Sunday, November 4, 2012

Awesome to the Max (Part 4 of 4)



Awesome to the Max: My Top 25 Movies That Made Growing Up in the 1980s Exceptional – Part 4 of 4

5. Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Where to begin how much I love this movie? It was a movie where real life actors seamlessly interacted with cartoons. Not just any cartoons, all of the Disney and Warner Brothers characters! What kid didn’t want to see this?! But on a more personal love, this was probably my introduction to mystery movies and I quickly discovered that I LOVED them!

 
As the title suggests, a toon named Roger Rabbit is framed for the murder of beloved toon creator Marvin Acme (yes, that Acme, the one who gives Wile E. Coyote all those defective contraptions) and it’s up to toon hating private investigator Eddie Valient to find out who the real murder is. Exciting, funny, thrilling and consistently brilliant, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a movie that kids enjoy, but their parents get a whole other appreciation for. It was one of those movies like Big or Dick Tracy that skirted the risqué line of whether it was a movie for kids or a movie for their parents. Honestly, it’s both, but I definitely felt like I was watching a more mature movie whenever I watched it. Why? Well, for starters, Judge Doom is one of the scariest family movie villains ever, if not the scariest. 


He created that horrifying weapon for killing toons called Dip, remember that poor squeaky shoe? Simply cold hearted, but then came the ending and if you were young, you definitely covered your eyes out of terror. I left the theater and had to come back. But the other thing that made this movie feel like it was more mature was the VERY mature wife of Roger Rabbit.

 
Yes, my friends, I speak of the infamous Jessica Rabbit, the character that made every adolescent boy in the audience sit up and stare at the screen like a meercat. As I got older, I found that the movie’s story contained multiple nods to Chinatown, which is considered one of the greatest movie mysteries of all time. (Jessica Rabbit’s car is the same make and model of Faye Dunaway’s, the movie’s main mystery centers around a greedy form of land development, the use of extra-marital blackmail, etc.) Who Framed Roger Rabbit is not just a brilliant family movie, it is flat out a brilliant movie. This is a pure marvel of filmmaking on every level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFCIaMyMORg

You know, I always wondered if the fact the two women who introduced me into the world of noticing the opposite sex were Madonna and Jessica Rabbit had any effect on me growing up…I’m not gonna delve too much into that, but something I wondered when the thought crossed my mind.

4. Ghostbusters: Yes, my Halloween costume was a huge clue as to how high up on the list this movie was, but can you honestly tell me if you weren’t making a list of your favorite movies as a child, Ghostbusters wouldn’t rank that high up there? We all know the story: a group of scientists develop a way to capture and incarcerate ghosts and use this technology to create a business that deals with the “professional paranormal investigations and eliminations”. As they get started, they realize that an ancient spirit is looking to re-enter the earth and bring about the end of the world. Who ya gonna call?

 
That’s right, Dr. Peter Venkmen, Dr. Ray Stanz, Dr. Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddmore, the Ghostbusters. Now, I will admit, I was probably introduced to this at an age where I couldn’t appreciate it as much as I should have. When I first saw Ghostbusters, I was four years old and let me tell you, this was the first time that I could recall vivid nightmares, so technically, this was the first scary movie I ever saw. But I loved it. I loved the scientific coolness of the proton packs and the gadgets and I loved how they were fighting the other side. As I got older, I began to realize it was a comedy and I really began to appreciate the humor. Then I got to be a teenager and I REALLY appreciated the humor. I finally got all of the jokes and let me tell you, getting older with Ghostbusters is a wonderful thing. Ghostbusters grows with you as you mature and begin to understand the world around you. And let’s be honest, Peter Venkman is probably one of the best movie characters of all time. This is the guy you want with you while you’re fighting the Armageddon because he will have the best thing to say no matter what the situation is. Personally, my favorite was always Egon.

 
He was the one who was the most scientific and professional. Sure, his one liners may not have been as memorable as Venkman’s, but his presence was one that you just knew he had an equation for every situation, from this universe or the other. The dialog is endlessly creative, the visual effects are some of the best of time and the performances are just spot on. I’m not gonna go into the second one. I really wanted to like it as a child, but it just wasn’t as much fun to enjoy as much as the original, which is probably the best way that you can describe the first part: original.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyRqR56aCKc 

3. The Indiana Jones trilogy: All three of these movies were part of our childhood, whether you watched them or not. Action movies were forever changed with the introduction of Indiana Jones to the movie world. The first part, Raiders of the Lost Ark, is probably still the best because of how fresh and relentless of an action movie it is, all without losing its sense of humor as to how implausible it is. Archeologist Indiana Jones is called on by the US Government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis do and use it as an occult weapon. And the rest is history.

