Movies and Me
I've been a movie freak since...well, since birth, it seems like. I fell in love early with the power of film to transport you to another place, to tell amazing stories and charge your emotions and give you a thrill ride like nothing else in the world. Some of my earliest memories are of taking trips to the drive-in movie with my mom, dad and sister, which always felt like a big magical event. Dad cranking the window up on that crappy speaker and turning it up (how did we ever put up with seeing films in really bad mono back in the day?), Mom handing out the sodas and candy. And the excitement when whatever that big movie was--usually something animated back in those days for us--popped up on the screen, that rectangle of colorful light in front of a bed of stars. Not all the trips there were family-friendly. I clearly remember being five years old and having my mother and sister out of town, and my father took me to the drive-in to see Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles. Being five, about all I took away from it was the campfire scene. At five, that's about as developed as your sense of humor is.
And I spent a lot of those early years watching movies on TV, too. Lots of John Wayne movies. Loved The Cowboys, and I watched it every time it came on. And Rio Bravo. And North To Alaska. And I first encountered the early comedy masters, too, watching old 60s (well, at this time, in the 70s, the 60s weren't that old...) films of Jack Lemmon, and the Martin and Lewis films. I was mesmerized by Charlton Heston movies like The Omega Man and Planet of the Apes. My sister and I would watch the family films, obsessed with movies like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Willy Wonka, and other Disney-type fare.
I don't remember really starting with movie theaters until I was about 8 or 9. This was when we were living in Auburn, CA in the late 1970s. We had one theater in that town, and I ended up spending a lot of time there, though it was one of those one-screen theaters that showed one film at a time or a (joy!) double feature.. The quality of the movies varied, certainly not all blockbusters. I remember seeing some of the early Ron Howard drive-in movies there, like Eat My Dust and Grand Theft Auto. I also saw my first film with an intermission there. It was the 70s remake of King Kong. Now, sure, you can laugh, and you probably (if you even saw it) think it's really lame, but to me, as a young boy, this was one of the greatest adventure films I'd ever seen. What a spectacle! The manly and roguish hippie Jeff Bridges, the beautiful and really issue-stricken Jessica Lange. And a guy in a monkey suit. And then, in the middle of it, the film stopped and the intermission slide came up, and everyone started to get up and walk to the lobby. Not understanding, and remembering the sign on the marquee outside that said "Exclusive 4 Week Engagement", I asked my mother, as we stepped into the lobby, if that meant we had to come back every week for four weeks to see the whole movie.
My biggest moment at that theater, though, was when Star Wars hit town. You young folk can read about it in the history books now, but for those of us who were there to experience it for the first time, that film that did things no movie had done before, and that electrified the entire nation (and the world). It was life-changing. Well, for me it was, at least. I saw it at the perfect age. It was like my imagination had just hit puberty.
Also during that period of time, we sort of got cable. We moved into a house with this real crap cable system, almost a sort of pay-per-view, but the channels were always on. And they'd only show 2 movies a month. They'd just show them over and over again. So, of course, I'd watch them over and over. This is how I managed to see Jaws, Airport '77, The Deep, and Little Darlings so many times. Remember that age, when it didn't matter if you'd just seen a movie you loved end...you'd just start watching it right over again? This is the theory that brings peace to so many new parents in this day and age...though while they get a little "me" time, they do get songs from "Aladdin" permanently stuck in their heads as their children watch it for the fortieth time (that week).
I moved to Sacramento in time for the 6th grade, and through this, and through junior high, there were more theater experiences (as, in Sacramento, there were more theaters, and more friends to see movies with). I remember seeing Bond films (like "Moonraker") at the Sunrise Mall theater. It was there I also saw Silver Streak, still one of my favorite all-time films. And there was The Empire Strikes Back, my first experience with showing up and being turned away because a movie was sold out (talk about one of the greatest heartbreaks of my life! Waiting all that time and having to wait a whole day to come back and try again?!). There were a string of films during that period that seemed to just define my childhood. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Superman. Grease. This was the dawn of the blockbuster, and it was an amazing time to be a kid who loved movies.
And there were more TV movies. Back then, in Sacramento, you had the three networks, you had PBS (which no longer had anything to offer me at my age, I felt), and you had your UHF choices of Channel 31 or Channel 40. Channel 31 had promise (some pretty cool cartoons), but Channel 40 ruled. They had all the movies. During the summers, they always had this big film festival, where every night was a big (though outdated) Hollywood movie. In the time before cable came to Sacramento, this was how you saw films, and I got a pretty good education in film history from Channel 40. I saw lots of Clint Eastwood films, from the Dirty Harry flicks to the Gauntlet (the non-Dirty Harry Dirty Harry movie) to the spaghetti westerns to the war movies. I was a big Bronson fan then, too, as you could count on seeing Death Wish at least once a month on Channel 40. I reveled in Westworld, The Warriors, Escape from New York, and even grown-up films like the China Syndrome and Coming Home. I watched most every war movie and western I could find. And just about everything Burt Reynolds did, from Smoky & The Bandit movies to movies like The Longest Yard, because this was, after all, the age of Burt.
