HIStory (Films That Defined Us Blog-a-Thon)

Some time ago, I received an invitation to participate in a blog-a-thon. Marc from Go! See! Talk! has rallied a bunch of us movie geeks to take a look in the mirror and try to describe how we came to be the popcorn rats we see staring back. I must give the man props, because it has actually turned into quite the assignment and taken far more introspection than I anticipated. It's tricky to think back on twenty-some-odd years of movie-going and identify exact touchstones...especially when I'd much rather continue taking the piss out of STEP UP 3-D.

But an assignment's an assignment, and I've never been one to back down from a challenge. So take a look beyond the jump, and listen while I explain how where this hatter's madness began.


When I was a kid, almost every movie I watched came to me through one of two ways - either a video my parents rented, or something that played on TV. My parents had a taste for dramas when I was younger, so while many of my friends were cheering on slashers like Freddy and Jason, I learned about Diane Fossey. While they were splitting their sides laughing at nerds getting revenge, I was trying to understand what autism was and why Raymond Babbit was freaking out about missing Wapner. As such, I developed an early taste for dramas, perhaps exemplified by PLATOON.

It's as serious as cancer, and if I were my parents, I don't know that I would have let 11-year-old me watch it. But they did, and I did, and luckily for us all the version I saw was the edited for time and content version they showed on local TV. Some of the gore was trimmed down, but it got its point across. The story drew me in...that score haunted me...and at a young age it made me want to learn more about its subject.

I'd eventually start watching those romping comedies my schoolmates were watching, but I'd wager it took them years to appreciate the sorts of dramas I was watching between the age of eleven and thirteen.


Now because of all those home videos and taped-from-tv features, I could probably count off the number of films I saw in theatres before high school on my fingers - and the bulk of them were animated. Despite growing up walking distance from two different theatres, it just wasn't an experience I was used to. Thus, the reverence about experiencing Batman and Indiana Jones on a big screen were lost on me...until the summer of 1993 when I saw JURASSIC PARK.

This would be when I first understood the idea of a film as spectacle. Indeed by now, I'd watched actions films like TERMINATOR, TOP GUN, and STAR WARS at home...but to get lost in it...to lean back in a padded chair and completely immerse myself in a blockbuster world was forbidden fruit not tasted until that T-Rex broke loose of his paddock. Those dramas I watched on video might have got me off to a good start as a cinephile - this showed me how fun it could be.

The next major evolution happened in the summer of 1998...the year The AFI released its 100 Years, 100 Films list. At the time, my film literacy where classics were concerned was pretty bad, so being handed an unofficial curriculum became the next logical step. Actually, this moment in my metamorphosis gets a heavy assist from my kid brother. See, he broke his ankle that summer which had him home watching endless amounts of classic videos...thus, I was seeing a lot of them by convenience.

Of course, with any list you start at the top - so CITIZEN KANE was the first one we watched. Seeing that brilliant story unfold, and soaking in Welles' electric performance flipped a switch inside of me that I didn't even know was there. Suddenly I was drawn to a more timeless story...a world of velvety blacks and grainy whites.

In one quick shot to my cinematic heart, KANE gave me a thirst for the classics. It's been twelve years, and that thirst isn't even close to being quenched. And I don't care what any of my fellow bloggers say - it is that good.


The next step would come quickly, about six months later to be precise. It would be around this time that I watched LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. Now in hindsight, many of us can agree that this film is not-so-hot...but it was still an important step for me since it marked the first foreign film I'd ever watched (in a theatre no less!).

I'm proud to say that I came into it without hesitation. Thinking back, it didn't feel all that tricky to read-and-watch-and-read-and-watch. The comedy was still funny...the drama was still dramatic. It didn't matter that I couldn't speak Italian. Looking back it was a baby step...and it would take a good few years before I'd see another. Still, it opened my eyes to the what the rest of the world was doing, and like what KANE did with classics, gave me a thirst for a brand of vodka I'd never tasted before.


The touchstones I've described would have been enough - along with casting an eye towards independent cinema around the middle of 1996. However, there was still one thing missing, and I found it the afternoon I watched TRAINING DAY. Seems like an odd inclusion in this conversation, doesn't it? Well, you're right...but it needs to be there since it stands as the very first movie I ever watched at The Toronto International Film Festival.

Taking in my very first film festival was the final step in turning me into the passionate movie-lover you now know. It was a taste of an environment filled with other movie lovers. A Mecca-like collection of filmgoers whose passion for a wide variety of genres went well past just saying "That was cool" when the credits rolled. That first festival opened my eyes to the broad palette of cinematic colours I now find myself drawn to. But most importantly, it raised my awareness of film discussion...and made me seek out the sorts of people who read this space and write other spaces like it (often better than mine too).

The road that has brought me to this place in my movie watching and film-literacy has been a long one. Thinking back on it over these few hundred words, the landmarks I remember most aren't exactly the ones I would have mentioned off the top of my head. But I'm glad I followed the route markers, and took the route that I did. I'd like to hope that the evolution of my tste isn't complete...but by 32 I've probably developed into the movie lover I'm always going to be.

If not...maybe I'll write another one of these in ten years.