POP CULTURE CHALLENGE
The Movies That Define Us
You can tell a lot about a person from their choice of films. Oh dear
There I was, working diligently on several Medium articles. I have lots of ideas to get out and not all of them are about music. Mostly, but not all.
Then what happens? Pierce McIntyre, a.k.a. Hawkeye Trapper, throws out another challenge. I can’t resist a challenge. Damn it.
The challenge was:
- Write about 5 songs that would help people get to know you better.
- Write about 5 movies that would help people get to know you better.
If this idea is on your Radar, here’s Hawkeye’s original challenge. (I’ll have to leave it to others to say if Pierce/Hawkeye is a.k.a. Hotlips too.)
I was going to M*A*S*H the song and movie articles together but I think the original idea was to do two separate pieces. Anyway, it got too long so the songs article will come another time. I’ve never written about movies before.
5 movies that would help others to know me better
My brain capacity is clogged with 159.26 Terrabytes of music and football stuff so there’s no space for much else. I enjoy films but I can’t retain the names of the actors, directors or even the films because my disk is full. Unless it’s Clint Eastwood of course. I know all of his work. Even Cry Macho and those monkey films.
Anyway, here goes and please bear with me on this — remember I’m working with restricted brain RAM.
1. That Star Trek movie with the actors that look like the original series actors but weren’t — about 4 or 5 years ago. I think. Might be more
This was the first film in which Captain James T. Kirk was played by the actor Chris Pike. I think that was his name. It’s probably not as that would be too much of a coincidence; Chris Pike was the captain before Kirk in the original TV pilot episode.
Captain Chris Pike (the character, not the actor if that’s his name) also turned up in the most recent Star Trek TV series, the one with that cool stroppy actress out of Walking Dead. I like her too. Whatever her name.
(Note — I hadn’t realised, until Sarah Paris pointed it out, that I tend to use some British slang in my articles. Stroppy means truculent and contrary. Such a great word.)
That-Star Trek-movie-with-the-actors-who-look-like-the-original-actors has almost everything I want in a film: lots of fights, Kirk saving the universe, Spock and Bones arguing, dastardly Romulans and The Starship Enterprise. Sigh.
2. A Hard Day’s Night, 1964
The name of this film is retained in my permanent memory storage bank because it’s The Beatles and therefore filed under music. I even know the names of the four principal actors in this one. No one else though.
I’ve seen this film about 1,963 times and listened to the album 15,452 times. More or less. 1,963 includes the first time the film was shown in UK cinemas in 1964 when I was a seven-year-old boy. My dad hated The Beatles but took me anyway and sat through it. It’s what dads do.
3. That Rutles TV film thingy, late ‘70s
A comedy mockumentary that was ‘coincidently’ very similar to the real-life Beatles history. The soundtrack features parodies of Beatles’ songs, such as Get Up and Go (Get Back), Hold My Hand (I Want To Hold Your Hand/She Loves You/8 Days A Week) and Ouch (Help).
The song parodies are so good, Cheese and Onions was once released on an unofficial Beatles compilation and listed as a John Lennon composition.
John Innes, who wrote the songs and played Ron Nasty (Lennon) in the film, was taken to court by the owners of the Beatles’ catalogue for copyright infringement. He didn’t infringe anything, the songs were just in the same style and in a couple of cases (Cheese and Onions & I Must Be In Love), almost as good.
Great music and totally hilarious. This is what a film should be. I really don’t want any of that serious angst stuff.
4. The Outlaw Josey Wales, Clint in the ’70s sometime
Clint directed and starred in this one. I told you he has a special disk space allocation in my brain. My dad loved Westerns and I was brought up watching them with him from the age of about one week.
It would have been sooner but when I was born, first-time mothers had to stay in hospital for a few days and they didn’t have a TV in the ward. Besides, my mum wasn’t keen on Westerns so I’d have had to argue with her which would have been tricky as I couldn’t yet talk.
My dad loved John Wayne and that little guy who had to stand on a box because he was too short. They were a bit too, you know. For me, even at one week old. Clint, on the other hand, was the real deal. Josey Wales showed it as it probably was in reality.
5. Western Stars, 2019
I’ve only seen this film twelve times and listened to the two albums about 593 times, (there’s a live and studio version). I hope there’s still time to get to 1,963 and 15,452 respectively but Hard Day’s Night had a 55-year head start. I’d be 120 years old by then so I probably need to start clearing appointments now.
The film is a Springsteen concert where he plays his Western Stars album live in the barn at his home while he narrates between tracks. Hard Day’s Night and Western Stars are possibly the greatest films of all time. They bring an emotional lump to my throat, even after watching 1,963 times.
Western Stars doesn’t have any starships or Mr Spock which is a bummer. It does have some of the greatest music ever written and Mr Springsteen. That’s more than enough.
The films that define us
The music and movies we love tell us something about ourselves. In my case, I think I already knew but it was fun to write it down.
Let us know the movies that define you.
Also by Alex Markham on Plethora Of Pop: