One thing that I’ve noticed reviewing
movies over the years, is when you see anywhere from 60 to 100 movies in one
year you have a tendency to get very critical of the films you see. Sometimes if something isn’t “Citizen Kane”
you can tend to put it in the class of 'bad' movie. This
can be unfair to movies that have a much different agenda than trying to be on AFI’s top
films of all time. Some just look to entertain you for a couple of hours, or to
share an escape of reality with a group of strangers in the dark. Ok, that sounded better in my head, but you
get the idea. There’s something about
watching films together in a group or with someone who feels the same way about movies, and the movie-going experience as you do.
It’s as
though I sometimes find myself looking more for the silent connections with who I see the
movie with rather than the movie itself. A
shared moment with someone who is seeing what I’m seeing for the first
time. Or in the case of “Return of the
Jedi” in 1983 with my cousin on Christmas day watching the film together for
the third time. I live for those occasions
where I can share a movie with someone, and this year I was able have those
moments several times with my children.
There were
the usual movies I took them to where it was solely to entertain them, movies
like “Epic”, Monsters Univeristy”, “Smurfs” and “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
2”. Then there were the two great
animated films of the year in “Turbo” and “Frozen” where both my children and I
were transported to someplace special, and most importantly, together.
I can remember
standing in line for an hour with my dad to see “Rocky IV” at the Northwest
Theater in 1985. The anticipation and eventual joy
of watching Rocky Balboa beat the giant Russian, and afterwards my dad taking
me to Montgomery Wards to get the official “Rocky IV” t-shirt. That was pretty much a whole day spent together
that started with the sharing of a movie, and what was created was a memory
that will be with me forever.
My two
favorite movie-going experiences this year involved me seeing “Iron Man 3” and “Man
of Steel” with my son. Growing up loving
comic books and all things superhero, now almost 40 years later sharing with my
son the origin of the last son of Kyrpton and the further adventures of his favorite
Avenger, these are the reasons I love going to the movies now. To see the wonder in his eyes when he sees Superman
take flight for the first time, or when Tony Stark’s 42 Iron Men come to
the rescue. It’s the look I’m sure I had
when Darth Vader saved Luke, or when Michael Keaton uttered the immortal words “I’m
Batman”. These are the moments I look
for now as a father, I want my kids to have their Star Wars moments, or seeing
a future Disney classic that will eventually live in the DVD player for weeks and weeks after it's bought,
because it’s worth seeing over and over again.
It’s not
something that many people understand, I mean they are just movies, it’s
all fiction and none of it is real. And
yeah they’re predictable storylines with guys in silly capes and red boots, but
there is something amazing about what we share, and it’s rarely able to be put
into words, but it is real and it is important.
To me it’s essential to a young life and the life of a family that it
continues, both now and for the generations to come.
--Robert L.
Castillo
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