High school offered a mix of experiences. During the year, I'd see movies with my guys, but holidays and summers I'd be down in L.A. staying with my father, as my folks were divorced. And one of the things we seemed to do a lot of together was see movies. And I'd get to see lots of "PG" and "R" movies this way, too ("PG-13" would actually come into being as a rating during my high school years, all thanks to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, strangely enough), which was cool. I'll never forget seeing 48 hours and Beverly Hills Cop with my father at that big one-screen theater in Costa Mesa, back when Eddie Murphy took over Hollywood. Since we'd be seeing films he wanted to see, too, I'd get a good mix. I saw Tootsie with him. Private Benjamin. The World According to Garp. Trading Places. Class. The Natural. The Flamingo Kid. When we weren't at the theater, we'd often by watching some movie on cable at his apartment. My father and I didn't have much in common (much that was good, anyway...we managed to have medical problems in common), but movies were definitely the main thing that brought us together. And during the daytimes of those summers in L.A., when Dad was at work, my sister and I would often walk up to the local mall theater and catch films. Often bad ones, probably because we knew these were the ones Dad was (in retrospect) too smart to see. I saw Megaforce and Spacehunter this way (ugh). Hey, but at least I did get to see Bachelor Party like this. I assume we got in because my sister looked 18 since she was, like, 10.
With the guys? Lots of geek fare (Star Trek films, Bond movies, the Terminator, Ladyhawke), and full-on adolescent softcore. We did our share of theater swapping to get into the "R" films to check out some flesh. I remember us seeing Zapped, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Hot Dog the Movie, Spring Break...pretty much anything that promised boobs. Or guns. The Rambo movies were really big for us (and now I can't even watching any but the first...how did I love these so much? Rambo is one of the worst movies I've ever seen!). But amongst all the puberty schlock, there was one shining moment, certainly the stand-out theater moment of my lifetime. That was going opening night to see Return of the Jedi. I can never imagine another theater experience being like this. An event like no other. The end (or so we thought...would that we had been right) of the Star Wars trilogy. I remember the long line, finally getting in. I remember that no one wanted to leave their seats for fear of losing them, and, planning ahead for this, ushers were coming up and down the aisle selling drinks, candy and popcorn. Oh, man. The explosion of the crowd when the Fox fanfare came on. That hush during the epic finale between Luke and Darth, knowing you were a part of movie history at that moment. The standing ovation at the end. When I look back now, that night was the end of an era for me. That was really the end of my childhood, as Star Wars films had encompassed those years. Nothing was the same from then on.
As I got further into high school, two things happened. First, I got a VCR one Christmas. My own VCR. And unlike at my best friend Tim's house where what we watched was scrutinized (the gall of some parents!)? We could pretty much watch whatever we rented at my place. And we rented everything in those days. Video stores were still new, still little mom and pop places, and there were no big chains of them in every strip mall. We rented guy movies, of course, checking out Tarzan the Ape Man with Bo Derek (THERE's a fine piece of film) and movies like Hardbodies and Porky's. And action stuff, like Firefox and Alien and Conan, and all the bad Chuck Norris flicks. Spy movies and cold war movies were real big during the 80s (since it was still the cold war) and we loved Gorky Park and Red Dawn. Oh, and I would eventually get cable along the way, too, which led to memorable group viewings of cult classics like Heavy Metal and Kentucky Fried Movie (the latter of which we must have watched 50 times and laughed ourselves silly every viewing).
The second thing was that movies became social. It was no longer something for you and the dudes to do because you couldn't talk to girls. It was about going to the movies with the girls. While there wasn't a lot of just me and a girl (though I did take Jennifer Rau to both Flashdance and St. Elmos Fire), there were plenty of group movie trips every weekend. Boy, did we see a lot of the big 80s movies that way. Back to the Future. Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and all the great John Hughes films of the era. Aliens. Back to School. About Last Night. White Nights. Whatever was playing that looked half-good was an excuse to get everyone together, and the evening would go from there. And there were the midnight movies, which was mostly a guy thing (or at least not something you took the good girls too). We'd load up our trench coats with wine coolers and head into midnight classics like Re-Animator and Nightmare On Elm Street.
