Saturday, January 15, 2011
Movies of my Generation Part 1
10:39 AM | 
Posted by
Lady Gray |
I supposed hundreds of years ago, before film was the all encompassing medium it is today, people defined their generation by the books that people identify with a specific period of their life. I could likely come up with a list of books that influenced me during that key point of my life, but we’ll save that for a later post.
This idea struck me recently, during the inventory of possessions that precedes impending nuptials. We quickly discovered, we simply had too much stuff. Or rather, as Mr. Gray would put it, I have too much stuff. Two of everything, to be precise. As neither of us easily absconds with recently purchased wares, we had to decide what we were willing to part with. Amongst many things, my smaller dining room set was the first to go. Remembering a good bachelor friend of mine whose apartment lacked this (in my mind) necessity. I gave him a call and offered him first dibs.
In our humorous attempt to quickly break down the set and pack it into his 5 Door M3, I made the discovery that he had never seen a single movie in the Terminator franchise. As Mr. Gray and I routinely stop and watch these films ANYTIME they are on television, this absolutely floored me. I grew up with the edited-for-cable versions of 1 and 2 and being a former resident of the Golden State, held a special place in my heart for the Governator and his films.
This discovery spurred a longer discussion on the movies that colored my childhood and adolescence. Conversations such as this I have held before, and this is not the first moment I have encountered someone of my age group being unfamiliar with a film I could almost recite from memory. Looking back on this conversation I thought it pertinent to create a working list of films I watched over and over in those formative years and to get input from others on their lists as well. Here is my number one:
This is first and foremost on my list for many reasons. Least of all being that any given day, if I discover this is on, I will drop what I am doing and watch it. Like the others on this list, I couldn’t tell you how many times I have seen this movie. But the numbers in the end don’t matter. Goonies is MAGICAL to me. Even as I approach the third decade of my life I fondly remember begging my father every week to rent it from the local Blockbuster. Looking back I don’t know why we didn’t just purchase it on VHS. I few years back I obtained the DVD for my own collection. Part nostalgia and part a desire to give my future children the opportunity to see a movie that shaped my childhood.
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| Courtesy of IMDB |
After finishing college I went into the substitute teaching corps for LBUSD. I frequently accepted assignments at a Middle School that had faculty and kids I loved. After being offered a two week end of year position to cover the class of a science teacher about to give birth to her first child, I saw an opportunity to have the freedom to plan my own class sessions for the very first time. As it was the end of the year and the grades were mostly complete, I could create lessons that were relaxed and fun for the kids I so adored. After a silly documentary on the Australian Cane Toad I opted to give the kids a break for the last two days. Goonies it was!
To my surprise, not a single student in ANY of my classes had seen or even heard of it. At around 23, I was 8-10 years older, but that’s hardly a different generation, right? I discovered that in these dynamic times, 5 years is an eternity. I have found I have more in common with my parents when it comes to movies, then kids born a mere six or seven years after me! Blown away that such a great movie that incidentally came out the year of my birth and featured actors anywhere from 15 to 25 years older than me could still attract those my age, I couldn’t believe that it didn’t stand the test of time as other classics did.
Coming next? You tell me what movies you watched over and over and I’ll highlight them!
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