This past week, my Twitter was buzzing over the death of Peter Falk. For many of us geeks, the news was extremely sad. Yes, he had a long and productive life. But nonetheless, a hole has been left in many of our hearts. A lot of people paid tribute to his role as Columbo. But for the large majority of my fellow Twitter friends, he touched us the most as the grandpa who read the story The Princess Bride to his ill grandson.
Over the weekend, I saw a lot of quotes from The Princess Bride flooding my feeds. The number of quotes and mentions were outside of what I would consider normal and they couldn't simply be explained by the death of Peter Falk, as they were still happening days after the fact. So I asked one of the other GeekMoms, Corrina Lawson, if there were repeated showings of the movie in the US which would explain it. Sure enough, there were.
I'm not a huge fan of fantasy, even though there is quite a bit that I do enjoy. Science fiction is way more my thing. Unless there is a firm basis in reality and a couple other factors that I've yet to be able to properly articulate, there is a specific group of fantasy that is just too fantastical for my brain to accept and enjoy. I suppose that is one of the drawbacks of having a very literal brain. However, there are always exceptions to such rules. The Princess Bride is one of those exceptions. It is in my list of top five favorite movies of all time. My top five list is:
- Stand By Me/The Rocky Horror Picture Show—sorry, can't pick one over the other.
- The Princess Bride
- Labyrinth
- The NeverEnding Story
- Quills
With the exception of number five, all of these movies were movies that I was introduced to as a young child and couldn't wait to introduce to my own children. They are also movies that are in my personal movie collection.
When I have discussions with others about the movies from my childhood, movies that many would consider family classics—if not geek classics—I'm often shocked to find out that there are people who've not seen any of the movies listed 1-4. There are many more movies that get brought up in conversation that others have not seen, but the above are the most shocking to me. For some reason, I consider Quills to be obscure and never expect any one to have seen it. I do not know too many people, geeky or non-geeky, who've seen it and am always pleasantly surprised when someone tells me they have.
Even more shocking, I've learned that some people don't even own their favorite movies.
No judgment here, but as someone who collects things that I love, coupled with the fact—even if stereotypical—that geeks are collectors, I find it both interesting and puzzling that they don't own copies of their favorite movies, especially if they have children. Because who doesn't want to share their favorite childhood things with their own children? That is an honest question. If you have reasons for not sharing them with your children, I'm very curious to find out why.
And here is my deep, dark, geek secret: Most movies released in the last few years, I've not taken the time to see. I've still not watched either Iron Man.
As for my movie collection, I can't think of a single movie that I love that I don't own.
So the questions are, and I want to narrow it down just a bit: What classics—let's say 20 years or older—are you afraid to admit you have yet to see? What are some of the movies that you love but are not in your collection? If you've yet to share your childhood favorites with your children, why?
