Let's Go to the Movies

I love a good story. Since we have no cultural equivalent of the fireside shaman telling stories to the tribe, we must rely on movies.

I love movies. My wife, daughter, and I have quite a collection. I am not sure of their motives, but I love a really good story that excites my imagination and takes me away from it all for just a little while.

I am drawn to the dark heroes, Batman, the Punisher, Boondock Saints. I love the stories of the vigilante, taking justice into his own hands, making things right for others by punishing those that do evil. There are times when I see injustice that I'd like to be one of those guys.

Then, there are my favorites; I love the sweeping epics, great battles with heroes who give their lives for something greater than themselves, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, Last of the Mohicans, and theThree Musketeers. Hollywood doesn't do enough of these.

I crave stories of redemption like the Road to Perdition, Pulp Fiction, 3:10 to Yuma, The Unforgiven, Terminator 1 & 2 and the Count De Monte Cristo. These type of stories really hit at the heart of the human condition, sinners searching for atonement.

This leads to the darker side. I really enjoy the Anti-heroes, the guys you cheer on though they are really scoundrels, such as Payback, Oceans 11, Maverick, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Sometimes it's fun when the bad guys win, especially when it is other bad guys they are beating out.

Sometimes, I need tales of harsh reality that fit my darker moods, movies like Falling Down, Lord of War, Beyond the Gates, and the City of Joy. I have to be in the mood for these. Sometimes, working in ministry, movies are just a little too real and hit close to home, so I mostly avoid things that pluck too forcefully on the heartstrings.

The new stock of Irreverent Fairy Tales – Shrek, Ella Enchanted, and Hoodwinked are more along my lines than the old Cinderella and Snow White stuff that I get to watch with my daughter.

Also, I am a guy, so there is always a place for the gratuitous destruction and non-stop action of Die Hard (the whole series), Mission Impossible (also the whole series), Conan, and Desperado. There is a line from a movie called, Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human, where the alien observer notes that human women seem to like movies where one person dies really slowly and human men seem to like movies where a lot of people die really quickly.

And finally, let us not forget those movies with no redeeming value except laughter – Blazing Saddles, Dumb & Dumber, Operation Petticoat, Rocket Man and the entire Bob Hope/Bing Crosby On the Road series of movies.

With all of that said, my favorite movie of all time contains the best of all of those characteristics: The Princess Bride.

If you were expecting some deeper message in this post, there isn’t one. I just wanted to talk about movies.