Ever since this blog was started, I've written off and on about my love of movies. Some of my earliest childhood memories involve going to see movies with my family, in those days usually at a drive-in theater. The movie I remember most clearly from childhood was Shane with Alan Ladd and Van Heflin. That was released in 1953, so I'd have been just starting school. I think the thing that grabbed me about Shane was the final scene when Alan Ladd, having settled the worst of the community's problems, rides off toward the horizon, and Brandon De Wilde, the little boy who idolizes him, is calling after him to come back. Since Brandon De Wilde looked to be roughly my age at the time (though he was actually about 10 or 11), I could relate to his state of mind. As it turned out, I've outlived Brandon, who died in the early 1970s.
The other thing that got my attention was Jack Palance, who played the hired gunfighter and principal badass. Back then, I thought Jack Palance was the ugliest, scariest-looking man I'd ever seen. Remember, I was only about 6 years old. A few years later, maybe 1956-57, my mom took us kids to see Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. In that movie, one of the villains plotting an assassination is played by Reggie Nalder. This guy made Jack Palance look like Paul Newman by comparison. The first time he appeared on screen, my blood ran cold. Damn, that guy scared the crap outta me.
Anyway, those are some early movie memories. I don't know how frequently my parents took us to the picture show, but it seems like it was fairly often, looking back. The last movie I saw with my dad was Hud, starring Paul Newman, about 1963. Coincidentally, Brandon De Wilde was also in that one, playing Hud's nephew and again, a youngster looking up to and admiring a man old enough to be his father. For its day, Hud was pretty racy stuff, with some salty dialogue, adultery, and one attempted rape. After I saw the movie, I took an interest in Larry McMurtry and have read a few of his books over the years, with others on the shelf waiting to be read. Hud was one of the first movies I saw where the main character was more or less a sumbitch as opposed to a "good guy." Later, there'd be more movies like that.
By the time I reached junior high, I was in love with movies and old enough to see them alone. I spent many weekend afternoons riding my bike several miles to the nearest indoor theaters, and sometimes, I'd even go to a drive-in at night on my bike. The drive-in, called the Skyway, had an enclosed viewing area adjoining the snack bar, and it was there I first watched one of my all-time favorite movies, One Eyed Jacks with Marlon Brando, Ben Johnson, and the great Slim Pickens. I've seen that movie about ten times, and now that I have the DVD, will see it many more. Brando won me over with that film.
As I got older, going to the movies became more of a shared experience again, with my highschool and college buddies replacing my parents and sisters. When I was lucky enough to have a girlfriend, most of my dates were movie dates. I remember taking a girl I was nuts about to see Shenandoah, and getting all teary and choked up during a scene near the end when Jimmy Stewart is at his departed wife's gravesite, telling her about the family tragedies that have occurred during the movie. Those were the days before it was sexy to be a sensitive male.
Last night, ABC carried the 80th annual Academy Awards show. As I've done most years, I watched from beginning to end. If I recall correctly, the first Oscar telecast I saw was before we had color TV.
When I watched the Oscars in the 1960s and 1970s, I had usually seen most of the movies nominated for the major awards, and had a rooting interest in pulling for my favorites. As I got older, and moved into the married-with-children stage of my life, I saw fewer and fewer movies because it was just too much hassle to take the munchkins to a theater, and by that time, the drive-ins were becoming obsolete. As a result, most of the nominees were pictures I hadn't seen and expected I probably never would.
Now that we're in the era of DVD technology, I'm generally able to buy the Oscar-nominated movies that look interesting, but I usually will not have seen them by the time the awards are presented. A significant section of my DVD collection consists of older movies that were unseen Oscar nominees in their day (e.g., Raging Bull, Ordinary People, L.A. Confidential, Crash, Million Dollar Baby, The Departed, etc.)
For various reasons, I didn't see many movies at the theater last year. But the one I did see, No Country For Old Men, easily fit onto my Twenty Favorite Movies of All Time list. I was rooting for it to win every category in which it was nominated, and it did capture some big ones (Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, and Adapted Screenplay). I thought Tommy Lee Jones was Oscar-worthy for No Country, but he was nominated for a different part.
