High School (Movie) Reunion!

Ah, yes.  The proverbial high school reunion.  I am waxing nostalgic because this past weekend I had the distinct (dubious) pleasure of attending said event and it became clear to me that 2o-25 years seems like a looong time (although it feels like yesterday… literally!).  I spent the evening drinking substandard red wine, eating finger foods and trying to figure out just how the hell I remember the names and not the faces, the faces and not the names or the manes and not the names.  After all, the 80′s was a time of big hair and big dreams.  As the (terrible) D.J. played some of the worst music from 1976 to 1997 (maybe he didn’t get the memo that it was an EIGHTIES reunion), I thought about the movies of the 1980′s.  Not the big moneymakers or Oscar winners necessarily, but the movies that that were important to me, either for the environment, the company or the impact on my film consciousness.  Here are some of those movies, in no particular order, just as they crowd into my mind:

Say Anything… (1989) - To be fair, I saw this when I was in my early 20′s but I scream at the grievious crime that kept this film from being released ten years earlier, at the start of my illustrious high school career.  If I could have had watched at the tender age of 14, loveable yet ambitionless Lloyd Dobler chase and win valedictorian Diane Court, oh, the great changes that would have been wrought in my life.  Okay, maybe not, but John Cusack’s performance has cemented him for all time as the poster boy for dweebs with a dream (female, not computer).  Director and writer Cameron Crowe has made the smartest, wittiest, sweetest teen film ever and everything else pales in comparison (sorry, Twilight fans).  Every character is fresh and original yet someone we know; the dialogue is constantly a surprise yet exactly what that character should say and the plot has enough romance to woo the girls, humour to win the guys and the music is timelessly perfect.  Suffice to say, this movie makes me wish I could relive my teen years, as crappy as they seemed at the time.

Gandhi – This is the one that first showed me the separation between movies (entertainment) and film (art).  No one would see it with me so I trekked up to the Capitol Theatre in Chatham, Ontario by myself because I heard it was “good”.  Before this, my tastes tended to Porky’s, James Bond and Star Wars, but for three hours, I sat mesmerized by a film that played epic yet private and personal.  Richard Attenborough’s direction was letter perfect and Ben Kingsley’s performance as the small man with a giant influence was nothing short of brilliant.

Friday the 13th 3-D – Okay, not much of a watermark but it was the first movie I saw that used something akin to the modern 3-D technology I absolutely love in theatres today.  I had seen some poor 3-D in the past but I sat in awe as there was real depth to the sets and when that eyeball popped out of that guy’s face and into my lap, I laugh out loud in appreciation.

Phenomena (Creepers) – My best friend Dwayne and I had a tradition, two dollar Tuesdays.  Every Tuesday, we would go to a movie, regardless of what was playing and sometimes this was difficult.  Before the current predilection towards first weekend boffo box-office, movies used to have what is called in the industry ‘legs’.  These are movies that hung on….forever.  It was not uncommon for a movie to play for literally months and with only three theatres in town, this would wreak havoc on our tradition.  Well, Creepers was not one of these movies.  In fact, Creepers was a filler.  When a big movie was opening on Wednesday instead of Friday, the Capitol would throw in something no one had ever heard of to fill the space for a big five days, from Friday until Wednesday, to disappear into oblivion.  That Tuesday, we saw the poster that showed a young girl holding a handful of insects, with the tagline “From Dario Argento, the master of terror”.  Who?  How could someone we’d never heard of be the master of terror?, we joshed as we paid our two bucks.  Well, what I watched for the next 83 minutes was horrific, convoluted, nonsensical…and I loved it!  It turned out Dario Argento really was the ‘master of terror’…in Italy!  Creepers, it seems, was the gutted version of Argento’s Phenomena, 30 minutes shorter, for some violence to be sure, but also major plot points.  It was wacky, yes, but the gorgeous frame composition, bravura camerawork and elaborate murder set pieces, all Argento staples, were jaw-dropping.  I became a rabid Argento fan, finally finding many years later, a subtitled complete version of Phenomena, which I now own.  Honestly, it didn’t make much more sense but it was still so enjoyable.  Note of interest:  the 14-year-old star of Creepers?  Future Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly.

Purple Rain – I was a metalhead.  I loved Rainbow, Scorpions, Van Halen, AC/DC…you get the idea.  That’s why it was a miracle that we went to see Prince’s seminal film (okay, he didn’t make very many).  That miracle, though, became an epiphany when Prince Rogers Nelson took the stage.  We went to see Purple Rain four times that year and wore out the LP at home.  I watched it recently with my wife and was surprised how broad and ridiculous the script and acting was (except for the under-rated Clarence Williams III as Prince’s dad) but the music and performances…that’s where it’s at.  Prince took absolute control of every moment when he was performing, brash, profane, funny, heart-breaking, a tumult of sheer lavender energy.  The icing on the proverbial cake was nabbing tickets for the opening night of the Purple Rain tour, still one of the best concerts I’ve had the pleasure of attending.

