Play It Again

-
Image courtesy of worradmu / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The question made me chuckle.  In church this past Sunday, our minister asked how many of us had watched a movie more than once.  Hands went up all over the congregation.  Then he asked how many had watched a movie over five times?  Ten times?  Twenty times?  Thirty times?

He stopped there.  My hand, and a small number of others, still responded yes.

This got me to wondering.  First of all, I knew my answer was correct, I have watched at least one movie more than thirty times, but I don't know the exact number of times I've watched my favorites.

I tried not to dwell on this during the sermon, but I did think about it later and do some calculations.  Then came the question:  Why did I watch these movies so often?  Here's my most watched list with some reasons attached.

  • Shrek:  my granddaughter is to blame for this one.  She will watch it again and again and again.
  • Star Wars (the first one):  no idea how many times I saw it in the theater and on TV, but the number is probably close to thirty.  For a high school journalism class, I interviewed a classmate who had seen it in the theater over 100 times!
  • Cinderella:  can't blame the granddaughter here, although she's helped.  We bought the video when my children were small, but I saw it alot as a kid myself.
  • While You Were Sleeping:  not a movie great, but the dialogue and humor in this movie makes me smile and laugh every time.
  • Willow:  this is one of my favorite movies.  I can quote many of the lines.  It never made a big hit in the box office, but Ron Howard pioneered one area of special effects in a shape-shifting scene.  I attribute part of my love for this movie to the fact that it's the first movie my children sat through without asking to go to the bathroom during the show.
  • Everafter:  I love how Angelica Houston plays the wicked stepmother.
  • The Wizard of Oz:  How many times has it been on TV?  Most people have seen this one many times over.
  • Gone With the Wind:  I first saw this movie when I was eleven.  It was a rite of passage when my mother deemed me old enough to see it.  The scene where Scarlett shoots the Yankee in the face made me wish she'd waited another year or two.  My mother, aunt, sisters, and one of my daughters love this movie.  I had no choice but to join them.
  • Beauty and the Beast:  I embrace the Disney movies giving the women a stronger role.  This was one of the first.  Plus, I think it's the only movie that Bruce and I took all five children to see together.  Computer animation was new and amazing when Disney released this movie.

OK, those of some of my most-watched movies.  This list is far from complete.  What about you?  What movies do you love to watch over and over again?  Why?  Or if you're not a movie buff, what books do you re-read again and again?  Why?

Comments

Terri and Leslie said…
3 come to mind: Remember the Titans, The Notebook, & Shawshank. All for the storylines and great acting... Oh and Ryan Gosling helps :-)
June 11, 2013 at 4:13 PM
Chris Evers said…
Haley jokes with me a lot cause I will watch a lot of movies like star trek,star wars, and Lord of the rings over and over when they come on tv. Doesn't matter where in the movie it is, I'll still stop and watch :)
June 11, 2013 at 5:01 PM
Phil Arnold said…
There are eleven Elvis movies I will watch any time they are on commercial free channels. Seen them a bunch.

Phil
June 11, 2013 at 8:18 PM
Barbara V. Evers said…
Terri, thank you for mentioning Remember the Titans. It's definitely one of my repeats time and again. Great story!
June 11, 2013 at 8:51 PM
Barbara V. Evers said…
Chris, I know exactly what you mean. There are many movies that I'll watch even if they're half-over.
June 11, 2013 at 8:51 PM
Barbara V. Evers said…
Phil, for some reason your answer doesn't surprise me. I used to watch Elvis movies on Saturday afternoons when I was a kid. I've probably seen several of them more than once or twice.
June 11, 2013 at 8:53 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Skin Tone: Describing Your Characters

-
Image
When you write about character's of different races, how do you describe their skin tone? If you've never thought about this, then consider this question: How do the authors you read described persons of color? A few months ago, I attended a webinar about writing diverse characters. The guest was Eliana West of Writers for Diversity . The information she shared felt fresh and valuable, especially related to describing a character's skin tone. I get really tired of seeing African-descended characters described in terms of the goods that drove, and still drive the slave trade--coffee, chocolate, brown sugar. There's some weird psychosocial baggage attached to that.    -- N. K. Jemisin As this quote from author, N. K . Jemisin , indicates, historically, writers have described people of color using food-related descriptors. Many people of color find this offensive. This surprised me, at first, but she has a point, especially when you view it through the quote above. My fir...
Read more

Character Development: Using the Johari Window

-
Image
In my last post, Character Development: the Johari Window , I introduced the Johari Window as a tool for developing your characters. It's important that your character not know everything about their situation. These unknowns can lead to an intriguing story and create possibilities for conflict within the story. How do you use the Johari Window? In this post, I thought I'd provide a simple example of the Johari Window with a character most people know:  Harry Potter. Below, I have filled out the Johari Window as it might appear within the first few pages of book 1, Harry Potter and The Sorceror's Stone . The Johari Window based on Harry Potter and The Sorceror's Stone Three of the quadrants in this window reveal what Harry doesn't know about who he truly is and what happened to his parents. I could add a lot to the quadrants representing what he doesn't know, but I hope this gives you an idea on how a Johari Window might be used. What do you d...
Read more

He Said, She Said, Who Said? Punctuating Dialogue

-
Image
Courtesy of Morguefile.com I've been focusing my posts on workshops and panels I taught or participated on at the Imaginarium Convention. Although this serves as a poor substitute for the real thing, I can share some highlights. This week, we're going to explore dialogue punctuation. The first thing writers need to learn is how to properly punctuate dialogue. I've discovered, over the years, that many don't know how. Notice in the first example below, the dialogue starts at the beginning of the sentence, and the speaking tag (he said, she said, Paul said, etc.) follows it.  A few points to notice: The first letter of the quotation is capitalized. What the person says is a sentence, so it must be capitalized. A comma comes directly after the quote and INSIDE the quotation marks. You can, also, have a question mark or exclamation point here. There is a space AFTER the closing quotation mark followed by the speaking tag and a period at the end of the sentence. In the next ...
Read more