Why I like movies ...

LoveUniHateExams

I think I've sussed out why I'm getting so into movies.

They make me feel emotions.

I think I'm a bit of a cold fish - I find it hard to properly feel emotions. I'm not sure if I was born that way or if it's a result of my experience with the WTS. If the former then the WTS has certainly exacerbated matters. Just about the only thing that gets me emotional outside of film is political stuff - hopeless responses to terrorism, denying free speech, etc.

But films really make me feel things in ways that novels do not.

David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980) made me cry. And during that scene where Michael Elphick's character forces a girl to kiss John Merrick before pouring gin onto his face, well, I could feel myself getting angry. I couldn't watch the whole scene - I literally had to walk away from the screen at one point.

Then there's Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977). The scene where Pluto and Mars steal the baby felt like someone had just hit my funny-bone. That was another difficult scene to watch in full.

From Feb to Oct this year I volunteered at Cancer Research UK. This is a charity shop that sells cheap clothes, shoes and dvds, etc.

I saw The Exorcist on the shelf for £1 so I bought it. And it was pretty scary - I had to remind myself that it's only a film. I think it was because I come from a JW background (beware of the deemins, etc.). But it's a great film ... well directed, shot and acted.

So thank you David Lynch, Wes Craven, David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, Stanley Kubrick and many others for making such powerful films.

scratchme1010

Thanks for sharing this. I actually relate to that. During the time when I decided to give the Jehovah crap a try and became depressed, the movies were what helped me cope. Back then I went to the movies A LOT. And that was exactly it, lost in the movies I could feel free to feel anything I wasn't supposed to.

smiddy3

Talking to my two boys well after we all had left the religion they would relate to me how the youths in the congregations would pull the wool over the eyes of their parents including me thinking they were good youthful JW`s and they would frequently go to movies,R+ and X rated and gigs that we as parents had no knowledge about just trusting our children that we were bringing them up right.

Not only were we gullible about the religion we had was the "truth" we were also gullible in thinking that "if you train up a boy(or girl) in the way they should go they will not depart from it".

Bullshit.

Thankfully we are all OK out of the influence of this toxic religion.

punkofnice

Oddly enough I've got sick of American Films and TV shows. I admit they may be well made but I just can't bear involving my mind in anything that comes from the same country as the Watchtower(tm). All those years of Americanisms in the watchtower(tm), now irritate me.

It makes me feel isolated again.

I don't watch much TV as you can imagine, as most of it is from the USA.

I'm not going to qualify this with, 'but I love American people' because everyone knows half my bleedin' family live there.

Anyways. You do the math. Hunker down on the sidewalk hazing oldsters. How so? Color. How Happifying.

Xanthippe

Went to see Thor Ragnarok with my daughter on the weekend. Really enjoyed the escapism, fantasy landscapes, cgi and the humour.

The jw religion does rob you of normal human emotions. You're not supposed to feel sorry for all the people who are going to be destroyed soon, not supposed to give to charity, ignore those starving kids with pot bellies on tv, not supposed to join in the holidays even to make your relatives happy. Got to freeze those feelings, it's all going to be worth it when the new system comes, any day now.