Dune – Dwayne and I were spending the night in downtown Windsor, doing some Christmas shopping (a very different time when Windsor was a place we looked forward going to) and we decided to see this new sci-fi movie to waste the evening.  Neither of us had read the book and we thought it could be the new Star Wars.  Could we have more wrong?  Frank Herbert’s classic novel, which I have since read twice, was thought unfilmable and had David Lean (!), Ridley Scott, Salvador Dali and Alejandro Jodorowsky tied to it at one time or another.  It was bizarro David Lynch (that’s meant affectionately) who finally took up the gauntlet after his success with The Elephant Man.  Dino de Laurentiis gave him virtual carte blanche and he turned out this…monstrosity (again, affectionately).  Surreal, epic, and silly at the same time, it was like a drug trip without the drugs.  I saw it again in the hopes it would make more sense, but thankfully it didn’t.  Lynch, unhappy with the result and resultant TV cuts, took his name off the movie (Directed By Alan Smithee).  Obviously we enjoyed it more than Lynch, for the wrong reasons.  We would spout lines from the movie for laughs for months (“Tell me of your homeworld, Usul”).  I have recently obtained a ‘fan edit’ version which is said to be closer to Lynch’s original script at 3 hours…I haven’t had the ambition to watch it yet.

What 1980′s movies made an impact on you?  Or if you’re older or younger, what movie most embodies the high school years for you?  Let me know!

Crisis of faith: Reflections on Victoria Stafford and the nature of God

I realize that I created this blog primarily for forays into the entertainment world, but honestly, I made the damn blog so I’m allowed to expound on whatever I want.  So I will.  This will be about religion, specifically Christianity, which is the religion that I grew up in and left a decade ago.  I’m not trying to offend anyone here.  I just have some very basic questions about God and the nature of faith.  If any Christian out there can answer my dilemmas, I want, no, need to hear from you.

I grew up in the church and became a Christian at the age of 10.  I truly and devoutly believed what I was taught as a child and a teenager.  I made a decision to go into the ministry and enrolled in the Religious Studies program at Wilfrid Laurier University.  That is where the doubts started.  The questions that everyone asks but no one really answers.  I used the standard Christian response that God’s ways are a mystery that we will someday know, but not here on Earth.  Eventually though, this response didn’t cut the mustard and the doubts overrode my faith and I drifted from it.  I didn’t ‘backslide’ (as some Christians reading this might think), in fact, I can truly say that I live a better, ’holier’ life now than I did as a Christian, but without all the guilt.  Lately, my lack of faith has cropped up in several areas of my life with all the questions of how this could happen.  Well, everyone, here are some of my dilemmas:

Today, two young people, a 28-year-old man and 19-year-old woman were charged in the murder of 8-year-old Victoria Stafford.  For those who may not know, Victoria was abducted coming home from school on April 8 in nearby Woodstock, Ontario (a half hour from me) presumably by someone she knew from the only video surveillance available.  It is thought she was raped and murdered later that day and the body dumped an hour away outside Guelph (also an half hour from me).  Now these are allegations and rumours and nothing is certain as her body has not yet been found.  This event brought on a nationwide (Canadian) media frenzy and subsequent search.  I’m not going to discuss the case in detail, however.  I just want to use it as a jumping-off point.  Here I jump.

I think we can all agree what a horrific and disturbing act this is and I’m quite sure none of us can even imagine a situation that would have us commit this act.  As a Christian I believed in an omnipotent God, all-knowing.  He knew, as the book of Luke says, the number of hairs on my head.  He was in control, guiding us if we would be guided.  He gave us the freewill to choose our path but the knowledge to know what the true path is.  How, though, can an all-powerful God not be able to step in to affect events that are against His laws?  Oh, but He is able, Christian doctrine teaches, He just chooses not to.  It’s all part of His plan, which we are not privy to know.  I’ll be honest.  I’d rather worship a God who is unable to stop the abduction, rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl than a God who is able but chooses not to to further a mysterious plan He won’t let us in on.  After all, ‘Jesus loves the little children… they are precious in His sight’, the Sunday School song says.  Well, Victoria Stafford didn’t seem very precious, did she?  Oh, but God weeps over this, Christians would say.  Well, if He’s all-powerful then He could have done something to thwart this horrific act.  Period.  If any of us were confronted with the possibility of stopping this, we probably would have done everything in our power to do so, even at risk to our own lives.  Why not God?

Christians believe that Jesus Christ is ”the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Therefore, anyone who is not a Christian, the Bible teaches, will go to Hell (“For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to distruction,  and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it”).  According to the most recent figures, approximately 33% of the world’s population is Christian.  That leaves two-thirds of the world’s population that God is condemning to Hell.  Of that two-thirds, a large percentage are devout followers of their own faith, many far more devout than the average Christian.  Yet the God that created them, gave them the capacity for belief, condemns them for not believing in Him.  Why does God NEED us to worship him?  Oh, Christians will say, He doesn’t need us to believe in and worship Him, he deserves this belief and worship for giving us life and His Son.  And yet, if we don’t, He will condemn us.  Well, we are told, He is a jealous God.  Why would an omnipotent being feel as petty a human emotion as jealousy?  Is this an attitude that we would accept from another human?  Yes, of course, because we KNOW that humans are frail, flawed beings but God is omnipotent (see previous discussion). 

These are a few of the many questions I have.  Those of you who have questioned over the years my turning from faith have a little insight now.  I will say this, though.  I have read C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity and I accept it to a point.  I see the intricate structure of the world and all that is in it and cannot imagine it occured by happenstance.  I see how man has developed his world and cannot imagine it occured by happenstance.  I know the emotion of love I feel for my family and the joy I feel in viewing a work of art and cannot imagine it occured by happenstance.  I just can’t imagine this guiding/creating force is the Christian God that I’ve described.  Someday, I hope to discover what it’s all about, but until then, I’ll quote the great Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) in the greatest teen movie ever made, Say Anything: “I don’t know.  I just know I don’t know, you know?”