There are important moments in every body’s childhood. Like the first time you shit in the toilet and not your pants. For me a big moment was the first time I watched The Neverending Story and each subsequent viewing there after. I asked my mom about my love of the movie.
“Whenever you saw that wolf and his greens eyes you just started crying and it went down hill from there.”
So what if I cried. I’m not embarrassed. If I’m not embarrassed to admit that I love The Neverending Story then I damn sure ain’t embarrassed by the fact that it makes me cry.
I haven’t seen this movie in about 15 years. Maybe even 20 but I never forgot about it. I forgot a lot of the stuff that happened in the movie. Did anyone else think that Falkor died? Well he doesn’t. For some reason, and my girlfriend also felt this way, I thought Falkor died. Pretty sad coming from a guy who says he loves the movie, no?
For those of you who don’t know this movie it’s about a boy named Bastian who discovers a book called The Neverending Story. The book is the story of the land of Fantasia. It’s a world built on the hopes and dreams of humanity. Man, however, has lost hope and because of this Fantasia is being taken over by The Nothing. A lone hero named Atreyu is on a quest to save the doomed world. As Bastian reads the book he discovers that he’s linked to the story written within it’s pages. The movie is based on a German novel by Michael Ende. Of course, only a German children’s book would use philosophical concepts like nothing as a character of destruction.
I was only four when the movie was released in 1984. Hopefully I’m not alone in my love for this children’s classic. For those of you who don’t like The Neverending Story, well it doesn’t like you either. In fact God doesn’t like you. If I were you, I’d go to church tomorrow and beg for forgiveness.
So how was my childhood pissed all over? There’s a movie theater in Washington, DC called the Landmark E Street Cinema. The Landmark shows smaller films with limited release. Not the blockbuster films shown at AMC. I refer to Landmark lovingly as “The Good Theatre.” I say it in such a way that you know I mean theatre and not theater. Their concession stand has Ghirardelli chocolate bars and imported beer. It’s a classy joint.
Most Friday and Saturday nights they show older films to sold out crowds, films with some sort of cult following or significance. For example they showed The Goonies last weekend and will be showing Back to the Future next weekend. Good movies. Fun movies. The funny thing is these are the kind of movies that Landmark wouldn’t show if they were released today.
My girlfriend and I were pretty pumped that they would be showing The Neverending Story. She even went early to pick up tickets just in case it was busy. We got there early. She bought a Cherry Pepsi and we were the first into the theatre. We got the best seats in the house.
Now I’m all for fun at the movies. I’m all for talking back to your television, especially if Megan Fox is on it pretending to act but I never, ever ruin a movie for someone else. I never talk so loudly as to disturb someone else. Going to the movies is a community event. It’s one of the few positive communal events we have. Most are negative. The earthquake in Haiti and the attacks of September 11th are things that we share as a community that obviously have a negative impact on us.
Movies unite us. We laugh as a community, we cry as a community but it’s something we do together. That wasn’t the case last night. I was in one movie and everyone else was in another movie, even though we were in the same theatre. I was in a movie that I respected and cared for. The rest of the crowd was in a movie from 1984 that had bad effects and 80s rock music. They laughed at characters. They giggled during dramatic scenes. They did everything that an audience of 9 year olds do when they watch a movie pre-2004. I was surrounded by 20 year olds who have been spoiled by the immense production value of The Lord of the Rings and Avatar.
The crowd was so obnoxious that I couldn’t even cry when the wolf lunged at Atreyu.
If you love a certain movie and find out there is a midnight screening at Landmark E Street Cinema in Washington, DC, don’t go. You will not have fun. Maybe it’s unfair to blame The Good Theatre but I’ve never pretended to be fair or balanced. I’m not Fox News. That’s not how I roll.
I’ve told you what movie I loved as a kid. Now it’s your turn. What’s a movie that stood out in your childhood?
