How Movies have Affected My Life

            Since I was but a wee lad of, well, I don't remember an exact date, or age for that matter, I have always been intrigued by the cinema. From the flashy titles of "Star Wars: A New Hope", to the deep meaning of "Clockwork Orange", movies have shaped my view of the world into a slightly skewed, and perhaps dramatic, perspective. By the age of seven, I had made a top ten list of my all-time favorite movies, of which included "The Land Before Time" and "The Three Amigos". Having a deep seeded love for films at an early age, my interest in the cinema only grew, like an acorn into an oak tree, only, without the squirrels. Anyway, out of the many movies that I have seen and loved, only a select few hold the prized title of "Greatest Bestest Top Movies in the Whole Universe", and from these, the most influential movies of my life, and possibly of film itself, I have derived my view of man, love, war, and everything that life could possibly offer anyone.
             I"m not sure what it is about the cinema that originally attracted me to it. Perhaps it was the awe of the big screen, the power to make a hundred strangers sit in a dark room and laugh or cry together. Perhaps it was some films ability to make me laugh while the man next to me cried. Or maybe, it was the escapist in me, wanting out of this life, and putting myself into the anti-hero on the screen. But mostly, I think it was being able to stay up late when I was six to watch one of my mom's favorite films at ten o"clock at night.
             I remember the first time I ever say the Kiefer Sutherland movie "Flatliners". I was at my father's house (because my mom would never let me see a film that was rated "R") and we were all gathered around the television, intently watching this dark, mysterious film about several college students pushing the envelope of science and psychology. I must have been only nine years old at the time, but to see the things that those students did in the movie, and the repercussions that their tampering with nature brought upon them, allowed me to see the darker side of the human existence.