Monday, April 12, 2010

Movie Memories

This post is not so much about the particular movies that I will mention but about the surrounding circumstances. And if you are a law enforcement agent scanning the internet for drug use, let me just say that the drug use mentioned in this post was in 1979 and I stopped buying pot less than a year later when the price went from $40 an ounce to $45 an ounce because I'm stubborn (and cheap) like that, so dear Mr. Law Dude, you are wasting your time here. Okay, on to the movies:

The Exorcist (1973): This was a fun experience because 2 or 3 carloads of us went to see this. It was my parents, my brother, myself and a whole bunch of my parents' younger friends as well as some of my brothers friends. We took up two rows. I had never been to a movie with a group before so it was exciting. The second big part about this was I had never been to a movie with Dad before. (Movie going had started out with my brother, sometimes Mom and my brother, and then later with friends.) The third standout memory was this one guy in our group that was maybe 22 or so leaning forward and asking Dad, "Are you sure she should be here? She's only 12." Dad responded, "Hell, she read the book when she was 10!"

Hitler: The Last 10 Days (1973): This was the first time I went to the movies with just Mom and Dad. It was also how I discovered that Hitler and I have the same birthday.
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Jaws (1975): This was my first real car date. I was 14 and Otto was 16 and drove a little yellow MG convertible. I thought I had posted about this but couldn't find it on the blogger search, so I'll post about it in the future and I'll use my 1975 diary explanation of it.
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Taxi Driver (1976): This was the second and last movie that I saw with just Mom and Dad. They split up maybe two months after that. I don't remember much about the movie except how creepy Robert DeNiro was, but I always think about it being the last thing I did with my parents. I never watched it again. I don't know why.
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Alien (1979): The summer of 1979 was one long crazy party. I had lived in Texas from mid January until early June and had come home to a boyfriend that missed me like crazy, Dad who had missed me like crazy and Dad's new girlfriend (my future step-mom) who now lived with us and was terrified of me (she told me that years later) because all these people missing me had caused me to become a big mythical celebrity in her mind. Somehow the four of us decided to go see this movie that everyone was talking about. High School Boyfriend was driving and as he took off, he reached into his pocket and handed everyone their own joint. We were all like "What?" because pot smoking had always been about passing a joint around, but he decided we should all have our own for this movie. So we all giggled and smoked our own joint. I remember trying to "maintain" as we stood in line for tickets and then getting our seats. And then this happened:
We all screamed like 7 year old girls and probably came out of our seats for a minute. I think we all held hands after that for about 10 minutes because after smoking a whole joint, it was really just TOO MUCH. Even after watching the whole movie, on the drive home all we talked about was that one scene. It was a crazy way to see it.
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Wholly Moses (1980): This movie is only worth mentioning because it is the only movie I ever got up and walked out on. I thought it was going to be like a good fun Mel Brooks movie. It had some of the same players like Dom DeLuise and Madeline Kahn. Hell it even had Richard Pryor! But it was awful. Maybe if I hadn't quit smoking pot, it would have been okay.
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Body Heat (1981): I really love this movie and can quote lines from it, but this post is not about that. The two things I remember from that night are 1) I got carded. I had never been carded for an R-rated movie in my life and I was twenty when I went to see this. That was really weird. and 2) My date was, without a doubt, the dumbest guy I ever dated and he tried to convince me on the way home that he knew what was going on the whole time. Yeah right.
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My last big movie memory is kind of gross. I don't remember the movie, just that it was some sort of scary movie. It was after my car accident. My left humerus was broken in half and I had a big cast from my underarm to my wrist. All I remember is when the first scary thing happened and I "jumped" I felt the little wing of my upper broken arm move out from the lower part of the bone. It was way creepier than the movie. I was with several people and didn't want to ruin their fun, so I just closed my eyes and thought about other stuff for the rest of the movie. So, don't go to a scary movie if you have a broken bone.
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Those are my weird movie memories and I would love to hear yours.

