CHARACTER.

About a month ago I went to a screening of GONE WITH THE WIND at the Alabama Theater in Birmingham. The entire place was totally packed and people cheered and booed throughout the entire film. It kind of blew my mind. During intermission, as I waited in an ungodly long line for the ladies room, I asked myself...

How does an almost 4-hour long film made over 70 years ago hold up today to the point that people are cheering at it? Sure, GONE WITH THE WIND is an iconic piece of cinema, but I certainly don't recall anyone screaming or applauding when I went to see SALT or DINNER FROM SCHMUCKS at the local multiplex. I thought about a screening of ON THE WATERFRONT I went to last summer. By the end of it, nearly the whole audience was on its feet with applause. Hmmm...



Why is it that some movies elicit such a profound response in people, then go on to be considered classics, while others are simply yawn-inducing and are lucky if somebody fishes them out of the $2 bin at Wal-Mart? What do some films have that others apparently don't?

The only reasonable conclusion that I could draw was... characters. Ok, not just any characters, but characters who undergo profound changes to become genuine heroes by the end of the film -- characters who at the story's start are grade A losers, but then over the course of the telling, through taking action, learn to put their selfishness and other issues aside for the benefit of the rest of the world, and ultimately themselves. They grow to save something or someone, and in doing so, give their lives value. That's the reason I watch movies in the first place. I watch to see somebody else mature.

While standing there in that bathroom line I couldn't help feeling just a tad envious of people like Scarlett O'Hara and Terry Malloy. In movie world, a naive, selfish hussy can grow to love somebody else. She can maintain her family's plantation. She can even go from being unable to tie her own bonnet to shooting a Union soldier smack in the face to protect her best friend. A bum who threw away his opportunity at a promising boxing career can stand-up after being beaten to a pulp, and through his action, ensure that justice is served to his fellow dock workers in Hoboken.


In fact, the more pitiful or vile the movie character starts out, the more we like him/her. We like pathetic people because they remind us of ourselves. I think we enjoy being able to (through our movie heroes and heroines) punch the guy who yelled at us for taking his parking spot, etc. We like the notion that we might be somebody. It is for the benefit of our emotional well-being that the movie industry stays in booming business. Through relating to film heroes and heroines, we can take our stresses and fears from our back pockets and temporarily let them breathe. We're relieved when we get to walk around in Atticus Finch's shoes for a while... even if Atticus Finch might be a jerk... because sometimes we need to release the jerk part of our personality.

(For the record, NO. I'm not saying that Atticus Finch is a jerk. On the contrary, he's very noble. However, if HE WAS a jerk, that could be okay because we need jerk heroes)

I suppose that when a girl is living at home with her parents and still searching for employment of any kind, she hopes that movie character syndrome will kick in... that an opportunity will present itself...

And even though the prospect of adventure might seem a bit terrifying, she will plunge right in and brave the waves... and, through her actions, give meaning to her existence. She'll save somebody else in order to save herself.

Gee, wouldn't it be nice if we could all assimilate a bit of movie character into our personalities?

In a way, I guess all of us really do have a little hero within us. We're the heroes of our own lives anyway. It just takes a very special, detail-oriented eye to catch the small things - those tiny and seemingly insignificant gestures - that make a person a hero.

Think of all the times you've done a favor for someone when you didn't have to, when there was nothing in it for you. Think of a time you gave someone a hug when he/she was having a crappy day, or all the times you just listened to somebody else. It's those things -- those almost insignificant things -- that we oftentimes look over. Those things can make for-real movie heroes of all we average Joes and Janes who live in the real world.

Sometimes heroism isn't only in the movies. Sometimes its right in front of our faces... Lurking within that girl who's unemployed and living with her parents. ANY of us can be heroes.


At least that's the thought that gets me out of bed in the morning...

Ciao for now.