Some of the nominated movies I haven't seen but will buy on DVD: Atonement, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, In The Valley of Elah, The Savages, Into the Wild, No End In Sight, Taxi To The Dark Side, and Charlie Wilson's War. That's a lot to look forward to.
The other thing that got my attention was Jack Palance, who played the hired gunfighter and principal badass. Back then, I thought Jack Palance was the ugliest, scariest-looking man I'd ever seen. Remember, I was only about 6 years old. A few years later, maybe 1956-57, my mom took us kids to see Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. In that movie, one of the villains plotting an assassination is played by Reggie Nalder. This guy made Jack Palance look like Paul Newman by comparison. The first time he appeared on screen, my blood ran cold. Damn, that guy scared the crap outta me.
Anyway, those are some early movie memories. I don't know how frequently my parents took us to the picture show, but it seems like it was fairly often, looking back. The last movie I saw with my dad was Hud, starring Paul Newman, about 1963. Coincidentally, Brandon De Wilde was also in that one, playing Hud's nephew and again, a youngster looking up to and admiring a man old enough to be his father. For its day, Hud was pretty racy stuff, with some salty dialogue, adultery, and one attempted rape. After I saw the movie, I took an interest in Larry McMurtry and have read a few of his books over the years, with others on the shelf waiting to be read. Hud was one of the first movies I saw where the main character was more or less a sumbitch as opposed to a "good guy." Later, there'd be more movies like that.
By the time I reached junior high, I was in love with movies and old enough to see them alone. I spent many weekend afternoons riding my bike several miles to the nearest indoor theaters, and sometimes, I'd even go to a drive-in at night on my bike. The drive-in, called the Skyway, had an enclosed viewing area adjoining the snack bar, and it was there I first watched one of my all-time favorite movies, One Eyed Jacks with Marlon Brando, Ben Johnson, and the great Slim Pickens. I've seen that movie about ten times, and now that I have the DVD, will see it many more. Brando won me over with that film.
As I got older, going to the movies became more of a shared experience again, with my highschool and college buddies replacing my parents and sisters. When I was lucky enough to have a girlfriend, most of my dates were movie dates. I remember taking a girl I was nuts about to see Shenandoah, and getting all teary and choked up during a scene near the end when Jimmy Stewart is at his departed wife's gravesite, telling her about the family tragedies that have occurred during the movie. Those were the days before it was sexy to be a sensitive male.
Last night, ABC carried the 80th annual Academy Awards show. As I've done most years, I watched from beginning to end. If I recall correctly, the first Oscar telecast I saw was before we had color TV.
When I watched the Oscars in the 1960s and 1970s, I had usually seen most of the movies nominated for the major awards, and had a rooting interest in pulling for my favorites. As I got older, and moved into the married-with-children stage of my life, I saw fewer and fewer movies because it was just too much hassle to take the munchkins to a theater, and by that time, the drive-ins were becoming obsolete. As a result, most of the nominees were pictures I hadn't seen and expected I probably never would.
Now that we're in the era of DVD technology, I'm generally able to buy the Oscar-nominated movies that look interesting, but I usually will not have seen them by the time the awards are presented. A significant section of my DVD collection consists of older movies that were unseen Oscar nominees in their day (e.g., Raging Bull, Ordinary People, L.A. Confidential, Crash, Million Dollar Baby, The Departed, etc.)
For various reasons, I didn't see many movies at the theater last year. But the one I did see, No Country For Old Men, easily fit onto my Twenty Favorite Movies of All Time list. I was rooting for it to win every category in which it was nominated, and it did capture some big ones (Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, and Adapted Screenplay). I thought Tommy Lee Jones was Oscar-worthy for No Country, but he was nominated for a different part.
Some of the nominated movies I haven't seen but will buy on DVD: Atonement, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, In The Valley of Elah, The Savages, Into the Wild, No End In Sight, Taxi To The Dark Side, and Charlie Wilson's War. That's a lot to look forward to.
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