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| Sometimes you have to be in the mood for a certain type film. Recently, I was flipping through the channel guide on Dish Network, trying to find something on which to rest my mind, when I came across the synopsis for a film called Johnny Got His Gun on AMC or TCM or one of those networks that I like to eat my dinner to because they slow me down. It was made back in 1971, and starred Timothy Bottoms, who I really liked in that same year's The Last Picture Show. I was thinking of settling on it, but then I read what the film was actually about: Bottoms plays a WWI vet with no arms...or legs...or face! The guy's got no face! Well, I would have watched it, but then I decided I really didn't want to kill myself so close to the weekend. I mean, seriously. What a downer! Back in the day (“the day” being high school), that was the very type of film I would have been interested in seeing. I would have latched onto it and pretended I understood the main character’s pain. I was moody then. I'm still moody, but my moodiness avoids anything too dark in favor of self- preservation. There are certain films these days - great films – that I just can't sit through anymore: Schindler's List, The Pianist, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - basically, anything about the Holocaust; anything excessively violent - I will never see SAW (heehee…see-saw); and also out, anything involving gay- bashing - Boys Don't Cry, huh? Well, this boy did, and he'll never watch a Hillary Swank movie again. I've become a film wimp! When did that happen? For the most part, I avoid confrontation on film or TV. I cringe when certain words are thrown about. I grimace when there's violence for no reason other than to show some self-aware director's knack for blood ballet. I don't recall being as disturbed by violent images and hateful words when I was younger. Of course, maybe that's because I never really watched films like that. Maybe I was too sheltered. Then again, CNN shows real-life horrors worse than anything Wes Craven could dream up. Maybe I’m just desensitized, like the rest of y’all. Books are different. I can take it in books. I guess it's the seeing of the hate that bothers me. I don't want to see the bloodletting take form. I'd rather read it on a safe white page and let my mind sweep up the carnage. With film there’s no sweeping it away. It’s there in your head for the rest of your life, popping up in nightmares. Oh, bother. I'm too precious for this world. Poor, poor precious me. |
| The Film Wimp is an original writing by Eric Arvin and was reprinted with permission of the author. |
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| "The Film Wimp" ~~~~~~ By Eric Arvin ~~~ Photo Courtesy of Eric Arvin |
