The natural human obsession with moving pictures is understandable. The majority of us have no idea how the little people living inside of our television stay alive so long without air, food or water. What’s even more amazing is that life is somehow miraculously replicated onto a screen and is no longer three-dimensional. It is flat. It can be turned on and off. You can pop a boxy looking plastic thing or a flat disc into an electronic device and a prerecorded moving picture will proceed to wrap you around its little finger for a couple of hours. These things wow and amaze us, even now, in the 21st century.
America’s awe of the movies really became apparent during the Great Depression of the 1930s when so many were simply looking for an escape from the harsh realities of life. People would lose themselves in romantic stories, laugh at comedians, and see parts of the world they could never afford to visit in real life. If you could scrounge up a quarter, you could enter the massive blackness of the theater to lay eyes on the silver screen in all of its simple beauty.
For some of us that are truly obsessed with film, filmmaking and the history of it, the subject can get very in depth and emotional. How can you explain how much you truly love something with words? It is not easy. All that can be done is attempt to explain and hope that others someday get that same feeling in their gut.
Be smart. When someone recommends a great movie to you, try to remember it or write it down. Even if you happen to watch it and don’t particularly care for it, at least you’ll learn more about your very own movie sensibilities.
Needing an escape? Go rent some good movies! If you are in need of some recommendations, look no further.
New releases are great fun. Some are absolutely wonderful, and others may induce nausea. However, these video selections will make you laugh, make you cry and make you slap yourself for not realizing their existence before that fateful day when you wiped the dust off of them and pulled them off the shelf in the video store.
Once you are ready to have at it and press play, prepare some unconventional movie snacks like mini corn dogs or petite quiche. Then, remove from yourself all uncomfortable and restrictive underwear and put on your old worn and tattered fleece pants. Tah dah. You are now ready to escape the harsh realities of college, and delve into a good ol’ movie.
Pufnstuf (1970)
If you can find this movie anywhere, more power to ya. An extremely hard flick to get a hold of, Pufnstuf was based on H.R. Pufnstuf, the first in a long string of Saturday morning hits from Sid and Marty Krofft that your parents probably enjoyed in the late ’60s. In this story about Jimmy, a disenchanted British boy and his magical talking flute named Freddie, you are immediately transported from your couch to Living Island, a psychedelic realm of witches, dragons and talking trees. A sheriff named H.R. Pufnstuf, an orange and green dragon with go-go boots and a country twang that befriends the flute playing 10 year old, runs the island. As the complex plot unfolds, Jimmy finds himself at the center of a fiendish plot devised by Witchiepoo, the head witch in town, to steal his prized jewel encrusted flute. This movie may very well be too psychedelic for some. How did they expect kids to watch this if not on powerful hallucinogens? A bad acid trip throughout, Pufnstuf is something to watch with a large group so that one may appropriately gauge audience reaction to the movie, which is chockfull of talking inanimate objects, British children far too old for this kind of tomfoolery, and “Age of Aquarius”-like musical interludes. If you get through college without dabbing in alcohol and mind-altering drugs, at least you can tell your kids about the first time you ever saw Pufnstuf. Watch for: social commentary from a convention of witches.
My Life as a Dog (1985) or Mit Liv Som Hund
This foreign film tells the touching story of a boy named Ingemar living in 1950s Sweden. It won awards from countless international film festivals in the 80s and also received a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign film. Ingemar lives with his brother and terminally ill mother, but when his mother’s condition worsens he gets sent away to live with relatives in a small Swedish village. While there, he is embraced by the strange, eccentric townspeople and has coming-of-age experiences that will affect him for the rest of his life.
The film is partially narrated by Ingemar, so the audience senses the things that he experiences – through the eyes of a child. He reads headlines of catastrophes and fatalities with a childlike fascination and from these stories makes parallels to his own life. I hold this film dear because it was a film that I grew up watching, but others can also relate to it because it deals with the many uncertainties and fears that we all had as children. It is an honest and accurate portrayal of children and the way they think and behave. Watch for: Ingemar’s milk drinking scenes.
The Bad Seed (1956)
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy and adapted from a play by Max-well Anderson, this drama/ thriller was rather daring material for the supposedly conservative 1950s. As the story unfolds, Christine Penmark seems to have it all. A lovely husband, nice home and wonderful daughter make her life an absolute dream. The one thing standing in the way of that ideal is her little daughter, played in an impeccable performace by Patty MacCormack. With bobby socks, Mary Janes and perfect blonde pigtails Rhoda is not all that she seems. She has killed and will kill again. Here in this ideal 1950’s household, a child who by her outward demeanor seems the epitome of middle class manners and good taste, commits premeditated murders with amazingly logical reasons for her actions, still with time to play with her tea set and roller skate around the neighborhood. Hers was never the face of sinister evil. She portrayed real childhood and the pure emotions that come along with it. If you like old, seemingly conservative black and white movies with a twist, then this is a flick for you. Watch for: Rhoda’s priceless piano playing scene.

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