Movies and Memories

I've always been a little fascinated by the way human memory works.  It will never cease to amaze me how our minds key memories to the seemingly most inane objects or experiences.  To be honest, particularly as a writer, I find it entertaining to see how memories are triggered by the most random things on occasion.  It definitely makes for great story ideas.

This will probably seem incredibly random but as an example a friend of mine and I got into a minor discussion the other day on movies that have served as sign posts for certain memories.  We bantered back and forth for a while but then began to each come up with some fairly good stories based on nothing more than movie titles.

It may not be the usual topic for a blog here at the C.S. but I thought I'd share (most of) the list I came up with during the conversation.  Maybe it might spark a few memories for some of you as well.  By the way, this list is nowhere near comprehensive.  It's just a little stumble down amnesia lane for the heck of it on the beautiful Monday afternoon.

The Purple Rose of Cairo - directed by Woody Allen. 

I watched this movie for the first time thanks to an extremely lazy gym teacher in eigth grade.  Little did I realize that instead of spending my day playing with this round orange thing called a basketball I was about to be introduced to truly classic wit and dialogue in a movie - and there weren't even any Wookiees!

The Star Wars Trilogy and The Indiana Jones Trilogy

Yes I mean the originals, no Jar-Jar poodoo thank you very much.  These movies were what being a kid and going to the movies was really all about:  Saturday afternoon matinees, bad popcorn and sodas big enough to swim in.

Rocky IV and Iron Eagle

These was some of the very first movies my parents recorded off of their brand new Cable TV on their brand new VCR when I was a kid.  Rocky vs. Ivan Drago went a long way toward teaching a little mind about not giving up when things got tough.  Iron Eagle was just cool because of the jets and the kick ass.  For some reason when I was in middle school and beginning to deal with migraines these became the go to feel better flicks.

American Ninja

To my best recollection, this was the first R rated movie I ever saw.  My best friend growing up, Ed Craft, and I watched the movie at one bar of volume in the middle of the night in my parents' living room because my folks didn't exactly subscribe to the whole idea of R rated movies and prepubescent children.  This was also very near the time Ed introduced me to Metallica.  God bless you sir!

Grease and Predator

Two of the oddest movies you could put together and yet somehow they were played back to back at a church youth group co-ed sleepover during my freshman year of high school in Texas.  I can very clearly remember how stunningly hot a certain young lady seemed by the end of Grease and how, somewhere around the time Jesse Ventura buys it in Predator, I was annoyed with her for geting between me and the television.  Yeah, somebody was eventually regretting that decision . . .

Batman

The Michael Keaton original, of course.  This was the first movie I was able to actually drive myself to go see and the time I became so horribly lost in Dallas, Texas at one in the morning that I didn't know if I would ever see home again..

Days of Thunder

The first time I drove a girl to see a movie on a date.  Also the time that I realized that allowing testosterone and a sixteen year old right foot to combine after a race car movie was not going to engender any kind of cuddly response from the rather pretty girl sitting in the passenger seat and hanging on to the oh-shit bar for dear life.

Starship Troopers

Two wonderful things happened while watching this movie.  First I received proof that my father, who had accompanied my friends and I to this opus, suffered from the same degree of testosterone poisoning that I did.  Secondly, I began to understand that my obsession with athletic, curly red-headed women was a very real and tangible thing. 

Mallrats

This was my introduction to Kevin Smith's brilliance in my friend David Hunt's dorm room one Friday night in college.  You know, come to think of it, in a way a lot of how and why I do what I do now stemmed from that night.  Feel free to blame Dave as you feel appropriate.

Tin Cup

This one brings a whole slew of memories with it and every last one of them involves dumb ass golf with my friends in college on a horrific mountain golf course.  Some things are just better with witnesses and some things are just better left quietly in a sand trap.

UPDATE:  Mortal Kombat
Thanks to Mr. Hunt for the catch on this one.  I completely left off one of the greats here and I should have updated it earlier.  Mortal Kombat is a major memory for a lot of reasons.  1)  The first video game movie I remember, or at least the first one that kicked ass.  2)  My then-girlfriend getting all geeky on me when she drug me to see some god awful chick flick just because it had a MK trailer in front of it. 3) After hundreds of hours beating the shit out of each other on the console, we were all horribly disappointed to see Liu Kang win it all.  4) My friend Dave and the absolute, without a doubt, so horrific it was awesome Kano impression of all time.  I think we heard "hello baby" in a bad australian accent for about five years after the fact.  I even distinctly remember him breaking it out at my first wedding.

Striptease

I would be horrifically remiss if I didn't include this one.  This movie conjures images of floating down the mighty Tuckaseegee river in college, VERY slowly, getting a horrific sunburn, then driving all the way to Asheville with Eric Jones for the sole purpose of finding a movie theater playing anything at all right then.  All I remember of the first time I watched this movie was being so cold that my teeth were literally chattering and being so out of it from the sunburn that the movie made very little sense.  Sadly, the next time I tried to watch it several years later it made even less sense.

Harold and Maude

I watched this during a film as literature class in college.  I remember it simply as the only time, including every horror movie I've ever watched, that I have ever thrown up during a movie.  The may have been alcohol involved, I'll never tell.

Armageddon

This was the last movie I saw in a drive in theater to date and I saw it in a steadily decaying facility outside of Asheville, N.C.  That is one of those truly awesome experiences of Americana that I wish someone would find a way to revive, although I'm not sure you can put IMAX 3-D on an outdoor screen.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

I was going through my divorce about the time the third of these movies came out.  I remember that my now ex-wife had laughed at me heartily for being a nerd because a local theater was selling an all day ticket to watch all three extended editions, back to back, including meals.  I also remember that one of my first days as a newly single person was spent in a very large theater chair indulging my inner nerd to its absolute fullest.

The Girl Next Door

This one is probably an overshare but watching that DVD for the first time ranks as the most sexually frustrating night of my adult life and it had absolutely nothing to do with the movie.  No further details will be added for everyone's sake, anonymity and to attempt to avoid anyone wretching in the aisles of their workplace.

The Kingdom of Heaven

This movie was where I learned, without a doubt, that being the only guy in a group of women has its very clear advantages and its very, very dangerous pitfalls.  I also learned that getting overly happy about slaughter in front of the opposite sex can lead to questions you just don't want to have to answer later when the lights come back up.

Serenity

I remember having to be drug to this movie for the first time by my sister.  It now ranks as one of my top three all time favorites.  Who knew genius could be expressed in hybrid English and Chinese?  I remember the night clearly because it was the first time I had to publicly admit she was right about anything!

300

The cataclysmic level of testosterone poisoning the average male received in the theater while watching this flick was exponentially higher than any other action movie.  I'll never forget it as long as I live because I watched my brother-in-law, normally a very cool and laid back person, lose his temper and be ready to go all Leonidas on a rather ignorant Marine.  I don't remember exactly what was said to start it but I do remember that he very suddenly had about six guys as back up and somebody, I think it was his wife / fiance at the time, had the sense to tell us all to get out of the theater.  I also very clearly remember submitting about an extra 150 points on his man card the next morning for just sheer balls!

and lastly, so I can stop torturing you all, The Expendables

This movie is the perfect action movie in my opinion.  I remember it being, for the first time in a long time, the only movie that did not disappoint me and a really good night overall because it included a CharGrill cheeseburger and massive violence and no objections from any female in the group.

Okay, so that's enough of that tumble down amnesia alley.  What are some of your favorite movie triggered memories?  Post them in the comments section!