Welcome to my musings on the greatest films ever

Welcome!

For me, life is what slips in between the working hours. How we fill those spaces is what makes us human, I think. Some fill it with wine, women and song, I fill it with movies. I can’t remember a time when movies weren’t a part of my life. It began when I was 6 years old with a double bill of Star Wars and The Rescuers and from there my passion has never dimmed. I take movies more seriously than the average Joe, I make a conscious effort to become a student of film not a film student but a student where the classroom begins at the opening credits and ends with the closing. Movies for me are a place to see worlds I’ve never seen, with people I’ve never met, doing things I’ve never seen. In other words, they are a window where I can expand my view on the world.

Two years ago I took my passion and my frustration and I spilled them out in a weekly howl of pain called Brokedown Cinema, my raging assault on the worst movies ever conceived by the hand of man. Recently, I was sitting on my couch revisiting one of those wretched piles of celluloid sewage on television and when it was over King Kong came on. I had forgotten how awe-inspiring Kong was and then it hit me that if I can sack and pillage the worst that cinema has to offer, why don’t I embrace the best?

So, here now is the result: Musings of a Cinemaphile, a weekly examination of those films that changed my life. How do I choose the films? Glad you asked. I should tell you that the selection process for the films is personal. This is not a best list, it’s simply another visit and examination of the films that made movies what they are. Here I examine the films through revisits and add my personal feelings in regard to each film. My opinions here are purely my own, they do not reflect those of the populace nor do I discuss a film based on it’s popularity at the box office.

My selection process will range from the legendary to the obscure. Every once in a while a review may pop up of a film that you’ve heard of but I urge you to pay attention to those. Some of these films were instrumental in my education of the cinema and I so want to share them with you. So try not to skip a review just because you’ve never heard of the film.

I will post a new review every Sunday morning, life permitting. I begin this week where most of us begin, with The Wizard of Oz quite possibly the world’s most beloved movie . . .