Yours, Mine and Ours: Our Emotional Ties To Films

Travis McClain

Bats: R, Throws: R. How Acquired: Traded for a player to be named later. I hold a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Louisville, earned in history. I have lived with Crohn's disease since 2005, and chronic depression since my youth. I bring into each film that I view a world view shaped by those and other parts of my background. I try to be mindful of the socio-political themes and implications of movies, intended or otherwise, and that surely shows in my blog pieces. I also love doughnuts.

You may also like...

5 Responses

  1. Derek Armstrong says:

    I guess it really depends on whether that movie has any other associations for you. For example, I should hold it against Elf that I ended up breaking up with a girlfriend I later wished I hadn’t broken up with in part over a decision to go see Elf without her. However, Elf is such a wonderful film that it has actually grown in my mind since I first saw it, and I don’t have the least associations with our breakup weekend. (It wasn’t just that which caused us to break up — it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.) If Elf had been otherwise unmemorable, I’d guess I’d have some negative associations with it.

    • I think I sort of supported this in my opening paragraph about my mom, and how only a few movies make me think of her, despite the fact she took my brother and me to several. One I forgot to mention was when she took me to see Look Who’s Talking, Too on a weekend my brother was with our dad. We went because we were both fans of Cheers and liked Kirstie Alley and it seemed fun. I wanted to be anywhere in the world other than beside my mother during the opening scene of the movie.

      Let’s flip it around, though: How do you suppose that ex girlfriend thinks about Elf?

  2. JeffHobbs says:

    I’m not sure if this is fair when ranking movies or not, but there are certain actors for whom I have a very strong dislike, and those movies almost always get ranked below others.  And I am sure the opposite is true as well, I just cannot think of anything specific.  

    Would I still have the same feelings toward a movie such as “GoldenEye” if there weren’t fond memories associated with the experience?  Yeah, the movie is pretty good, but would it be in my top 100 without the memories associated, or the fact that it is Bond?

    • I’ll be honest: I do have a bias against John Travolta ever since he let his son die to prove his fidelity to Scientology. I just can’t wrap my head around that and, fairly or not, it’s ingrained in my perception of the guy and carries over to his work. I really enjoyed Face/Off for instance, but now I have to make myself think of it as a Nicolas Cage movie that happens to have Travolta in it in order to not dismiss it entirely.
      GoldenEye is a very specific example to cite, because of course I was there for that. Yes, a lot of fun was had during that movie, from incredulity at the opening teaser sequence to the rest of you mocking my awkward date and the screw in my glasses falling out in the middle of the movie. I think about all that when I think of the movie, too.