 
What kid didn’t love this movie growing up, you had action, you had cool settings, you had  When Raiders of the Lost Ark debuted, everything about action adventure movies changed, the use of stunt work, the scale to which action sequences were choreographed, the breakneck pacing of the story, this became the new standard for action. And how cool of a hero was Indiana Jones? He wasn’t a superhuman that just shook off the abuse he went through, he had every bruise, cut and gunshot from when the adventure started. And much Kudos to Harrison Ford for giving Indy those moments where he takes brief reflections on what he just did. This movie does not let up. When the action and story get going, it doesn’t stop to reflect, it exists in the chase and you can’t help but get caught up in the chase.

 
It’s exciting, it’s thrilling, it’s everything that every other summer movie ever since wants to be but will always fall short of. And as I grew up, I found out that Spielberg approached Raiders as homage to one of his favorite movies: Lawrence of Arabia. If you’ve seen that, you can definitely see the inspiration in Raiders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZOcoxjeUYo 

Continuing with his trend of inspiration from previous movies, Spielberg and Lucas used Gunga Din for the inspiration for their next outing, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In this sequel, which is actually a prequel, Dr. Jones goes in search of three ancient stones along with a village’s children. Sound exciting enough, that’s just what everyone else thought, but what we would see in the theater would be one of the darkest experiences we can probably recall from our youths.

 
Indiana Jones and his companions run afoul of the cult that captured the children and they try to make Indiana Jones possessed by drinking a blood concoction. Oh, and there’s a firepit sacrifice and someone has their heart torn from their chest a la Kano in Mortal Kombat. Of course, we should have expected this after seeing the end of Raiders and seeing what happens when the Ark of the Covenant was opened. Now, this is the one that everyone is at opposite ends of the spectrum on and there are parts to it that I can understand. For instance, the entire country of India refuses to show it because they feel it is offensive in that it portrays them as sacrificing barbarians that worship an evil god. Yeah, I can kind of see that, but then again, you can apply that argument to a lot of other nationalities in other movies. But then there are Indy’s travelling companions, Willie and Short Round, who only exist to get in trouble or get captured. Sure, Short Round helps a couple of times, but then you have Willie, who just screams and complains about how she’s not living in the lap of luxury consistently.

 
Yeah, that’s the character you want in an Indiana Jones movie. But for the most part, the action is intense, there are some pretty funny moments and the visuals are pretty unforgettable and it’s actually a very clever nod to Gunga Din, which is a reference that is pretty lost on a good portion of the viewers. We mostly remember it as that movie, alongside Gremlins, that was the cause of our parents demanding a PG-13 rating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOwWfns4qqw 

And that rating was bestowed upon the third part in the series, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Now, while people are pretty divided about whether they liked Temple of Doom or not, other people are divided as to whether Raiders is the better film or Last Crusade is. That’s how friggin’ good this entry was, people began saying it was as good as the first part. Our globetrotting, intrepid archeologist hero, Indiana Jones, is literally looking for the Holy Grail, again, racing against the Nazis to make sure they don’t get it.

 
But in order to find it faster, Indy needs the help of his father, Henry Jones. Now, who could portray the man that fathered Indiana Jones? Why, none other than the original man of action, James Bond himself, Sean Connery. The banter between father and son is the most sweetly satisfying exchange of dialog between two beloved characters. The action is top notch, the settings are fantastic and, again, seeing Indiana Jones reunited with his father on the big screen is just one of the most satisfying moments in a movie.


That’s how you know you’ve made a truly timeless film, when two characters can simply talk to each other and it’s fondly remembered. Indiana Jones is timeless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7TaY8HWYd8 

I won’t talk about Crystal Skull. I won’t. There are three Indiana Jones movies and they forever exist in the memories of pleasant nostalgia. There was no fourth part. It’s a trilogy.

2. ET – The Extra Terrestrial: Okay, right off the bat, I’ll admit it: I cried. I didn’t just cry, I bawled. Probably more than I ever have in any other movie. Everyone I watched it with bawled. I still bawl for probably the last half an hour of this movie. In fact, this movie has one of the most indelible theater experiences I can ever remember. I first saw this movie on a military base in Twentynine Palms California, which was eerily reminiscent of the suburb setting of this movie.

