Tagged: growth

Theatrical Thursday, featuring Joe Versus the Volcano (1990).

Have you ever seen a movie six thousand times, but only gotten half a whiff of the real depth of that movie after the most recent viewing? Case in point; I’ve seen Joe Versus the Volcano at least 30 times since 1990, but only recently came to understand the immense truths contained within it. The film was always on in the background, and I’d often half ass watched it without really seeing it for what it was. The realization and understanding came slowly; a little bit here, a little bit there, until one day I said “fuck it” and sat down and really watched the film again for the first time. I took it all in with a renewed sense of awareness, and a considerably open mind. I dissected it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d enjoyed the movie time and again previously, but I’d only just seen the surface of it. And in truth, I was sincerely blown away. For all of its cheese, the movie was an acutely effective, multi-layered glimpse into a man’s thirst for knowledge, meaning, purpose, and self discovery. Looking beyond some of the dated, clunky 90’s camp, it’s quite a deeply rendered portrait of the journey that we all endure in order to accomplish whatever it is we want to accomplish with our lives. It is a great little tale about overcoming obstacles, standing up for your beliefs, and never giving up. Who can’t relate to that, right? And if you’ve ever hated your job, the “I quit” scene below is a revelation.

https://youtu.be/n4cqujPMXLI

https://youtu.be/A9lceeNQMwk

SaturdayDreaming – The Unique Power of Film and Television.

This SaturdayDreaming installment just so happens to be my very first post on this blog, penned waaaaay back in 2009.  It’s been a fun ride.  Hope you enjoy, and happy Saturday! 

Film is in my blood. When I was a kid, my older brothers and I would literally cycle through the same batch of movies every single day after school. We would craftily rotate between current and old stuff based on the mood. For the hidden singer in us, we had classics like Grease and West Side Story on standby; for the action hero side of our imagination, we watched Excalibur and Total Recall. Here’s the kicker, though – we didn’t just watch these films; we became a part of them. I can recall many light-hearted arguments involving which characters we wanted to be in the movies that we saw (we each wanted to be the coolest character, of course).  

 We didn’t merely watch Bruce Lee annihilate Chuck Norris in the Colosseum; we were Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris duking it out kung-fu style that day. We didn’t just watch the suave Ludlow brothers of Legends of the Fall; we became the brothers (and of course, I was the coolest). So much of our childhood developed around the TV that we can, to this day, readily quote lines from films that clinically intertwine with our day-to- day conversations.
 

Not surprisingly, movies and television became our go to form of comedic self-expression. Our lives lit up watching A Different World, Yo! MTV Raps, and The Cosby Show. Much of our childhood unfolded alongside these larger than life characters doing larger than life activities. Sure, we created our own characters, and re-enacted our own daring adventures, but the television was the catalyst that thrust us into that imaginative void; that realm where dreams become reality, and thoughts and deeds transcend what’s perceived to be real.  

We weren’t couch potatoes either, I might add; our heroic deeds often spilled into the backyard, where we became mighty sporting heroes and dauntless explorers. In a weird way, movies and TV helped to mold and shape me into the man I am today. My artistic endeavors can all somehow be traced back to those freewheeling days huddled in front of the TV, dreaming about the tales and characters that were being projected into my psyche (and of course, I was the coolest one).