As I get older, the actors I grew up watching and respecting get younger.
What do I mean by that? Let me explain, at great length. This is a long one folks.
As previously stated, I’ve been watching movies since I was a kid. I didn’t have parents that were into movies however, so I was limited to the Ernest films and The Goonies up until I could go to the video store by myself.
When I could pick my own movies, when I was 14 to about 17, I usually watched things that were current with big name actors in them, but that were also rated 14A or under. My parents are religious, and so anything with sex and violence was pretty much out of reach for me. I watched things like The Ref, Home Alone 2, Romeo and Juliet etc….
I remember in my English classes, my favorite teacher, France Daigle, would play a movie every Friday. We had to answer questions afterward and analyze some of it. So this is when I started really paying attention to movies. There was this little magazine with a crossword in it that we got as well. It was just basic pop culture movie related hints, and I did very well with them. They were fun. I was sort of known as the girl who knew a lot about movies. I remember someone in class being impressed that I knew who Mel Gibson was., instead of knowing him as “the guy in that movie with the blue painted faces.”
It was in Mr. Daigle’s English class that I began my “real” movie education. He introduced me to Alfred Hitchcock by showing “Psycho”. He introduced me to John Malkovich in “Of Mice And Men”. I got to watch real movies, movies that I’d never gotten exposed to because of the limitations I had at home. In a way I’m grateful for that, because I got to experience great movies at an age when I could actually appreciate and understand them. Had I seen “Pulp Fiction” when it came out in 1994, when I was 13 years old, I would never have gotten it. It was way beyond my age range, not only because of the content, but because of the storyline as well. I never would’ve been able to follow the broken story and put together the parts that go, and in what order.
When I was 17, I moved away from home. To the “Big City”. I saw American Beauty. Fight Club. Sleepy Hollow. Sixth Sense. Great movies came out when I was old enough to see them at 18 and 19 years old. After 2 years I wish I could forget, (except for the good movies that is) I met my husband. He and his roommate used to make references to “Pulp Fiction”, which by the time I was 20, I still hadn’t seen. So I picked it up (on VHS, oh my) along with “American History X” to watch at my job. Consider my mind blown. 2 great movies.
I worked nights at a call center, and because we had a TV and VCR, I watched about 3 movies a night. This, along with my husband, began part 2 of my movie self-education.
I got a membership at the local video store, a store I would later become the manager of and meet the best friends I’ve ever had. I watched everything. I got so caught up on movies that had come out in the late 90s, that I sort of ran out of movies I wanted to watch. So I went back. I made lists of the top rated movies of all time I needed to see, all the Oscar winners, movies my favorite actors were in etc….
After a short time I’d seen everything worth seeing. I saw the typical “old movies” everyone has seen. “Casablanca” and “Gone With The Wind”. I saw other ones like “Mildred Pierce” and “Rebecca” and “12 Angry Men” (goosebumps), which aren’t as popular in the mainstream, but so, so good. I discovered Cary Grant, who became my favorite classic actor, and later found out he died on my 6th birthday. I discovered Gene Kelly who became my other favorite. Some of the things he could do simply take my breath away.
Not many movies are readily available to rent, especially if they precede the 70′s and 80′s and aren’t popular, so I’ve kind of started collecting them. Any movie I really want to see but can’t find, I buy. “His Girl Friday” I found for 2$ on DVD. Crazy. My collection ranges from “American Madness”(1932) to “District 9″ (2009), and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I get excited about watching something no one I know has ever even heard of. Do I consider myself a movie snob? Yes, I am. I never went to film school, I never studied anything about it and everything I know comes from the time I spent watching old movies, watching special features, and great channels like TCM.
To go back to my first statement. The older I got, the further back I seemed to be going in time with the movies I saw. Thanks to TCM and online shopping, I’ve been able to see movies I probably never would’ve gotten to see. My curiosity would not allow me to pass up the chance to see a great movie, simply because no current starlets or hunks were in it. I love all movies, not just the ones with explosions, special (story robbing) effects and the hot new guys.
The first time I saw Paul Newman in a movie, I was 16. That movie was “Nobody’s Fool”. He was an old man, and that’s all I ever saw him as. When I was in my mid 20s however, I made my way down a list and rented “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof”. To see Newman and Elizabeth Taylor at their prime is something I don’t think I would ever want to go to my grave having missed out on.
They were spectacular. They were gorgeous. I got older, but Paul Newman had gone back in time to when he was 33 and stunning. Elizabeth Taylor went from being that lady in the perfume adds and in a wheelchair, to just about the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. They gave me goosebumps, and to this day I still get them when I watch the movie. It’s become one of my top 13 of all time, and there it shall remain.
My absolute favorite movie is The Goodbye Girl. It’s one of those movies that not many people have either seen or heard of, so it’s like my very own little treasure. I stumbled on it one day, shortly after having moved into my own apartment for the first time. I was living alone, and I was feeling a little down while flicking through the channels. Suddenly Richard Dreyfuss was on the screen, dramatically throwing his scarf around his neck and telling some woman she wasn’t “the only one who could yell rape, you know” . He had my full attention.
My first Richard Dreyfuss movie was “Mr. Holland’s Opus” when I was 14. At 20, I watched what would become my favorite movie, and he was 30. And funny! I always saw him as a stuffy, grumpy old man. Yet here he was, making me fall in love with him. It was my favorite movie viewing experience. I was alone in my small apartment, with bare walls, and falling in love with a man almost old enough to be my grandfather. Elliot Garfield, his character, is one of my all time favorites. He’s just so funny and adorable.
What prompted this little (ridiculously long) rant? I just watched a mini documentary on TCM (ever continuing my education) and just saw Sidney Poitier in clips from a movie called “Blackboard Jungle”. Wow. It was one of the first movies he made, so you can imagine how young he was. Young, and stunning. I never really thought of him as an attractive man. Because he’s such an icon and a film treasure, and quite a bit older, he’s someone to be admired and revered, not drooled over. I have to admit though, he was quite beautiful.
I’ve seen, and even own, “Lilies Of The Field”. In it he’s in his 30s. The clips I just saw were of a 28 year old Mr. Poitier. Remarkable. Not just because of his physical beauty, but from the little snips of it I saw, he just carried himself in such a way that made him that much more attractive. He has such a presence, as he always does. But having that at 28, and being able to pull that off in that time in history, is simply remarkable.
If you actually made it all the way down these 1400+ words, I thank you. I just wanted to share my little tidbit about how I got to be such an amateur movie connoisseur, and how it never ceases to amaze me what, and who, I can discover by watching classic movies.
I love your “little rant” Sly. I learned even more about you and what makes you tick.