Boldly Going…

I am slowly becoming a Trekkie. 

I grew up with Star Wars, and I’ve still got a great sentimental attachment to those films (primarily the first three), but I find as I advance in years that I am starting to prefer Star Trek. 

(I know that some of you will argue that they are fundamentally different franchises and that one is science fiction while the other is science fantasy but I am comparing the two as they are both major franchises that start with the word “Star” and feature aliens, spaceships and the like.) 

Admittedly, some of the Trek movies are better than others (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is still the best and I will not hear any arguments) and the shows can be uneven (the fact that “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” has both the worst and arguably the best episodes of the series in the same season speaks to this) but the overall franchise is one that I am enjoying more and more. 

Perhaps it is the idea that we, as a species, finally grow up, embrace our shared humanity and strive to be better. The idea that future humans are altruistic, open-minded and care nothing for money, gender or sexual identity. The ideals of Star Trek and particularly the Federation are hopeful and make me look at the complete mess that is the modern world and think that maybe, just maybe, it will get better. 

A reoccurring plot point in Star Trek is that (in the show’s cannon), the twenty-first century was a shitshow, full of hostility, greed and cruelty, which is not too far off the mark. However, also according to the lore (not Data’s brother), it is because of this awful century that humanity decides to pursue a better path. 

Maybe, right now, a little hope is what I need. 

The Language of Movies

*Potential Trigger Warning*

I recently had a conversation with a co-worker regarding “The F Word.” The co-worker was telling me how much she hated the word in question and I was somewhat perplexed, as I was certain that I had heard her use it before. As the conversation continued, I eventually realized that we were talking about different “F Words.” I was talking about the one that rhymes with “duck” and she was talking about the one that rhymes with “rag” (or “maggot”). 

This got me thinking. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, that particular slur was commonplace, not only in the schoolyard but also in film and television. Hearing comedians casually say “faggot” or “retard” was not unusual and such words were met with little to no condemnation. Seeing a man cross dress or undergo sexual reassignment surgery was often the butt of many jokes. 

Ethnic slurs were definitely out, unless your goal was to illustrate that someone was ignorant or cruel. This has been the case in Hollywood films for a long time, but there are other racist crimes that Hollywood is guilty of (hearing Humphrey Bogart say “It’s mighty white of you,” is unsettling- what the young people today call “cringe”). Sometimes slurs (particularly the dreaded “N-word”) can be thrown around casually by African-American comedians and entertainers and this is often given a pass. This can backfire, of course, if you’re a white kid in the suburbs reciting an Eddie Murphy or Richard Pryor routine without really grasping what is being said. 

Much has been made of the “woke mob” being too sensitive to appreciate a good joke and while I think that despising someone because they believe in the equality of all humans is peak right-wing stupidity, it does bring me back to a discussion I’ve had before: what to do about those older films that contain that sort of language or depictions? 

I have long thought, and continue to believe, that the best course of action is a simple disclaimer. This alerts viewers while leaving the films themselves untouched. There are those (see “right-wing stupidity” above) who think that disclaimers are wrong but I find it interesting that they are often the same people who are horribly offended by the mere mention of an LGBTQ+ person in a Disney film. 

The films I grew up watching that contained that kind of language absolutely affected me and I am now trying to purge from my vocabulary the words that were okay thirty-odd years ago that are no longer acceptable. 

Is it giving into the “woke mob”? 

No. 

It’s simply me trying to be a better person than I was. 

The Safety of the Movies

This one is going to be a little hard to write. 

For many, perhaps even most, people, movies are entertainment and little more. Something to look at while you eat popcorn, a fun Saturday night and so on. For others, movies are an art form to be analyzed and studied. Neither of these approaches are wrong, but neither fully explains me and my approach to movies. 

When I was growing up, we had a VCR, a big silver model that was top-loading with a remote control that was attached by a long cable. Because of this early 80’s technological marvel, we had lots of tapes full of movies we taped off TV. To this day, if I watch one of those movies that we had taped off TV (even if it’s on Blu-Ray), I still no exactly where the commercials are. Everyone in my family liked movies. We would recite our favorite bits at dinner and it was one of the few things that we did with each other. 

For me, movies was where we didn’t argue, where we didn’t fight, where no one had screaming breakdowns threatening suicide. In short, they were safe. 

I leaned into this safety. This bit of escapism wherein true love conquered all, where villains got their comeuppance, where families were dysfunctional but loving and where anything was possible. In those movies, I wasn’t woken up by my brother choking me. In those movies, I didn’t have to listen to my mother tell me for the umpteenth time that one day she was going to leave and that I’d never see her again. In those movies, I wasn’t fat, weak and confused. 

I did what seemed right at the time: I watched more movies. LOTS more movies. Before long, I was watching films that others in my family had never even heard of. What my family saw was a fat, antisocial teenager sitting on his ass watching TV. What I saw was the entire world. I saw Samurai and silent clowns, sadistic gangsters and honest cops (sometimes the inverse), a place where the little guy could win, where the beautiful girl would find his idiosyncrasies and neurosis adorable rather than weird. 

Is it any wonder why films became the great love of my life? 

I know I’m not alone on this. Many people use art as a method of escape, be it music, books, paintings or what have you. My escape just happened to be movies. 

These days, movies aren’t an escape anymore. I have a better wife than I could have ever hoped for and children that are wonderful. Now, it’s just a passion, a love that I try to share with others. I sit on the couch with my family and watch a movie just to share, just so they can enjoy it.

 I no longer want to escape.