A Few Thoughts About Movies

I went to the movies twice this week and Amy is out seeing one now. I decided to take the Friday Fragment/Freewrite section to tell you a few things I like about movies.



I like watching movies with groups of people.

There is a dynamic of watching a movie with lots of people. The jokes seem funnier when you hear other people laughing at them. If it is an especially powerful film, watching the movie together adds an extra amount of poignancy to it.

I like watching movies I enjoy with people who have not seen it before.

On Monday I biked about 16 miles round trip to watch a movie at a neighboring town's library. It was the original version of 12 Angry Men. There were between 20-40 people there and about a third of them had not seen it before. It was very interesting for me to hear some of the other's watching it for the first time. They seemed to enjoy all the moments that I love about the film which enhanced my experience. At an important part of the film when they are doing a roll call of guilty or not guilty. I was counting the not guilty votes as they were being given, when all 12 had responded and before the foreman gave the result, a member of the audience whispered with anticipation in her voice "hey it's 6 to 6!" It felt so good to know that I wasn't the only one counting.

I like watching movies that are older than me.

While many of my favorite films have been made in the past 45 years I really love when I find a good film made earlier than that. Marty is a film that Amy and I have fell in love with since we've been married. It may well be my favorite love story movie of all time. Four of my top 10 movies of all time are pre-1964 (another one was made in 1965).

I sometimes prefer going to the movies alone.

While many people do not like going to see a movie by themselves. I actually quite enjoy it. I think I always have. The first film I remember going to the theatre alone for was Breaking Away when I was in High School. I walked the 4 blocks to our local theatre saw the movie and went home. I had such a spring in my step as I came home. I really like thinking about movies and the best time to think about them is often on the way home.

I seem to have more thoughts about movies than I anticipated. I think I will share more on another occasion. I also would like to do a few movie reviews here in the future. For now let me leave you with a Lucyism and head off to bed.

Tonight when I was putting Lucy's pajamas on I was doing so rather distractedly. Lucy noticed I did not seem happy so she put her face right up to mine and said "You should smile like Me! and gave me the cutest smile you could possibly imagine and I really had no choice but to smile back at her.

For more fragments and free writes head over to Half Past Kissing Time and Ordinary and Awesome.

Next Time: The new school year approacheth!