Moviegoing Memories
Musing Outloud about indelible moments in the cinema
A couple years ago a friend of mine posted some “moviegoing memories” on Facebook and, inspired, I chose to do a series of my own. This post is to port them over to Substack with minor editing and adjustment.
These movies, let it be said, are not necessarily my favorite movies of all time or anything like that. This post is entirely about the experience of being at the movie theatre and feeling the crowd around you, indelible memories imprinted in head for better or for worse, and how those moments resonate often longer than you expected upon first viewing.
They are roughly chronological, not ranked.
Moviegoing Memory #1: 101 Dalmations
This is really the first film I remember seeing theatrically. I know I had attended movie screenings before because I was excited to go and knew what to expect, popcorn and all.
It was just my mother and me. I felt it was unusual and special that it was just her and me and no one else in the family. It was also during a work / school day while my father and my sister were away, so it's interesting to think back and wonder why Mom had the day off.
But I loved every minute of the movie and pretty much immediately wanted to go hunting for Rolly Polly toys like the little fat dog in the cartoon. Mom took me to get pizza at Dion's afterwards, where I recounted the entire movie back to her from memory while she sat and listened to politely without ever seeming worn down by my excitement and energy.
I later owned the VHS and probably watched it up to a 100… and 1… times, to the point where the audio got that whining cassette decay and the colors started bleeding.
Moviegoing Memories #2: The Lion King
I was 8 years old and extremely excited about this movie. My sister offered to take me and a couple of my friends opening weekend. While we waited at my house for the time to leave, we were listening to the radio. Twice I said, "Say more about The Lion King!" and both times the topic on the show we were listening to switched to the box office sales and excitement around Disney's new movie.
Whereas most of the experience of the movie was pretty much as fun and memorable as any good movie experience, of course it’s Mufasa’s death that sticks out to me. I was pretty blown away that it even happened, and then my sister tapped on my shoulder. When I turned to face her, she was making an (exaggerated?) sad face that helped me sort of clarify that not all was lost — this is the Sad Part and we need to see what happens next. It was very comforting.
As adults we're all aware that parental death figures highly in many classic Disney animations, but let's be clear: that's important. Kids CAN handle death and movies can help them understand it. A movie can have a bite that lasts whether it's for children or not. In fact in some ways children's movies can tend to handle death far better than adult ones, because death is treated so casually and with far less consequences in rated R films.
As you will see, most of my Moviegoing Memories are really about who I was with and the audience reaction of the time. It's not necessarily the movies themselves but the experience of them that drives my long term appreciation of film.
Moviegoing Memories #3: Jurassic Park
Ho boy. There's probably no moviegoing experience more important to me than Jurassic Park.
One day when I was 7, I was out with my mother and sister and my aunt and cousin from Pennsylvania. We was at some shop, and I was whining about wanting a toy. My mother said no, and I started to complain about it, and Mom responded, "Dane, we're not getting this toy today because we're going to take you to see a movie about dinosaurs!" I was already a huge fan of dinosaurs and had watched The Land Before Time so many times that my family hated it, so I was 100% on board sacrificing a toy for a dinosaur movie.
When I heard 'a movie about dinosaurs' I literally thought we'd be going to the Natural History Museum and seeing a documentary or something. Instead we went to a 'real movie theatre!' At that point I had no idea what to expect but I definitely knew that it would be worth the wait.
What follows next is a matter of long-term family lore, recalled on pretty much every occasion I visit my Pennsylvania brethren. Somewhere midway through the Tyrannosaurus jail break, I was frozen in my seat, every part of my body filled with electricity and the roars of the king of the dinosaurs shaking my 7 year old bones, and a deeply embedded density crushing in my gut. My cousin leans over and whispers concernedly in my ears, "Are you afraid?"
"Noooo..." I say, "But my stomach is."