There is a cinetv contest running at the moment and the deadline to enter is tonight at 23:59 here's a link to join in on it.
@cinetv/cinetv-contest-were-back-with-a-new-one
I'm a bit late to the party, but, I decided regardless of being late I still want to join and discuss a couple of films from my past that not only made an impact on me at a young age, but they're films I have re-watched throughout my life so many times and still love them.
First of all. Star Wars is the original trilogy, It's hard for me to discuss them without referring to all three because each had a huge impact on me together, but, for the sake of this discussion, I'll focus just on the first one Star Wars, or A New Hope. It goes by both titles, as the subtitle was added in after the fact, regardless of what anyone says though I usually call it A New Hope.
My earliest memory of this film was when I was around 4 years old, I only have a handful of memories at this age and below and one of my most vivid involves this film. Me, my Mum and Dad were in Dublin and my sister was still in a pram so I know I was only about 3.5 - 4.5 years old. We were on our way to the bus stop and my dad crossed the road leaving us for a minute saying he was just going to get something, I saw him enter a movie shop and when he came out he had a bag. He took from the bag the 97 re-release of the Star Wars trilogy on VHS, the black and gold box with Darth Vader on it. He shoved it in my face and was more excited about getting it than I was.
I don't have a number for the amount of times I watched those films as a kid. But, I know it was a lot and the number is still rising.
The first film not only pushed the limit of practical effects and what was possible with special effects and in so many ways shaped the possibilities for so many things we take for granted in cinema today. The score is powerful, the characters are all well crafted and well cast, the storyline leaves the first film with a conclusive end and could have been left at one movie, thank god it wasn't.
While studying film it was one that we would discuss in class, not only for the story but also for the camera work, editing style and the fact that the clever use of models and costumes was able to teleport you to a galaxy far, far away. For a film made in the '70s, it puts a lot of movies that come out today to shame, in my opinion. Watching the documentaries behind it as I got older never ceased to amaze me and only helped to give more appreciation to the film which my younger self wouldn't have thought possible. One which I often go back to watch is one called Empire of Dreams, which is interviews and footage of the men and women who worked for ILM and the ones responsible for giving us one of my favourite films/ franchises. Well worth watching if you're a film enthusiast or a Star Wars fan, or both.
Star Wars in itself shows George Lucas's appreciation of not only storytelling but also world cinema, which inspired so much of Star Wars and continues to do so. He read the work of Joseph Campbell to write the films and encouraged me to seek out his books too. Well worth the read even if you aren't planning on making a groundbreaking film or story.
Next on the list is different from Star Wars, it's an animation. I was about 9 when I first watched it, I was staying in my uncle's room in my nan's house one day during the summer, it was the coolest room in the house because he had a big collection of films. One of which was Akira. Now, looking back on it, I was way too young to watch this movie, my sister watched it too and she was about 6 and to this day won't ever watch Anime.
I'm not a big Anime fan, the only ones I like are Attack on Titan, One Punch Man and Tokyo Ghoul, Akira though is my favourite. A lot of it flew over my head as a kid, I was attracted to the style, exciting scenes of biker gangs and explosions and espionage.
The film punches you in the stomach right from the first scene and leaves you lying helpless on the floor clinging to your TV. I only watched it again this month, it is great and to me is one of the best Animated films ever made, because it doesn't just rely on the aesthetics of the film, it has a very interesting story which opens up slowly through the run time and has some great characters who walk you through the world slowly as they also don't have any idea of the bigger picture until the story properly starts to unfold for them.
With the backdrop of civil unrest, young directionless people, government testing and untrustworthy politicians. It is one of my favourite dystopian films ever made and gave me my love of all things dark from a storytelling perspective, it blends cyberpunk, with science fiction and post-apocalypse and the film's balance between all of those separate themes and genres is perfect. It shows scope and world-building that would only be achievable as an animated film and the animation itself has not only inspired many films and tv shows but still stands leagues above most others, which is an achievement for a film released in the '80s.
Hope you enjoyed my write up I done here on these two films I love, I had some fun writing this and can't wait to get on and read everyone else's!