Legacy... Continued

One of the wonderful things about being a Film Warrior and a parent is watching my children discover their own taste in movies. As my oldest has grown, I have continued to suggest titles he might be interested in seeing. Often he rejects my suggestions, but lately he has started to trust me more and more. I'm not just talking about the usual fare. He was exposed to “Star Wars”  “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” and "E.T." long ago. And he has embraced or discarded my list of favorites based on his own criteria for some time now.


I'm talking about those movies that I really enjoy, but have not become classics, or must haves, even films that I've long ago forgotten about. Through my kids, I'm rediscovering movies from my youth. And we are discovering common ground through these resurfaced gems.

Most recently, on a rather rare jaunt to the corner Blockbuster Video, (yes kids, they still exist, though how much longer they can survive their stupid pricing policy and lack of actual movies on the shelf is hard to say) in search of a copy of “The Ring,” which they didn't have, I found a generic box (no cover art) for “Better Off Dead.” I figured, if I couldn't give my son a good scare, I might as well give him a good laugh.



And laugh we did. And almost always at the same moments. This was reassuring. My teenage son has the same sense of humor that I do. That's not to say that my sense of what's funny is particularly mainstream, in fact, it's pretty off beat at times. I mean, I consider “Brazil” a laugh riot.



But what it does tell me is that my attempt to pass down my Film Warrior legacy to my first born, just as I planned nearly fifteen years ago, (see Legacy for that story) is succeeding astonishingly well.

What was really cool about this whole experience was realizing that this was a movie from my college days, and it still holds up with a new generation. Yes it's a bit dated, but so what? “North By Northwest” isn't exactly timeless, but it still works.

Sharing movies that mean something to me with loved ones has long been a passion of mine. I always hope it will spark conversation, and maybe through these films they will understand me a bit better. No one in my family gets “It's A Wonderful Life” like I do. But there are reasons, very personal reasons, why it affects me so powerfully. (some of which you can find HERE).  Maybe someday, my children will look back on the moves I've crammed into their collective minds and realize I've been showing them a bit of my soul. Maybe not. But one can hope.

In the mean time, I continue to search the dusty shelves of video stores, and the electronic aisles of Netflix  and Amazon.com  for those gems buried in my past. If I can't leave them a fortune, maybe I can leave them something a little more precious, the memories of watching great movies with their loving Dad.