It was after high school, though, when I became full-on movie obsessed, I think. This is when I started to realize that I wanted to be involved in film. Initially I wanted to be a director (who doesn't), and I watched everything I could get my eyes on. I had good cable, finally, after high school, and was always either watching a film by myself or with my friends who'd drop by at strange hours (usually Jon or Kevin). That was a period of time in my life where I pretty much knew every film out, could name almost any actor, and was well-versed on what was upcoming in film since I read lots of industry mags like Premiere. I really didn't have much of a genre restriction then. I'd see most every kind of film. I'd see the big action stuff, like Die Hard (probably the second most memorable theater experience I've had) and Lethal Weapon and the other greats of late 80s--and this was a time when films like these were redefining the action genre. I loved the comedies of the time, like Beetlejuice and A Fish Called Wanda. I enjoyed the more "adult" comedies like Broadcast News and Bull Durham. I fell in love with drama, too, during that time, through films like Rain Man, Dangerous Liaisons, Dead Poets Society and Casualties of War. I started reveling in the art of film and discussing and debating the films of Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton. I mean, there really wasn't a movie I didn't see--I just happened to look over at IMDB and did a check of the top 100 movies of 1989, and I literally found just a small handful that I didn't see during that time. Movies were my life, and thankfully, I was surrounded by a bunch of very creative friends who felt the same way.
After I got out of junior college and moved on to a real four-year college, I wanted to find my way into the business. The closest you could come to a film degree at Sac State was a communications degree in media, so that's where I started. The two best parts of that time were my screenwriting class, where I first learned the craft of the 3-act format, and my contemporary American films class, where I wrote many papers critically analyzing modern films like Prince of the City, Something Wild and Broadway Danny Rose. Between the two, I learned so much about what goes into a film. My screenwriting professor, a (possibly literally) crazy Viet Nam P.O.W. with one eye who worked for a time on the writing staff of MacGyver (among others), was a real inspiration, and taught me a lot. I think there was actually less film watching during this time, oddly, because my social life and time with my friends had died down a lot because of my studies. But I did fall in with a group of fellow students for a while, and we'd go see and analyze films together. We had a revival theater in Sacramento then, The Crest, and I'd see classic films there, like when I first discovered Citizen Kane, and got to see films like Ben Hur and 2001 on the big screen the way they were meant to be seen. Ah, but I do remember a moment during that time that reminded me that, though I was among people who discussed the art of film and drooled over foreign cinema, I was always a movie fan at heart. I'd seen the movie Backdraft with a couple of other friends, and my British film friend had asked me about it. Without too much discussion, I simply said it was great, and I must have been convincing, because he went out that weekend and saw it. And came back and said it was horrible! That's when I really understood the distinction between movies and films. And while I love both, I will never get too full of myself to be able to enjoy a good popcorn movie. Movies are what I was raised on, and are still what I love.
Things would change soon after. The death of my father was a big part of this. I dropped out of school, tried to go back, then dropped out for good when I realized I didn't know where my life was going. I also found religion during this time and was doing a great deal of soul-searching, and movies just didn't seem that important anymore. In fact, for a chunk of time there, I gave up on movies and television all together. Strange for someone so obsessed with them, I know. But, as I said, I had a lot bigger issues on my mind. It was during this time that I met and fell in love with Emily, a Mormon girl, and ended up moving to Arizona to be near her. She was a big movie fan, and this got me back into watching movies...though usually more of the PG films then, since I was essentially living as a Mormon and they've got that whole "No 'R' Movies" thing going. Which was fine. We didn't always stick to this rule (shh! Don't tell her mother!), but we did for the most part. Big cinema memories for me in Arizona were all about Harkins Theaters, the big chain there owned by Dan Harkins, a man who, during this era just before stadium theaters, believed in customer service and provided the best theater-going experience for the public. Great theaters around Scottsdale and Tempe. On the big one-screener (biggest screen in Arizona), I saw Braveheart, The Shawshank Redemption and The Hudsucker Proxy. When Jurassic Park came out, the first film with digital sound, I saw it at a Harkins Theater fully decked with the new DTS system. And when that T-Rex roared for the first time, the theater shook, and I was terrified. Actually feeling fear! I couldn't remember the last time that had happened to me in a film! I loved it! I saw films that the time that actually bored Emily but stunned me, like Remains of the Day and The Age of Innocence. We, along with the rest of the world, were captivated by Forrest Gump, and on one Valentine's Day (our last), I took her to see what would become one of my favorite independent films, Before Sunrise.
