Life is the Greatest Movie of All

"Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater." ~Roman Polanski

"No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight of the soul." ~Ingrid Bergman

"There's no thief like a bad movie". ~Sam Ewing

"You can map your life through your favorite movies, and no two people's maps will be the same."
~Mary Schmich

The cinema is the greatest creation of all. It's the greatest art form. There is no other art form that is so influential and so powerful. Just by watching one movie, it can change how you think and how you see the world. Movies make us feel things that we never felt before. If you want to feel love, just watch Love Story. If you want to laugh, just watch The 40 Year-Old Virgin. If you want to be frightened, just watch The Exorcist. You can watch any movie and I guarantee you will feel some kind of emotion. Even if its anger because you waste an hour and a half of your life watching a stupid movie.

I had a rough childhood when I was a kid. I got into lots of fights with my peers and my parents. I hated my life. I couldn't wait to grow up and run away from everything. But at that moment of time, I couldn't do anything but just be a kid. My only escape was the cinema. I would go to the movies and just forget that I was in a theater with thirty other people. Once the movie started, I was the movie. I was the lead character. It didn't matter if the lead character was a boy or a girl or a man or a woman. That was who I was for an hour and forty five minutes. And when the movie was over and the credits rolled up on the screen, everybody got up and left but I stayed until the credits ended and the music stopped playing.

The next day I would go and see the same movie and get lost in it again like I was watching it for the first time. I would also pick up the character's mannerism when I was at home or at school. I would repeat my favorite movie lines from the movies even though it annoyed everybody. I'm glad I had the cinema when I was a kid because I would never have survived without it. It saved my life. It changed my life. Watching movies like Rebel Without a Cause, Bonnie and Clyde, Twelve Angry Men, Romeo + Juliet, Brokeback Mountain, Apocalypse Now, and Scarface made me into the person I am today. I was 13 years old when I first saw Scarface. I was watching rated R movies all the time when I was that change.

I was introduced to sex, drugs, rock and roll, love, life, AIDS, homosexuality, transgenders, hate, violence, death all through the cinema. I learned how to have sex from mainstream movies and pornos, because I skipped sex-ed in school. Even though I was introduced to all those things when I was so young, I think I have the greatest understanding of life than any of my peers. Young people today don't know anything about movies. They think Scary Movie is the funniest movie ever. They never heard of Bonnie and Clyde or Twelve Angry Men or the Rocky Horror Picture Show. They know of remakes but they don't know about the originals. They watch movies and don't even feel anything. Maybe because they are watching stupid movies like Love Guru, or House Bunny. If I'm going to see a movie, I want to watch a movie that will make me think. I want to watch a movie that will make me feel anything even just for a second.

I've seen over a 1000 movies and counting. I seen many bad movies. But I have seen even more good movies. I have seen all these movies and I am only 21 years old. I want my life to be a life in the cinema. I want to direct movies like Spike Lee. I want to write movies like Quentin Tarantino. I want to act in movies like Angelina Jolie. I want to produce movies like Tom Cruise. I want to review movies like Roger Ebert. I even want to sweep popcorn off the movie theater floor. I want a theater where I can run only the movies I want people to see. I want to influence people and change minds. I want to change the world.