The Pilgrim’s Protest

While many long to curl up on the couch or lie in a hammock with their favorite book, on a beautiful spring day, I long to ascend the stairs in my house to the place my wife calls the ‘man room.’ There I watch my favorite movie, on my Panasonic Hi Def, 42” Plasma screen TV, connected to my 5.1 Dolby surround sound system playing at concert hall pitch, with the movie spilling across the screen courtesy of my JVC DVD player.

But what are my favorite movies? How does a film get lucky enough to go from sitting on the shelf at Best Buy to my DVD player? My viewing falls into two categories. These two categories give me a sense of purpose when it comes to my films. They help me set parameters and allow me to focus (pun intended) on the reason why I watch what I watch.

The first category of movies is those films that I watch over-and-over again. They are my version of CULT films (defined by Webster as having a faddish devotion). These are movies that I buy to watch at a moments notice; they are escapist films. “Star Wars,” “LOTR,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Monster, Inc,” “The Matrix” and my favorite series, James Bond (yes, I have all 20 episodes). They’re mindless in content (“Independence Day,”) easy to watch (“Superman Returns” and “Firewall”), don’t require a lot of thinking (Indiana Jones) and are a lot of fun (“Sneakers,” “Spiderman” and “Mission Impossible”). These films allow me to suspend reality, imagine what I can’t experience and live out my fantasies. CULT films take me away from reality.

The second category involves films that immerse me in reality. They are films that show me life and humanity. They show me how the world is, how it has been, and how it might have been. These are CULTure films: films of refinement, of intellectual and artistic taste. The classic, “12 Angry Men” with Henry Fonda, takes you inside a jury room as twelve men deliberate the fate of an accused murderer. Woody Allen’s superb, “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” focuses on two men who must choose between what is moral and right in spite of the circumstances or consequences. The powerful World War II film, “To End All Wars,” shows the dark side of humanity while clearly stating that man is able to rise above any situation, even ugly ones. Who can watch without emotion the despicable way we treated African-Americans in the 1960’s as depicted in “Glory Road,” the story of the first all black basketball lineup in NCAA history. And who can walk away for Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” unchanged?

CULTure films are harder to watch. They can bring the viewer into a world previously unknown visually. Sometimes that world is disturbing, like Gregory Peck’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Where CULT films allow me to escape reality, CULTure films expose me to reality. Films give me the opportunity to see a world that I have only read about. They bring images to my words. They let me see what I have read. Escapism? Yes! Reality? Without a doubt! That’s why I watch movies, the best of both worlds and the challenge to see them both.