If you look through my family's movie collection, it tells a lot about our personal likes and interests. My collection of movies is easy to spot. Spider-Man, X-Men, and Star Wars are all there. You can even find the two Mortal Kombat movies (hey, I liked them) in my collection. Among the shelves of discs are a few war movies scattered about as well as my collection of Disney movies . . . which I still sometimes watch. My father's collection is made up of the comedic genius of Monty Python as well as comedy movies like Wild Hogs (which is a movie I still refuse to see). Then there's my mother's collection, seemingly out of place among all the action-packed thrillers and big laughs - the musical. It's a running joke in my family that you should never get sick, because if you do, my mother will make you watch Hello Dolly! to help you get well. I can't tell you how many times I've seen that movie, at least 200, and it pains me greatly to think about it even now. I haven't been that sick in a long time (knock on wood) to keep me from school or work so I haven't had to watch Hello Dolly! for a few years now.
I was brought back to my childhood when I watched one of Disney Pixar's latest movies, Wall.E. Why? Because Wall.E seems to love Hello Dolly! and the music is played repeatedly throughout the movie. I couldn't help roll my eyes and make a gagging motion to my mother when we watched Wall.E in the theaters. But I noticed something else, that the majority of the people in the audience didn't even recognize the music. You can't blame them, when was the last time Disney truly did a musical? Mulan was probably the last good animated musical and it was brought back in the 2007 movie, Enchanted, but it's not the same as it was decades ago.
I was raised on the great movies of Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, and so many others. Every Christmas, we watch White Christmas and Holiday Inn, and every Easter it's Easter Parade. When I was little I loved them. The catchy tunes, the beautiful costumes, and the fun stories fed into my imagination. Yet, as I got older, I started to see how unrealistic musicals were. How many times have you been at the park or the grocery store when someone broke out into song? Singing when you are happy or in love never happens in the real world, usually. As I moved away from Disney movies and the old time musicals, I replaced them with sci-fi and adventure films. Admittedly, my first action movie (Cliffhanger) I watched was a movie I wasn't supposed to even see, that's what you get when you have your older brother baby-sitting you. As I fell in love with Star Wars and Jurassic Park, my tastes evolved and I left the musical behind. But now that I've been fully fed on as many action-packed movies as I could stomach, I find myself coming full circle and returning to the movie genre that raised me.
I'm horribly tired of action movies. I didn't see a single summer blockbuster last summer and I have finally just watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which I am trying hard to forget). They are full of pretty explosions, violence, profanity, and nothing else. It's not that I dislike big car wrecks or violence in movies, but I only enjoy them when they have a purpose . . . and that purpose should be to further drive the story. The overuse of violence, drugs, sex, and profanity has me wondering if they just add that in because they think it will help sell the movie. What happened when movies could be good and clean? I find myself missing the rose-colored innocence I had when I used to watch Disney greats like Aladdin and the Lion King or musical classics like In the Good Old Summertime. There are three movie trailers I've watched recently. The first is for the movie 2012 which talks about the end of the world and is taken from a Mayan calendar prediction. I can't seem to find any real fuzzy feelings from that movie. The next one is a comedy with Hugh Grant called Did You Hear About the Morgans? It's a comedy about a troubled married couple who witness a murder and get put into witness protective custody. Out of all the movies it has the "nicest" story but I find it sad that as a society we are used to things like divorce and murder. The last movie I have to admit I was most shocked about. Legion is a story about how God losses faith in humanity and sends his angels to deliver punishment. A lone angel defies God and comes to earth to help the humans. I'm not going to get into how this is wrong scripturally but I will mention this. If you take this into context with the Bible, the fallen angel come to save humanity is satan. It's a sad time if the devil is portrayed as the savior of man and God as the destroyer of man.
The musical hasn't been completely lost on my generation, two great films come to mind in Moulin Rouge and Chicago - both musicals and both won many awards. Still, the content of the classic musical seems to have been lost. Musicals used to portray people helping people. If someone dropped their books, a passing stranger would stop to help. If you broke something, you would pay the person back. Simple acts of kindness that don't seem to be seen in movies anymore, at least in the same light. Maybe it's time we revive the good old fashion style that used to dominate the movies. This post comes a little over a week after one of the worst crimes this year happened in Richmond, CA. At Richmond High's Homecoming dance, a 15 year old girl was gang raped outside of the school while dozens of classmates sat by and watched. Only one person called 911 to report the attack, a girl who didn't even witness the crime. Her friends told her about the guys bragging to them about the attack and she then called the police. Though you can't blame movies or the media for events like this, they definitely reflect the changes that have taken place in our society.
The musical hasn't been completely lost on my generation, two great films come to mind in Moulin Rouge and Chicago - both musicals and both won many awards. Still, the content of the classic musical seems to have been lost. Musicals used to portray people helping people. If someone dropped their books, a passing stranger would stop to help. If you broke something, you would pay the person back. Simple acts of kindness that don't seem to be seen in movies anymore, at least in the same light. Maybe it's time we revive the good old fashion style that used to dominate the movies. This post comes a little over a week after one of the worst crimes this year happened in Richmond, CA. At Richmond High's Homecoming dance, a 15 year old girl was gang raped outside of the school while dozens of classmates sat by and watched. Only one person called 911 to report the attack, a girl who didn't even witness the crime. Her friends told her about the guys bragging to them about the attack and she then called the police. Though you can't blame movies or the media for events like this, they definitely reflect the changes that have taken place in our society. When was the last time someone held the door for you or helped you get an item you couldn't reach at the grocery store? When was the last time you held the door open for someone else? While movies don't teach you everything, they sure help to enforce which behaviors are right and which behaviors are wrong. So while I do still enjoy those heart-racing blockbusters, I find myself turning more and more to those classic musicals with old school values. Where happiness was something you created not bought, when you could find a friend in your neighbor next door or the stranger at the store, and a time where you could measure the happiness and love a person felt by how much they sang. Maybe more mothers should have their kids watch Hello Dolly! when they are sick.
