On Movies.

Movies constitute a ritual for me, and, as my last post suggests, have for quite sometime. Certain films, especially, function not only as movies, but as ritual objects, to be viewed at certain times, or in certain circumstances.
The Goonies, subject of the last post, is not such a movie. Cool Hand Luke, on the other hand, is. Last year, when I needed to mark a substancial turning point in my life, all I could think to do was to draw the blinds, and watch Paul Newman buck the system, smiling that smile. Cool Hand Luke has always been an important film in my later years. I discovered it late.
The Princess Bride is older, more powerful than that. I first saw it displayed for the children as part of a winter carnival in my ancestral home. It made a lasting impression, quite rightly, as it is the most perfect movie ever made by the hands of man or God. I have seen it, since then, since that day in my youth, several dozen times. It never fails to please me, to amuse me, and to make me feel as young as the day I first saw it.
Of late, for a variety of reasons, The Princess Bride came to stand in as an example of a paradigm of a certain type of love in an ongoing discussion with both myself and a few other key players. Willow, an other childhood favourite was championed by some as an alternative model, with or without hot chocolate (my most recent viewing was with, and I do suggest it). In the process, The Princess Bride acquired a certain negative connotation, related to an ongoing situation at the time. I turned my back on it, and the paradigm it came to stand for.
But this afternoon, I thought about it. It dawned on my that these recent associations, these new, negative qualities, could not stand against the weight of the years that The Princess Bride had been mine to love. I had history with this movie, and these new ideas were not going to change that.
And so, Gentle Reader, tonight, I watched The Princess Bride. It is, as it always was, a wonderful tale of adventure, with fencing, and giants, torture, chases, escapes and wizards. Yes, it sucks as a paradigm of love. But it is one hell of a good movie. And its mine again.