Originally appeared Sept. 12, 2012, in the Rockford Register Star
“That’s a pretty good gig you got down there.”
I’ve heard those words — or some version of them — a lot over the years, usually right after someone realized I’m the guy who reviewed movies for the Register Star.
Those folks were wrong — and right. Wrong because that column wasn’t all I did at the paper, not by a long shot. I was a copy editor and page designer, and writing the Movie Man only took an hour or so each week, crammed in wherever I could find the time. But they were right about the part that counted: It was, in fact, a pretty good gig. And now, after more than 18 years and 900-plus columns, it’s over.
I left my desk at the News Tower about a month ago, and this is my last column. But, before I go, I thought I’d answer a few questions people ask me, usually right after they make some variation of the “pretty good gig” comment.
“Do you get to see all those movies for free, or does the paper pay for it?”
Neither. For one thing, I almost never reviewed actual movies, in the sense of seeing them in the theater. It was really a home video column, which meant I could write about almost any film I wanted. Plus, I was able to build a truly impressive DVD collection. Which brings me the second frequently asked question:
“So, you must have a lot of movies, right?”
Oh yeah. It’s amazing how many companies willingly sent me DVDs in the hopes that they’d get some small mention in the paper. I’m grateful to them, of course, except for whoever kept flooding my mailbox with seasons of “Swamp People” and various Lifetime movies. Those, I assure you, never made it into the permanent collection. But the movies I treasure — classic Warner Bros. gangster films like “Little Caesar,” offbeat indie flicks like “Bellflower” and foreign oddities like “Norwegian Ninja”? Those discs occupy a proud spot on my shelf, and I remain eternally thankful that someone, somewhere decided readers in Rockford might like to expand their cinematic horizons. More on that in a bit, but first, here’s the last frequently asked question:
“Well then, what’s your FAVORITE movie?”
This column has been, more or less, a very, very long answer to that exact question. I realize now that what I was really doing in all those articles was arguing with myself over the merits of hundreds of movies, compiling and re-compiling my own canon and, hopefully, making my case for the glory of cinema — and, at the same time, expanding your idea of what a great movie is.
I can’t narrow my favorite down to one film, of course, but like all movie geeks, I have a list in my head that I endlessly tweak and rearrange. When I was a kid, “Star Wars” led that list. As I grew older and saw more movies, others took its place: “Goodfellas,” “Brazil,” “Dr. Strangelove,” “The Manchurian Candidate.” Now all those movies and others — “Cat People,” “The Apartment,” “Sweet Smell of Success,” “The Hudsucker Proxy” — battle it out for the top spot. And every time — every single time — I slump into a theater seat or pop a disc into the player, I hope the movie I watch will become one of those contenders. That’s the beauty of being a movie fan: You never know.
And that’s what I’ve tried to do for all these years — to convince you to walk past the new releases rack at the video store (remember video stores?) and try something different. Movies have been around for more than 100 years, and there are some great ones you’ve never, ever seen. Movies that are silent, or in black and white, or from another country, or made by people who never became famous. Just because a movie died at the box office doesn’t mean it’s bad — and just because it made a fortune doesn’t mean it’s good.
If I can leave you with any parting words before you turn to the comics, let it be these two: Challenge yourself. The next time you’re sitting on the couch, complaining that “there’s nothing on,” realize you live in a magical age, when virtually any movie ever made is easily seen. I know it’s simpler to flip over to the latest “Storage Wars” marathon than order “A Separation” on pay-per-view or call up “Citizen Kane” on Netflix. But trust me, it’s worth it. Watching a great movie — or a good movie, or even a bad movie — can be a transformative experience, letting you tap into the minds of creative people and experience a piece of art they made years, even decades ago. And realize that, maybe just maybe, it still has power.
In the late 1980s, when I was in college, I stayed up late one night watching a poor-quality videotape (yes, tape) of “Sunset Blvd.” that I’d recorded off TV. The picture was lousy, the sound was worse, and it was interrupted every few minutes with commercials. But none of that mattered.
If you don’t know, Billy Wilder’s 1950 masterpiece ends with silent star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) adrift in her own memories and emoting for the cameras, not realizing they’re covering her arrest for murder. I was watching with a friend who’d seen it before, and he says that when poor, crazy Norma gestures to “all those wonderful people out there in the dark” that I just about levitated out of my chair, stammering “What … a… great … movie.”
That, my friends, is what I want for you. I want you to sit down in the dark with a movie you’ve never seen and levitate right out of your chair. Because that’s what movies can do if you give them half a chance.
In case you’re wondering, I have no plans to stop writing about films. If you have no plans to stop reading about them, you can still catch my quick takes and snarky jokes on Facebook and Twitter. If you want to read my longer, more involved pieces, visit my blog atxrayspex.blogspot.com, where I cover all sorts of pop culture — including, of course, movies.
But this, alas, is the end of the Movie Man column. Working at a newspaper can be an exhausting, frustrating experience, but even when the work was piling up, I can honestly say I never minded making time for this column. It taught me a lot about writing, about movies and about myself.
In other words, it was a pretty good gig.