I love the current poll series about the most influential films of all time, but it got me thinking about the moments in movies that hooked me on cinema forever. You know, the ones we see as kids that have an enormous impact on us, forever bonding us to this art form we all so love?
For me, as I’ve mentioned before, it was a scene in “The Ten Commandments,” Cecil B. DeMille’s remake of his own epic, which I saw in 1972 (I think) in a re-release of the picture. In the days before video (yep, that old) the studios would re-release their films every few years and this was a major re-release for Paramount. My dad, also a movie junkie (though not as bad as his son), had talked about this for years and now that it was back we were going.
Admittedly, I was a tad cynical at 12 years old. I fully expected to be disappointed. Still I wanted to see it because I enjoyed going to the movies. Little did I know my life would be changed forever.
We piled into the car and made the drive to the theater, which was packed with familes similar to ours. The lights went down and for the next four and a half hours I was swept back in time, stunned by the size and scope of the film, amazed at the colors, and most of all, astonished at Charlton Heston. Never before had I realized how an actor could command the screen. I never felt like I was watching a performance, either. In awe I watched the Exodus scene as literally thousands of actors moved out of Egypt, led by Moses.
And finally we got to the parting of the Red Sea. Now understand I was 12, it was 1972, before the days of “Star Wars” and computer-generated effects. The sky went black behind Heston and the waters became choppy, raging as we got to closer to the moment. “Behold his mighty hand,” and my jaw all but hit the ground. Chills and goosebumps started all over me. I leaned closer to the screen, resting my head on my hands on the seat in front of me. My dad, knowing the impact of what had just happened, put his hand on my back as we shared the moment silently.
I left that theater galvanized in some way. From that moment, I knew cinema would be my obsession and that it would play a huge role in my life. That I get paid for writing about film is just gravy; I would do what I do for free.
There were other films, of course, and as I grew older I realized that “The Ten Commandments” was really not a very good film, but it remains a very big film. The DVD sits on my shelf, and every once in a while I will pull it down and watch the sequence all over again.
The other films to impact me in this way would be in the aforementioned “Star Wars,” when the star destroyer soars over head in the film’s opening, and in “The Searchers,” as John Wayne rages through the film to finally come face to face with his niece and his own humanity. I still weep at that one.
Others: Mary Philbin tears the mask off Lon Chaney in “The Phantom of the Opera” exposing his horrific face to us; Charles Foster Kane grows old and empty in “Citizen Kane”; Ingrid Bergman walks away from true love in “Casablanca” because it’s the right thing to do; Chaplin’s smile at the end of “City Lights”; Kong atop the Empire State Building in 1933; Dorothy trapped in the castle as the hour glass empties out in “The Wizard of Oz.;” Brando and Steiger in the back of the cab in “On the Waterfront; the ape throws the bone that becomes the spaceship in a jump cut placing us millions of years from where we were in “2001″. On and on and on, from “Close Encounters” to “Apocalypse Now,” “The Godfather” to “Toy Story.”
So many moments.
What are the moments that stick out for you? Which sequences altered you as a person and the manner in which you perceive film? Tell us in the comments section below.