The Subjective Lightness Of Being: I feel like a kid again

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

I feel like a kid again

I remember when I was a kid, feeling an air of excitement that made it difficult to go to bed. This usually happened the night before a trip to Disneyland, the last day of school, on my birthday, and when I knew I was going to see certain movies.

Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark came out in 1981 and I was 5 years old. At that point in my life, I only knew Harrison Ford as Han Solo and just barely. I was only 5! The way my memory works, my early childhood movie experiences are a Steven Speilberg/George Lucas/Robert Zemekis clusterfuck. There was Jaws and E.T., which I had both seen in the theaters around the same age. There was the Star Wars trilogy. There was the Back To The Future movies and the Amazing Stories television series. I didn't know Harrison Ford as Deckard from Bladerunner. I had never seen American Graffiti by that age. But, I have come to understand this love of movies I have now had started at that age.

Indiana Jones and Han Solo melded together in my head as one person. This great cocky funny hero. I wanted to be both of them. I had a list of things I wanted to be when I grew up. I remember on my list was Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk, and Indiana Jones.

So now here we are, two days away from the 4th Indiana Jones movie, and I'm feeling a familiar sense of excitement I haven't felt in quite some time. It's the feeling of excitement I was looking for when I went to see The Transformers movie last summer. It's the same feeling of excitement I will probably be searching for when The G.I. Joe movie ends up coming out. But...I am pensive about that. The Transformers and G.I. Joe hold a place in my heart as an integral part of my childhood...but in the realm of make-believe and toys. I am an only child and a lot of my time was spent by myself playing with these toys. I wrote the script in my mind as the action played out in real time. Needless to say, I did enjoy the cartoon yet I am concerned a big budget movie for G.I. Joe may fall short of my expectations.

Indie, on the other hand....well it's a reunion of sorts for me. I can only really compare this to the excitement I felt when Star Wars Episodes 1-3 were released in theaters. Yes, I was one of those people who saw them each at least three times in the theater. All of us adults sitting there trying to reach out and grasp pieces of what made our childhoods grand while seeing kids enjoying it now as we had in the 80s.

The other day, they had a Indiana Jones marathon on The Sci Fi channel. I had plans that day. Things I needed to get done. Yet, when I heard mention of "The Ark" and "Abner Ravenwood", those plans seemed obsolete and I was stuck on the couch watching this movie that is now 27 years old. Entertained like it was the first time I had seen the film. Recalling the year I had seen it in the theater and the subsequent years I had watched it Pinecrest Summer Camp during the extra hot smoggy San Fernando Valley days.

Today, I spent a good portion of an hour searching for information on the new Indiana Jones movie online. I made it a point to not read spoilers but get a general idea of the how people who have seen it, view it. I then decided that a great way to spend my Thursday night after work is to see the movie.

As soon as I bought a ticket online, I felt butterflies in my stomach. It's weird, I wasn't expecting that. I have a ticket. The theater is so close to being sold out already and I know I will at least see this movie three times in the theater.

Star Wars and Indiana Jones were the movie going beginnings of my childhood. They mean the beginning of the blockbuster to me. I don't remember the last time I saw a movie in the theater that gave me the thrill and excitement that Indiana Jones did throughout the 80s and early 90s for me. Iron Man and Batman came close, but in different ways.

So here I am, two days away from seeing the new Indiana Jones movie, and I'm feeling like that 7 year old kid who could not fall asleep the night before a big trip to Disneyland.