Movies, Movies, Movies

Movies are “The stuff that dreams are made of.” Wikipedia describes them in this way: “Films (movies) are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating– or indoctrinating– citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication.”

Movies are different than theater in many ways (which I am not getting into) but I want to discuss how movies have touched my life. 

I have always lived in the age of movies. I remember as a teen one of the big attractions was going to the movie theater on Friday night to watch movies and get together. We would meet boys there and watch Elvis movies; we couldn’t date (I think I was in Junior High School), but I guess we were going together in a very informal way. Your "boyfriend" would ask you to "meet him at the movies on Friday night," and you were "going together"-- for that week, (actually that night), but it was exciting! I don’t recall I ever did that, but I knew many who did. 

The Bountiful Movie Theater that was big at that time was on Main Street right next to where Carr Stationery is (about 185 South Main). I don’t know when it closed down. There was another movie theater, the Queen Theater on 5^th South near where the Flower Patch Shop is now, but it wasn’t “the” place to go like the theater on Main Street. 

I always liked movies. I prefer comedies and romances, and some dramas. I

don’t like horror, sports, or cowboy movies. The movies I remember most from my early years were Roman Holiday, The Ten Commandments, Some Like it Hot, West Side Story, Sound of Music, the Manchurian Candidate, Lawrence of Arabia, A Hard Day’s Night, Dr. Zhivago, and all of Elvis Presley’s movies.

Some other of my all-time favorite movies are: Gone with the Wind, Indiana Jones and Star Wars movies, My Fair Lady and most musicals. 

Ed has never liked movies that much, so I recall right after we were married going to matinee movies by myself so I could see the movies I liked that I knew he would never go to with me. Ed would go to popular movies with the kids and me if it was really big. When it was my birthday or anniversary, I’d always ask him to take me to a movie because I’d much rather see a movie than go out to eat, and he would usually agree. 

I loved taking our kids to the movies; it was a good excuse to see a good movie. I did not like cartoons or animated movies!!!! But I would take my children to see animated movies and all children’s movies. I remember when my fifth and last child was young; I loved taking him to children’s movies because it was the only time I got to take a nap (while he watched the movie).

Ed started going to the movies with me a lot when we were in Los Angeles waiting for his lung transplant; we went to museums, events, and occasionally we would go to movies just to have something to do. Movies in L. A. were more an event than a movie—the one multi-screen theater we went to that was close to our apartment had some theaters with couches rather than seats and other theaters served wine in the evenings (to adult only shows). It was pretty posh. You could get free preview tickets to shows and they raffled off t-shirts and other items from the shows. We went to a preview of the movie Anonymous and we won some t-shirts.

While we lived in Los Angeles Ed did respiratory rehab with a famous agent, and other people in our ward worked in movies, so Ed & I got a mild case of “Academy Award” fever; people have Academy Award parties (though we didn’t go to any). You just can’t live in L. A. without becoming a movie fan—everywhere you look they are advertising movies, movies, movies. The Fox Studios were right on our street so we passed them every day, and one of our friends worked there. 

 When Diana and Jason came out to visit us in L. A., we got a map of the movie stars’ houses and drove around and looked at them. It was fun (even if I am not a big movie star fan). We even went to some of the movie star hangouts, but we never saw any stars, but then Bryan told me I wouldn’t recognize them if I’d seen them.

Bryan is our movie geek! He knows movies—who the actors were, and quotes

from the movies. It is not just because he got his Associates Degree in Film Production and studies movies intensely. He has always studied movies, their actors, their themes, etc. He amazes me that he knows actors, films, and so much about them. His taste is so different than mine also. He loves horror shows, sci-fi, psychological, and anything that is weird. His comedy is off-the-wall, but that is because he does improv. 

His favorite movie NOW (it changes by the day or week) is “Thor” and “Ender’s Game” (which I know many like), but you couldn’t pay me to see. Ed & I did see “The Saratov Approach” at a noon matinee last week—I liked it.

But the funniest thing was when I rented “Whitehouse Down” and Ed & I watched it. Bryan said, “You couldn’t like that movie, Mom—it is violent and action-packed and you don’t like that kind of movie.” I guess sometimes I can like something different. Even if Bryan doesn’t approve.