Yesterday, I was going through some old files, when I came across I these early "movie reviews," written by me in '84, when I was eight years old.
Though I fancied myself a young reporter, my prose needed work; the opening line for the appraisal of George Burns' Oh God, You Devil is, "This movie stunk." I found the climax to be especially unimpressive: "The big thing when God and the devil meet is nothing." I gave it a 4-.
The next night, my parents took me to a movie about a factory that closes down and the struggle of its unemployed workers in the aftermath. (Country, starring Jessica Lange.) I was somewhat more taken by that movie, which featured plot lines of divorce, alcoholism, loss of property and suicide. I wrote, "Everything is super, except the movie itself." Lange's performance was memorable, as was the cinematography. I gave it a 6+.
I can only imagine what my parents must have thought, when I told them that I thought the movie they brought me to was "horrible". Alas, there's comfort in knowing some things don't change. To me, one of life's great pleasures is having clear perspective. Once opinionated, always opinionated.
