Remember those movies you used to watch as a young child? The Christmas movies that your parents made you sit down and watch? Or maybe your parents' favorite movie of all time, that you didn't really understand but laughed at anyway?
As the holiday season rolls around every year, I find myself catapulted back into my childhood through the rich smells of baking and the familiar sounds of holiday movies. This past Christmas I watched several Czech holiday classics that we used to watch as a family years ago. I thought I knew what the movies were about, but boy was I wrong! I realized that as a child I had a totally different outlook and understanding of what certain characters were talking about or what type of people they represented.
Most notably different was the Czech movie S tebou me baví svet (I Enjoy the World With You). I remember this movie as being very relatable; the kids were only a little younger than me at the time and played games in the snow that I totally would have played! However, according to IMDb, this movie is actually about, "Three middle-aged men [who] go for a vacation with their children and learn to cope with their youngsters' needs without their wives. Quickly, they plan to exhaust the kids to have some time off, but nothing really works out as planned." I was so confused by the time I finished that movie, I went to ask my parents what other deceptive movies they showed us over the years.
Now, a different interpretation of a movie might be attributed to "just being a child." However, the development of understanding and opinion of our surroundings marks the transition from childhood into adulthood. When we watch these movies year after year, and sometimes after a long hiatus, our understanding of certain elements in the movie changes as we have developed a more thorough view of the world. Coming-of-age is a development that never ends. We constantly learn new things that may change our outlook on the world. As we discussed in class, coming of age is often dictated by certain events or ceremonies that symbolize a transition into adulthood. However, how can someone else determine when and how you come-of-age?
Back to movies. As the holiday season started winding down, I continued to reflect on how my outlook on many of the traditional movies had changed. It is true that I followed the premise and point of the movie much better, but I was also able to understand their characters on a more personal and deeper level.
So, I ask, can movies be a marking of coming-of-age?
I totally get what you're saying. A few days ago, I was reading with a fourth grader and he wanted book recommendations, so we started the first Series of Unfortunate Events book together. I got started (the first time around) with these books, which I loved a ton, when I was around his age, and because I haven't touched this book or series in years, rereading it was an interesting experience: I was completely reacquainting myself with the plot and characters while remembering things I thought or felt the first time around. I can't help but wonder whether my "base" reactions -- that first knee-jerk decision to like or dislike a certain character, situation, or whatever, before my conscious mind has the time to articulate exactly what it is about something that makes me feel a certain way -- remained the same as they did the first time around. If they didn't, does that mean I'm a completely different person from my fourth grade self, or just that my additional memories and life experience -- not to mention whatever little bits I do recall from the series -- affect my subconscious perceptions? I think I was asking myself that question when I began rereading the book, and it's sometimes hard to define who I am in relation to who I used to be.
ReplyDeleteI loved The Series of Unfortunate Events! Definitely a huge part of my childhood that I haven't revisited in a while.
DeleteI think a character develops and matures with you. Although a character in a novel will forever be stuck on the page, the reader's interpretation of character's personality and even appearance will change as you change. Even brought up a good point in that books might be a better indicator of coming-of-age than movies because they leave more to the imagination. The imagination is something that changes and grows incredibly as one grows older. I think our imaginations become more grounded and "realistic" as we gain more experience. Additional memories and life experiences do affect subconscious perceptions and ultimately shape who we are.
I think that you make a good point about movie outlooks changing, and I also think Alice brought up something good with books. Revisited books might be a better indicator for coming-of-age than movies because they leave more to the imagination. Since most books come without maps, or illustrations, or necessarily objective narration, I think individual readers bring more of their own background to books than they necessarily do to movies. Rereading some of the chapter books that I enjoyed as a first and second grader, I could still remember the maps and visualizations I constructed the first time around but kept noticing that I now saw everything differently.
ReplyDeleteThe dynamic you're describing here resonates with my own experience reading many of the books on our syllabus as a student (and young man) and again as a teacher (an, um, older man). I've revisited _Catcher in the Rye_ pretty much every other year, with few exceptions, since I started teaching it in 1997 or so. Each time I return to it, I see it a little differently (and the same is true of _Portrait,_ too)--when I first read it as a teenager, I was *very* close to the character and his world view, and felt it articulated significant things about how I felt and who I was. I still find myself moved by the novel in a number of ways, but each year there's a little more distance, a little change in perspective. And this inevitably leads to thoughts and observations about who I am, who I was, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe same is true of movies, I'm sure--especially those we tend to revisit in somewhat ritualistic ways, like around the holidays. Maybe music, too. In all cases, the "thing itself" stays the same, but we're different, and therefore we take in the language and its meaning(s) a little differently each time.
I'm sure I'll say it more than once over the course of the semester, but these are all books that reward *re-reading*. Save them, and revisit them in five, ten, fifteen years.
I think that comings don't necessarily directly indicate coming of age. I think that it pushes the symptom of your brain or personality in transition to show. And as you watch things, I think you will interpret them differently every now and then due to your recent life experience. In that aspect, coa is manifested through movies (bc I don't think you ever reach the end of your coa process).Thank you for pointing this out though, because I've never thought of the change in understanding has anything to do with coa. :) silly me.
ReplyDeleteIn my family, we watch A Wonderful Life every Christmas. Every year, I enjoy it, but each year I understand more and more about the plot and the responsibilities that the main character has. In the beginning, I may not have enjoyed it or understood it as much as I do now, and I can kind of measure my maturity every year when I watch it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that movies and books effectively measure how the viewer/reader has changed over time, and I'd add that music is also a great (although somewhat imprecise) indicator of change. I once read that favorite songs are bookmarks for life, and I find this to be true. If I return to a former favorite song after a long period of time, the emotions and psychological state of my past self come flooding back. I may not have a concrete sense of how exactly I've progressed, but it's nice to know that I've grown and changed from my last listen. Shifting genre preferences and greater lyrical understandings are also reliable coming of age markers. I used to love the showtime-y, melodically driven Lawrence Welk Show as a kid, and while my tastes have changed since then, it's interesting to see how my current inclinations contain shadows of my earlier ones.
ReplyDeleteHow should I start? I love movies. And when I watch movies, I keep an open mind (I can't do that with books, because books take a lot of time to read, and as someone who isn't too fond of reading, although if I like something a lot, like the Ranger's apprentice series, I can sit through whole weekends and zap through them) because you really have to sit through at most three hours. Because of this, I am able to capture significant details that a director is trying to show that people usually don't see (primarily why I made a CinemaSins video last semester). To answer your question, "can movies be a marking of coming-of-age?": I have some ravishing thoughts. First off, I have reflected this many times. Coming-of-age as a concept means to me a long period of time. One action or small time period can't define you and it can't make you come-of-age. I believe that every human is coming-of-age. Each day, we learn new (not always new, but different) things and experiences that knowingly or unknowingly change your life. I say that if you have come of age, you're dead. You have literally come of the age to die. But I will try to hold off my emotions while answering your question. I do think that as we grow in age, our thoughts and ideas open up, and we are more accepting to more variety.
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