Reminiscing a Childhood

I was always the kid who wanted to rent every movie in the movie store. The comedy, horror, and thriller sections definitely caught my attention, but I never really had the desire to think about those movies which involved more of a complex plot. The movies which made the viewer put his/her mind in the story, to figure out the parts in a specific order. Such as the movies we watched in class. Yet again, I was just a curious kid with intentions to only watch movies for the entertainment. I suppose I should look deeper into what the real meaning of a movie is.

My mind has been enhanced with the large selection of movies being produced as I grew up and have continued to this day. My perception of movies was taken to a greater extent when I participated in this mind on film class for English. The typical horror movies I watched as I kid seemed to be so unpredictable. As I look back on those movies and taking this class, I can see a more logical approach taken by the director. The “Mind on Film” class gave me a better idea of how to break down a movie and allowed me to hear everyone else’s opinions against mine. I’m not a director and my criticism for a movie may not be correct, but I’ve gathered a concept of the building of a movie based on genre, characters and sequential events. I think the exposure I’ve had the past few months in this class has given me more respect for movies that involve the mind. Inception, Black Swan, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind were a few of my favorites from the class and as a kid, I would have had no interest in these films.

I never thought continuing my education in college, would I ever take a class that involved any kind of creative writing on film. Although, watching movies is one of my favorite hobbies, I now had the chance to go to class and watch movies for two hours. Yes, there were a few of the movies that I wasn’t into as much. Amelie, for example, was a French movie and included subtitles. I’m not too fond of watching a movie that includes subtitle language for the whole entire movie. Even if the movie was at the bottom of my list, I still gained a knowledge of a love story created in another country and was entertained by the character’s comedic effect. Entertainment was the biggest reason why I was so intrigued by films at a young age and still is one of my biggest interests. The comedies I watched usually involved one of my favorite actors, such as Jim Carrey. Along with that one person who had an effect on a community and the slashing sequences of a murder such as Halloween, always caught my attention. Those ideas seem kind of off the wall for a kid at young age but I was viewer who was fearless as to what was going on. I usually ended up being the only one who had the guts to watch horror movies by myself because my friends were too scared to watch it.

I feel that the exposure of these films at a young age has influenced my opinions in this class because I can enjoy the movie and then critique myself on what is actually going on. Learning the different approaches in the class will influence my current opinions on movies from now on. The genre, character’s influence and overall production of the films are clearer to me and I can use those ideas to understand movies. The discussions which were brought up throughout this quarter have made my mind more open after watching all the movies as well. Instead of just jumping to conclusion on a movie which I normally had done before, I will be able to evaluate the movie by thinking outside the box. I feel the opinions of others throughout the quarter made me gain a lot of respect for the different views people give for movies. I’ve learned how other people see the movies and I feel I thought more about the movies after hearing others.

My mind on film has been changed over the past ten weeks and I hope to continue to watch movies for the pure enjoyment and to be able to think critically about them. I was very excited to see what movies were going to be presented and thought that I was just going to write a movie review. Little did I know, I was going to have to think more in depth about the characters, genre and plot. Of course, I didn’t view my childhood favorites in class. But through pure enjoyment of viewing the movies, I felt as if I was a kid all over again.