 
An alien gets accidentally left behind by his crew and is taken in by a boy named Elliott. The two form a mutual bond as Elliott tries to explain his world to the alien, who he names ET, and eventually tries to help him get back home. This is probably the best movie about kids that looks at the world at their level and through their eyes. It never panders to them and it never talks down to them, it simply embraces the youthful purity they have and uses that to propel the story. The emotionality of ET is so genuine and pure that it goes beyond being a movie for kids, beyond being a movie about friends and beyond being a movie for adults, it becomes a movie that actually reopens the door of being a child to adults. The beauty that this movie captures is truly the embodiment of what movie magic is. Now, about that ending… If you haven’t seen it, I’ll try not to spoil it, but if you have seen it, you know what I’m talking about.


I’ll just say this, if I agree to watch this movie around you, I am totally and completely comfortable around you because I will not watch this movie around just anybody. It opens up some really deep emotional responses from me. What power does this ending have that I won’t see it around just anybody? Well, I’ll just say this, remember how I said seeing this movie had one of the most indelible theater experiences and how I saw it on a military base? I remember every soldier sitting around me doing everything they could to try and keep from being seen crying. This movie made an entire theater of grown Marines cry. From someone who has grown up around Marines his whole life, THAT is a huge emotional impact. ET – The Extra Terrestrial has a special place in my heart and will forever have that place in my heart that goes beyond a mere movie and part of my emotional psyche.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJf6XMfw2Ng

1. The Star Wars trilogy: What, would you expect anything else? I can’t begin to count the days of my childhood that wasn’t spent watching these movies, trying to collect the action figures and vehicles, getting together with my friends who had the action figures I wanted and having our own Star Wars battles, using the wooden posts as lightsabers and standing on top of the retaining wall on the side of my house and pretending it was the bridge over a bottomless chasm. The Star Wars movies for many people my age was the beginning of our imaginations.

 
Far away planets, cool technology, lasers, space ships, mystic knights with ethereal powers, this was a galaxy that we wished wasn’t so far away. It was also the movie for many that knew they wanted to go into filmmaking, myself included. I’ll never forget being four years old, seeing these movies on HBO a couple times already, but then seeing a special right afterwards about how they made these movies. I saw the actors behind the puppets, I saw the cameras being moved into place, I saw the actors practicing their lines and I saw the special effects being set up. It was like seeing a world of magic unspooling before your eyes, almost inviting you to come play in this world.

It all began in 1977 (way before I was born) with Star Wars, the story of a princess who is taken captive, but not before sending battle plans with two droids to a remote planet. The droids are picked up by a farmboy, who, with the help of a Jedi Knight and a rogue pilot, journey to recover the princess and deliver the battle plans. If you need to know who their names are, just stop reading right now and start watching them (but start with the 1977 Star Wars and go Episode IV, V & VI, as they were meant to be seen).


Like I said before, this movie opened up an entire universe of aliens, far away planets, cool space ships, lasers, nothing like this had ever been seen in a movie before and it was completely welcome. Not only that, but it brought back a sense of heroism to movies in the classic Arthurian sense, something that had been well ignored in the 1970s because of the cynicism over the Vietnam War and the Nixon era. This movie gave people something to root for and imagine themselves in and frankly, what’s wrong with a little escapism after being so entrenched with the real world and how bitter it can be. We need to know there’s a world out there where the good guys win and evil gets punished.

 
That’s what I also connected with, the sense of heroism that this movie centered around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gvqpFbRKtQ 

The sequel came out three years later (again, still before I was born), The Empire Strikes Back, and continued the battle between the Rebels and the Empire. Also, the characters each went on their own individual journey of discovery, Luke travelled to Dagobah to be trained as a Jedi by Yoda while Han and Leia escaped the Empire and discovered they had feelings for each other.

 
This movie is actually pretty dark when you look at it. The Rebels lose their battle in the beginning of the film and the plot twists it takes from there are pretty dark for a movie that was remembered for being the voice of optimism amidst the bitter cynicism of the 1970s. But the twists exist to help the characters’ journey of maturity reach their peak as well as raise the stakes for the sequel. As I got older, I began to appreciate this movie on an incredibly mature level and soon realized, this was my favorite movie. The Imperial Walker battle scene is impressively exciting, the love story between Han and Leia is surprisingly very mature and Luke’s training on Dagobah is deeply rooted in philosophy and self-examination. Not only that, but Cloud City is my favorite setting.

 
I loved seeing the polished look of a futuristic city and how the towering buildings seemed to be all around. So, yes, I will still stand behind The Empire Strikes Back as being my favorite movie of all time. As for the sequel it sets up…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxLR_27ASpc 

Yes, I was finally born by the time that the sequel, Return of the Jedi, was released. By this time, anticipation for this movie was at a fever pitch! The final battle between good versus evil would take place, Rebels versus the Empire, Luke versus…(see plot twist in Empire) and for the first time, we get to see Darth Vader’s master, the Emperor. But first, we settle Han Solo’s debts with Jabba the Hut in a very exciting, if needlessly elaborate, opening scenes.

 
Then from there, we regather where we are with the battle and prepare for the end. And what and ending. The entire last half of the movie is a gigantic battle, both on Endor, in space and a lightsaber duel in the Death Star. This is the exciting ending that we were waiting for, even if the movie does reveal another plot twist that kind of hints that George Lucas was winging the last two stories. These movies are timeless adventures that many people my age as well as kids today cherish and why not? They’re stories of heroism amidst dark times, they’re exciting, they’re surprisingly philosophical and they’re all kinds of fun.

 
They aren’t as serious and mature as a Merchant Ivory film would be, but they aren’t supposed to be. They’re just meant to have fun with and give yourself over to a universe of wonder and awe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOy8JRogT-c 

What it was about the Star Wars trilogy that had such an impact on me, beyond simply wanting to make movies, was that these were worlds that never changed. When so much in my life was being uprooted and changing, I could always count on Tatooine to be a desert planet, Hoth to be an ice and snow planet, Dagobah to be a swamp planet and Endor to be a forest moon. No matter what TV I watched them on, they were as familiar to me as any home I lived in.

 
I then realized the power of creating a fantasy world and how it could bring stability and familiarity to the people watching it, even if it was as farfetched as planets having the same eco-system on both sides of the hemisphere. These movies inspire me to this day and I fondly remember all those times spent sitting on my living room couch or wherever I was as a kid watching these movies and being transported to a galaxy far, far away from my own world and welcoming every minute of it.

So, okay, looking back, I see that I’ve had a lot of movies that either unintentionally scared the ever loving crap out of me or broke me down into a quivering pile of tears. And you know what? I’m completely fine with it. In fact, for us kids that did live in our bubbles, we had these movies to give us a sense of second hand trauma. They made me not as scared of the monsters hiding in my room and made me more emotionally aware of the world around me. I hope movies like that still exist for the kids of this generation. But, with movies like The Iron Giant, Pixar’s library, The Lord of the Rings movies, Hugo and all the cool superhero movies out there, it does seem like there are plenty out there to choose from. Hopefully, there’s that one starry eyed kid out there like me that gets to see them and gets to be taken away for a short time to live in that fantasy playground that they create.

But what of those movies you had to sneak away from your parents? The ones that you would see and always work to not let it slip that you saw this awesome movies until you were around your friends to prove how mature you were for having seen them? Well, that will be for another list, the top ten movies we loved as kids that we were not allowed to watch (or shouldn’t have been allowed to). If I grew up watching movies that set up for sequels, why shouldn’t I leave this list off with setting up one myself?

1 comment:

  1. I am not surprised that the Star Wars trilogy are your absolute favorites....adults & children loved those movies....By the time we reached 29Palms, you were 4 1/2, an age for new recruits to Star Wars. That summer you were introduced to the concept of yard sales. You hit the mother lode when you found a shoe box full of Star Wars figures for sale. Woo-hoo!You ran home & got your wooden piggy bank & that shoe box (& a few other large pieces) became yours! Unfortunately, our dog Maggie liked them as much as you did, because they were so chewable!!!! The reason I tell this story is because of impact Star Wars had on all people, children & adults alike...the end of this story occurred around Christmas that year....a very stuffy, "mean" USMC Col showed up on our doorstep looking for John. (He lived where the summer yard sale was held). He came to give a little boy something that Santa had mistakenly left at his house...This small package was labeled "John". That crusty, gruff guy had found & brought something that would thrill a little Star Wars fan..... a minature set of metal Star Wars figurines!!!!.....It was then I realized how the impact of a movie could melt an apparently cold hearts...to do something so unexpected & kind...just to make a little boy happy... I will never forget the look on either of your faces!!!!! Giver & receiver...brought together by the elements of a "movie." LOVE YOU! Your Mom

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