Movie Quotes:Cutting Room Clips of a Generation

Being born in 1958 meant being blissfully unaware of the turbulent 1960's and cognitively awakening with the dysfunctional 70's. Our generation felt the sorrows and greatness of the WWII veterans, the confusion of the Korean War conflict and the debacle and turbulence of the 1960s begun by the death of a President, marked by the struggles and death of a Civil Rights Leader and epitomized by a wasteland called Vietnam. We tried to regain the loss of innocence that uprooted America's economic roots in the world but seemed unable to regain the height of Man's first walk on the Moon in 1969. Adrift between memories of Valley's of Death of endless death and the seas of internal strife, we used movie quotes to reach out to the vistas born at strife's end before technologies birth.

Perhaps my fondness for the movie quotes from the words and songs of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid stemmed from the fact that there were so few films in my impoverished youth. Our monetary issues stemmed from my father's battle with a heart that had survived bullets and battles overseas in WWII but was now failing amidst the stress of daily life. He barely lived through the first year of my time and the film's subtle mix of humor and implied tragedy that lay somewhere between a Western and a musical marked the end of an era in it's own time and the beginning of our time. "I have vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals".

We were desperately trying to leave behind the legacies of WWII, the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam Debacle. America's place in the world was no longer assured and we were struggling to gain new economic footholds with emerging economies born from past adversaries. Watching films and reciting movie quotes helped us to focus and rebuild our way. 2001: A Space Odyssey was released at the end of the 1960's but the need to understand where we were heading before disaster loomed too close kicked off the movie quotes of the 1970's. "I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it," cried HAL as darkness overtook his system.

Two more films helped to pinpoint the frantic changes going on in our lives - 'M*A*S*H' and 'Harold and Maude'. M*A*S*H pointed out the absurdities of war and the struggle to find meaning amidst mindless death. "Tonight's movie has been "M*A*S*H." Follow the zany antics of our combat surgeons as they cut and stitch their way along the front lines." On the other hand, Harold and Maude gave us all an insight of the tragedies of ongoing war and a growing belief in in our own ability to meet death and dishonor on our own terms. ""A lot of people enjoy being dead. But they are not dead, really. They're just backing away from life. *Reach* out. Take a *chance*. Get *hurt* even. But play as well as you can".

Another film, ''Brother Sun and Sister Moon' , helped to bring forth the concept of religious idealism among a time of conflicting values in our world. "God has spoken to lots of people sometimes" helped me to realize that my interest in spirituality extended to all religions. The film had mixed reviews but it served to lead the way towards a series of films that questioned life, meaning, rituals and death. Movie quotes were taken from a range of films from the heartfelt film 'Sounder' to the uniquely and painfully American film 'Deliverance', which talked about death in a unique way. "Dammit, they're drownin' a river; they're drownin' a river, man".

We sifted movie quotes through film after film that rejected the past by highlighting pointless violence and the rise of the American spirit. One year we were tilting at Windmills with Peter O'toole and Man of Lamancha's "You know what the worst crime of all is? Being born. For that you get punished your whole life." This was followed by 'The Godfather' and the quotes from this memorable film marked the blurring between crime and the entrepreneurial spirit in America epitomized with the quote "I believe in America. America has made my fortune".

Of course, there were some films that did not need quotes but showed that were still traces of simplicity in our culture. I first saw the sixties classic "One Million Years BC" during my high school years and this film remains a rite of passage for my generation despite the lack of quotes in the movie. Contrastingly, Woody Allen's films of that time helped to highlight the narcissistic tendency of introspection of our times in films like 'Sleeper' . We questioned the taboo of sex with the quote - "Sex and death. Two things that come once in a lifetime. But at least after death you're not nauseous".

Next came the often overlooked film 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'. This was a film that was not mired in the past nor was it one specifically aimed for the future. It was simply absurd. "Let's do the time warp again! " was shouted in every hallway at my high school during graduation. It was a film of our time and was one that helped me to graduate at the end of America's first 200 years in 1976 and head towards the next 200 years. We were beginning to find ourselves and our own identities rather than searching the past or looking deeply into our own hearts. It was time to look to the future.

Finally, "Star Wars" arrived shortly after I graduated high school and just as I entered the world at large. The pain of three generations of war was left to the past. We were now a nation at peace and it was time to build once more. "Don't underestimate the Force" became the movie quote of this author and his generation.

References:

1969 One Million Years BC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Million_Years_BC

1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068473/

1968 2001: A Space Odyssey http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/

1970 Mash http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0066026/

1971 "Harold and Maude" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067185/quotes

1972 Brother Sun, Sister Moon from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069824/quotes

1972 The GodFather http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/

1972 Man of La Mancha http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068909/quotes

1972 Deliverance http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068473/

1973 Sleeper http://www.filmsite.org/slee.html ""Sex and death. Two things that come once in a lifetime. But at least after death you're not nauseous"

1974 The Trial of Billy Jack http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072317/

1975 The Rocky Horror Picture Show http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073629/

1977 Stars Wars http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/