Hello Everybody,
Since I am new, I am starting treads that are simple yet I believe this topic is valid by helping me and maybe one other person understand why we are they way we are. My serious observation is if we don’t take a hard look at all the small influences we absorbed when we only had a first person perspective, they are still rattling around somewhere in the sub or unconscious.
Some of the movies that I absorbed before the age of 7 or 8 still resonate with me. My mother told me I asked to go see Lawrence of Arabia at least five times. She was a kind woman and actually took me. I think it was all the sand on the large screen that seemed overwhelming. For those of you who remember the movie, they somehow made Peter O’Toole’s eyes ultra blue. What did I get from the movie? I think something like the English people are adventurous and manly. Of course I changed that view when I went to England. My point is, however, there is still a part of me that believes that.
To Sir with Love. Come on. I recently became a substitute teacher and thought I would be like Sidney Poitier. I would be stern and treat that kids as adults. As you would well expect, I was delusional.
2001: A Space Odyssey. Wow! Can anyone remember the name of the actor who played the astronaut. I’m sure many of you can but I don’t. My point here is that even though I didn’t understand the plot, the colors at the end really made me a lover of science fiction. The upscale theatre I was taken to mounted speakers on the side of the audience on walls to create what I would guess would be one of the first attempts at surround sound. This one movie shaped a strong interest in one genre of art.
Disney’s The Jungle Book. I was charmed by it and wore out the 33 1/3 song tract. There has been a lot of discussion about the political correctness of the old Disney movies over the last several years. For example, why did they add an orangutang named King Louie who was obviously Louis Armstrong. When I went to India, I was setting next to a young man from India who thoroughly enjoyed the new live/animation version of it. After that, I thought I really didn’t have the interest how politically correct a Disney film is when it was created in a certain time and place with perhaps different perspectives on currently relevant hot spots. How can people know in the past what the values of the future are going to be?
The Red Baron was another film that comes to mind. It was revisionist portrayal of the Nazi’s as showing the Red Baron as a hero of honor not concerned with politics. About that time, there was a song about Snoopy fighting the Red Baron in a light hearted pop song. Sort of Bizarre? Don’t even get me started on Hogan’s Hero’s.
These are only movies that come to mind, let alone the dozens of cartoon series that filled Saturday morning and comic books On the one hand, I am glad that I was exposed to the popular culture of my time because for the most part it strived to maintain a standard of virtue. On the other hand, how many bizarre fragments of that experience are still deep in the recessed of my psyche?