After the big break-up, it was back to Sacramento, and back into Guy Life. I was living with a bunch of friends of mine, and after almost 3 years of being relationship guy, I was a dude again. And this meant dude movies. Relationship films were pretty much gone, and after just ending a relationship? It was a good time for a break. We'd see films like From Dusk 'Till Dawn and Goldeneye, Desperado and The Rock. And we'd see a lot of movies on video. Friends of ours, working for Tower Records/Video, were always able to get their hands on tapes and screeners. One New Year's Day, I discovered Trainspotting for the first time, and finally understood why our roommate A.T. has put a huge Trainspotting poster on our dining room wall. I discovered Swingers, and have been sharing it with people ever since. There were still theater trips. The night before our roommate A.T.'s wedding, the groomsmen, the groom (his idea) and even the guy performing the ceremony all went out and caught Starship Troopers on its opening night. My roommate Aaron and I, big Branagh fans, waited and waited for Hamlet to get its national release, and saw it at the Sacramento art house theater, The Tower Theater. Another intermission film. A film worth every minute. On a Christmas day just before I moved to San Diego, Aaron and I decided we'd catch the opening day of Jackie Brown, the long awaited next Quentin Tarantino film. We almost didn't get in. After all our waiting that morning, the ticket booth guy said the machine that spit out the tickets wasn't working. They finally got it working, and we loved every frame of that film. A great way to spend a Christmas Day, I felt, and it was also my last movie in Sacramento.
Enter San Diego. A new place, a new life, a new movie group. It was still my roommate Aaron and I, but our friend Russ, a fellow movie freak, was added to the mix. We saw films, we knew films, we talked an scrutinized films endlessly. We all had jobs and lives, so we weren't exactly rushing to the theater every night of the week. Films became more events. We'd plan ahead for the big movies and go, like the new Star Wars movies, Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator. I saw other films with work friends as well, mostly of the variety that I wouldn't normally see with my heavily "man movie" group. I remember especially the experience of seeing The Blair Witch Project. This was a phenomenon that was exciting to be a part of. This was the first film that really sold on its internet hype and its web page (which reported "real" police info on the "actual" disappearances of the student filmmakers)...a genius piece of independent film, a film about an urban legend that created its own urban legend. I saw the film at a sneak preview 2 weeks before its main release, and half the people in the theater thought, based on the flying rumors they'd heard, that it was all true, and real footage. I envied them. They were terrified, and scared in a way no movie score or special effects could make. This was a true horror movie at its most basic. And I started seeing movies by myself, too, something I couldn't have imagined back in my high school and college days, since I'd always seen moviegoing as more of a social thing. Now, a little older, I was really there to see the film, and wasn't so concerned about looking like some sad guy that didn't have anyone to go with. In fact, not long after moving to San Diego, I started an annual birthday tradition. I always take my birthday off, and I always spend my birthday in the movie theater. I see at least three films, sometimes four, if there are four out there worth seeing. That's the one day of the year I really feel like a film fan again.
But something import happened to my film watching once I moved to San Diego, too. I took my tax return one year, and I bought my first DVD player, feeling that I was long overdue. Oh, man, was I. Finally, not only was I guaranteed to get the film in letterbox (I'd spent the past two or three years scouring the video stores for any VHS tapes that were available in widescreen format, and there just weren't enough), but the picture quality was outstanding, the sound amazing, and all the extra features thrown on were things I could only have dreamed of having back during my film student days. I was hooked. My DVD collection quickly outgrew the rack I had for them, and it started to become a competition between me and Russ to see who'd have more, who'd get that new one that was just released. Having DVD as an option brought back the joy of rental, once Blockbuster grew from a pitiful two rows of DVD choices to half the store. The best thing about all the features and filmmaker commentaries was how they inspired me, again, to create, to want to be a part of that business. And I'm still trying, though my time is much shorter these days and there are more responsibilities in the way of the dreams. There are a number of screenplays started...and one of these days, I may actually get one finished.
While I'm not the film junkie I once was--I find when the Academy Awards come around that I seem to have missed most, if not all, of the films nominated--movies are still a big part of my life. I find that, knowing so much of the process from years of studying, of training in screenwriting and analysis, and of just plain watching so many movies, that I'm a bit overcritical and a bit jaded. I'm often amazed that with so many examples out there of how to screw up a film, Hollywood tends to keep cranking out the same old films with the same old mistakes. But every once in a while, there's hope. For every Armageddon, there's a Rounders, or a Boogie Nights, or a Usual Suspects, or a Sixth Sense. And that makes it mean so much more when someone gets it right, when someone out there is making films who grew up like I did, sitting at the drive-in or at that theater, seeing those stories as magical, living things, treating them and the audience with the respect both deserve. The great thing about film is that the next revolution is always waiting right around the corner, and you never know what's coming next. I don't think I'll ever give up on movies. They've always been there for me, and I'll probably always be there for them.
