If I have done nothing else for my child, now 9-years-old, she has been exposed to excellent movies.  As a matter of fact, the other day I made her stop some silly activity (I think it was her homework) to watch Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window.  I asked her what she thought, and she responded emphatically, “I loved it.” How could she not?  Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly and rear-window ethics.

Her current favorite movie is Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and she knows most of the dialogue by heart.  I believe this is evidence of my good parenting.

Our favorite movies, I think, tell a lot about us.

When I make a new acquaintance I always try to find out right away what his or her favorite movie is to decide if there’s any hope for our friendship.  If the person isn’t a movie-goer there’s no hope.  In the alternative, if the person isn’t a discerning movie-goer there’s also no hope.

I once had a friendship with a woman that limped along for a while before we drifted apart.  I should have known from the beginning it was doomed when she told me her favorite move was Titanic.  I’m not saying it’s a bad movie, it’s okay, it just said something about her character I should have paid attention to (two words:  drama queen).  

My friend Cathy, by contrast, has excellent movie taste and good judgment in all things.

We became fast friends while working together.  One day I called to say I would be late because John Wayne’s The Quiet Man was on television.  I suppose I should have thought up some lie, but I’m not a good liar.  It’s the thing that crushed my political ambitions. It turned out there was no need to lie because Cathy saw nothing unreasonable about staying home from work to watch classic movies.

Now, I don’t want to set myself up as a movie snob because I’m not.  In fact, my favorite movies involve gangsters and/or kung fu, and my all-time favorite movie is still Quentin Tarantino’s  Kill Bill Vol. II.  I’m not sure what this says about me, or how I’ll be judged for disclosing this information, but I imagine it will involve a slew of letters to the editor that begin, “Vol. II sucked, you moron.  Vol. I was the good one.”  QT enthusiasts take their Kill Bill seriously.

I have learned some important life's lessons at the movies – especially  Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles.  This is a movie that is funnier for those of us living in Nevada because the role of the governor was modeled after our current governor.  Although I leave open the possibility our current governor modeled himself after the governor in the movie.  It’s really too close to call.

Anyway,  while the movie was being filmed someone (probably some uptight studio official) approached Mel with a concern about an old lady who gets slapped in the face by a bad guy, which the studio exec felt was ‘crossing the line’.

That all by itself is hysterical.  Mel Brooks, the man who penned ‘Springtime for Hitler’, crossed the line for a living.   Consider the following.  There’s a scene early in the movie where the black sheriff rides up to a group of black men and one says, “They said you was hung.”  To which the black sheriff replies, “They was right.”

I’ll pause here for a moment and let you think about that.

So, this is a movie that crossed a lot of lines, but the scene this guy worried about was the one where the old lady takes a right hook.  Allegedly, and I have no proof this is true, Mel Brooks replied to the exec's concerns with the following piece of advice, “If you’re going to step up to the bell, ring it.”

I live my life by this mantra.

Well, I must be off.  I promised Rebecca I would take her today to see Jim Carrey in Disney’s A Christmas Carol.  I’m not sure which way this will go as I run hot & cold where Jim Carrey’s concerned.  Liar,Liar = hot.  Dumb & Dumber = not.  I’ll let you know.