Friday, June 17, 2005

The power and beauty of film

You'll have to pardon me for a moment as I indulge in some probably self-righteous expounding on, as the title suggests, the power and beauty of film.

Tonight, I was watching one of my favorite movies of all time with my parents because my father had only seen it once on an airplane with the sound off. He remained convinced that he had gotten the gist of it, whereas I insisted that he needed to see it for real. This is largely because the movie was "Almost Famous", a 2000 Cameron Crowe film about a fictional 70s rock band. For those of you who haven't seen the movie you must, because in addition to representing the tremendous impact a movie can have, it also demonstrates the tremendous power of music. ("What do you like about music?" the main character asks the lead guitarist. "To begin with," he replies: "Everything.")

Anyway, I felt an interesting sensation as we shut off the movie, one that I've felt many times before but never been able to put my finger on before now. I think the sensation can best be described as, coming back down to Earth. Because what a truly great movie does is suck you in, getting you so wrapped up in its characters and plots and themes that you forget everything else. Suddenly, as the credits begin to roll, it spits you back out again, and you begin to feel (at least I do) a certain dread and anxiety about the world you are returning to, after feeling so at home in the fictional world of the movie. It's a terrible and fantastic sensation. And very little besides the movies can generate such feelings.

Of course, few movies incite us to feel this way, maybe at most one or two per year. In addition to "Almost Famous", I'll list a few other such films here for your consideration: "American Beauty", "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "Forrest Gump", "Adaptation".

While we're on the subject of movies, I saw "Batman Begins" the other night, and would have to say it's one of the better comic book movies out there, up with Tim Burton's original "Batman" if not even better. Christian Bale does an excellent job as the protagonist, Gary Oldman is great as Sgt. Gordon, Cillian Murphy is deliciously psychotic as Scarecrow, and Liam Neeson is, well, Liam Neeson. The action serves the story rather than the other way around, and the film is far more developed than most of its genre. A solid 8.5/10.

Now if you'll excuse me, "Almost Famous" has inspired me to play some Zeppelin.

Song lyric of the day:
"Measuring a summer's day
I only find it slips away to gray
The hours, they bring me pain
Tangerine, tangerine
Living reflection from a dream..."
- Led Zeppelin, Tangerine

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