9 comments:

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

Those were some interesting stories. Did it surprise you in a pleasant way to learn that your step mom was terrified of you?

Okay, my story is after my University results came out and a bunch of us were celebrating. Two teetotalers had made a bet with each other that they would drink alcohol in celebration if they achieved a second upper degree. They did and they drank and they got drunk .....being teetotalers, it did not take much.

We continued our celebrations by going to see "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". One of them was of Indian origin and was very pleased to be seeing a movie set in India. That is until the scene of the banquet in the Maharajah's Palace where they served insects, eyeballs and monkey brains. At that point, he stood up and howled "Nooooo. It's lies. All lies. We don't eat like that in India."

Like good friends, we sunk deep into our seats, pretended not to know him and let the ushers handle him. A memorable experience.

Anonymous said...

One of my memorable movie stories involves a guy I had had a huge crush on forever. He finally asked me out and we went to see Murder on the Orient Express -- his suggestion. As soon as we sit down he tells me he just saw it the week before and that it's stupid and then talks throught he whole thing telling me what was going to happen next and telling me how it ended before it was even half done. It realy pissed me off and realized he was a big jerk and never went out with him again.

Jazz said...

I don't really have any weird movie stories that I can recall, but Body Heat has one of the most memorable scenes ever for me - the one where William Hurt bursts through the patio door to get to Kathleen Turner. At least I think it was in that movie...

Anonymous said...

What a great concept for a blog. I really enjoyed your reminiscences. I'm like Jazz in that I don't really have any weird movie stories. I do remember the time we went to see Easy Rider at the drive-in and you could cut the cannabis fumes in the entire compound with a knife. Nobody needed to buy because everybody got a contact high.

Carole said...

My family & I went to the opening of Jurassic Park back in June, 1993. My son was 9 and my daughter was 15. The opening of such a cutting edge “effect” movie was a really big deal, and one of the local news channels were there catching and interviewing people as they came out of the movie.

So they grabbed me, with my husband and kids in tow, including my mother who was visiting, and asked me what I thought of the movie. I told them it was a great movie and seemed sort of like a modern day Clash of the Titans with the monsters and all, and that my kids loved the movie!

So when I got home and turned on the television, they had teasers all afternoon for the news saying…“We have 3 different doctors who give their opinion and say why you should not take your kids to see Jurassic park, and one mom who says why she thinks it’s okay”!!!

Really??? I couldn’t believe they were doing that, but then when the news story actually came on, it wasn’t bad like the teaser. Most of the doctor’s said to simply use caution per your own children and their ages, and I looked pretty cute back then with my kids watching on so it played off pretty well.

geewits said...

LGS,
~~Actually my stepmom had a terrible life and should write a blog. Lots of crazy stories. I really adore her and understood why she was so timid. Your movie story is hilarious! Thanks!

Xup,
~~What a terrible letdown! I wonder what he was thinking?

Jazz,
~~Yeah, he throws a chair through the glass. As she said, he wasn't too bright was he?

Ian,
~~I remember that from rock concerts. Like sitting on top of a mountain in a cloud.

Carole,
~~I bet that was exciting. It's fun to be on the news. Well, you know, if it's not something tragic I mean.

cwitgo said...

I can tell we like the same movies. Great choices! One of my favorite movie moments was when I was about 20. The movie theater in a larger town near us had midnight shows of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". What a great adventure! Dressing up and watching everyone in costume was great. Kudos to you on this blog. I love it!

geewits said...

cwitgo,
~~I was also a RHPSer! Spent a lot of time going in the spring of my high school senior year and then dressed up as Magenta for Halloween later that year in college. I won first place for my dorm and 7th place for the whole school, then I hit the midnight showing with some strange Riff-Raff that I had met out on the streets. Good times. Thanks for stopping by.

Jocelyn said...

My best memories of seeing movies were at the drive-in during high school...we wouldn't even watch the movie at all, as we were too busy walking, laughing, drinking, chatting, and BEING SEEN.