Movie Memory
Wafi Sattar
There have been quite many films that I have watched which has left sort of an impact on me be it positive or negative, but in terms of being absorbed by what we see on screen, considering film and acting one of the truest form of art and being awed by the masters (the actors and the directors) at work there have only been a very few movies.
One which got me interested into wanting to be a film maker one day is the movie called “The Aviator.”
Kate Blanchet and Leonardo DiCaprio starred in this film, a biopic of the famous Howard Hughes – one time owner of almost 2/3rds of Las Vegas, maker of the historically famous film “Hell’s Angels” and one of the most famously eccentric of 20th century Hollywood!
It was mid-night and I used to live in California back then. This was the first screening in that theater of the movie for it came out that very night. So what was it about the movie that I so loved? It was the camera work, the graphics, the glamour of old Hollywood that was appealing and eye-widening. But it was the acting that captured my 18 year old mind. DiCaprio’s absorbance of the Hughes character was phenomenal, portraying Howard Hughes from a teenager to an adult in his 40s…the transition of age, the transition in mentality, the capturing of the exact eccentricity, the realism in his acting was beyond describable!
Since then, I have become a fan of movies starring him, and going back and watching his other movies such as “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” where he portrays the mentally handicapped younger brother of Johnny Depp, or “The Quick and the Dead” where he is the son of a tyrant Gene Hackman, or say even a man seeking the revenge for his father’s death in “The Gangs of New York,” or as a teenage fugitive in “Catch Me If You Can” directed by the legendary Steven Spielberg, just a few movies to name which show that there are actors that still exist who are as good as the Marlon Brandos and James Deans of the yesteryears.
The perfect match in this regard would be Leonardo DiCaprio in movies directed by Martin Scorsese - The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York and coming out in 2011 The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.
A good relationship and a lot of trust, a inseparable bond between actors and directors is what separates the greatest form the average.
Another series of movie which has changed the way I think is “The Godfather” trilogy. Even though the movies seem to wan down as the series progresses, as I see it, all rivers need to meet the ocean, there has to always be an end! The direction was impeccable and the story telling and acting was too real. I felt like a part of the movie, the philosophies preached somehow made me realize a lot of things in my personal life and somehow I follow a lot of advice provided in the movie, mostly by Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) and Peter Clemenza (Richard S. Castellano). One of the biggest thing it taught me, was how to cut with words and not always violence, how to get back when the opponent least expects it, but respect all. I liked most of the characters in the movie but deeply admired that of the consigliere to the Corleone family – Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) for he was the lawful to most extent.
In terms of entertainment and fantasy, the movie that captured me the most as a child was of course “Jurassic Park” and my all-time favorite the “Indiana Jones” trilogy and now after the release of “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in 2008, the tetralogy!
But upon reaching adulthood, that thrill can only be provided by a masterpiece such as the one and only – “Lord of the Rings” trilogy!
Not only in terms of computer generated imagery (CGI), but also in terms of acting, script, time length (yes the movies were long, but not drab, dead, or boring) and most importantly, keeping so true to the book as much as possible!
The Godfather did it, but some parts plots had to be left out. In terms to similar fantasy, Harry Potter did it, and while the movies are all very fun to watch and mostly enjoyable, those who read the book can’t even get half the kick out of it…they are mostly VERY disappointing!
Watching a movie should be very absorbing, that is what I think! I like intense movies. Say something like “Blood Diamond” or “The Departed” or “The Shinning”…those that will keep you thinking what is next, those that will involve you in it – where you become a part of the movie, those that make the world around you disappear OR incorporate it in.
To me movies are important, very important. Not bad movies, GOOD movies. I see “Lawrence of Arabia” or “Spartacus” or “Helen of Troy” or “The Ten Commandments” and admire them in awe for what was created back then. If a movie is created like that now I wouldn’t like it, times change, those are classics, and technology exists for proper usage. I am not a big fan of remakes either. Classics should be classics!
Why am I babbling about being a fan of actors and directors and movie making when I should be talking about movie experiences which changed something in me? It is because I am a “creativist” – a word yet to be added to the English dictionary but one which exists in the world of those who dare to imagine. Movies were made to make people experience the world they dream of. Take them away to places where they want to be, do things they can’t do in reality – a great example of which is during the great depression in America…a time of deep poverty and deprivation and “Citizen Kane.”
Movies should be more than just entertainment, and actors and actresses just entertainers. Hollywood shouldn’t be just fame, glory, money and glamour – it should be the home that hones ambassadors (film makers and actors) who preach better life through life’s influence through their movies they should always be life changing in some way or the other.
Like one can never say who they love more “MOM or DAD?”…or after marriage “MOM or DAD or SPOUSE?”…I can never say either which movie I love the most or which made the most impact in my life in any way, I can narrow some down like those in this write-up for movies teach me about life a little, it is just like a text book…..but more like reading 6 or 7 in just a few hours time.
