BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!!

LIGHTS...

CAMERA...

AND ACTION...

Welcome to the first of what I hope to be many sermons by the Reverend Cecil B. DeReel.

Why movies??

    I know that you've all stopped at the flickering altar at least once. What is it about movies that moves us? Is it the fact that the good guys win? That they get the girl(or guy). That the solutions to problems often involve high explosives and cyborgs?

For me, it was those lazy Saturday afternoons. I grew up in a small town. Those days, the syndicated channels ran movies all day. Not the best films, either. For every The Incredible Shrinking Man, there was at least one STARHOPS(Look it up, on second thought. Don't.) I got to see greats like Bogart and Becall. Old films where everyone smoked and every woman a femme fatale. Science fiction films, spy films(UK  and US) war films, horror, action, comedy.

Then, my dad came home from Japan(He was in the military), with this machine called... a VCR... Now, we could watch films at home. Whole new worlds were available to me. Mad Max, The Last Starfighter, The Neverending Story. And, of course, the crappy films(It WAS the 80s...) Saw so many films, between the videotapes and Saturday afternoon tv... Well, I had it covered.

In my teen years, there was the job I had at the local video store. I knew every film in the place. These were the days. Scorsese, Kurosawa, Rey... I wanted to do this. Then life got in the way.

It was at my lowest point, when things weren't going particularly well for me, that the idea for this community came together. 

Movies have the power to change your feelings. In this particular instance I happened by the Ash vs his hand scene in Evil Dead II. And I laughed.

I laughed so hard, I started to cry. By the time Ash says "Groovy." I felt better. And it made me think.

There must be others. Those who need movies the way others need love... or air.

So, what say you brothers and sisters? What is it about movies that connects us all?