom over without hearing, in a Bill Murray impression, “It’s in the hole!” For me, though, it is often the more obscure lines. My second favorite line in Ghostbusters is, “Listen… You smell something?” Then there are lines that are even more obscure that only have meaning when uttered amongst your closest friends. My friend and old college roommate Steve and I hardly let a conversation end without recalling a line such as “Let's go out dancing! You put on your black dress, and I'll go shave my tongue.”
When you feel the weight of the world pressing down on you try popping in a DVD and escape for 118 minutes or so. For those of you who think this is silly, “frankly my dear…”