Movies, history, and my love of it all.

Recently, my friend Abbey reminded me of our time in boarding house and how we would all gather in my “corner” (dormitory space) to talk about all the movies we had seen during the holidays. This had become a tradition with us, so everyone made it a point of duty to see as many movies as they could and come back to talk about it when school resumed.

He reminded me of how I was always the one who had seen more movies than the rest of the pack. I knew not just the storyline of the movies but the actors, all the movies they had stared in, I knew a great deal about the actors that baffled even the most avid movie buffs.

?At first, I thought it was just because we had a room full of movies at home but looking back now it was more than that.

I had to retrace my steps to understand this love for movies and it’s benefits to my life over the years. Was it good or bad?

Some would argue that movies are just for entertainment or that time spent watching movies could be better spent elsewhere, well, after my assessment and review of the gains of movies to my life, I can proudly say “that every second spent watching movies, was worth its weight in gold”

?I realized that my love for movies, came from my dad. His love for movies was incredible, he would sit with my brother and I and not only watch movies but analyze the storyline, the characters in the movie, the scenes and location of the movies. We watched countless of movies, different genres war movies, action, drama, comedy and most of all documentaries. His favorite movie genre, documentaries, we would watch the entire series of “the world at war” narrated by the great Sir Lawrence Olivier, to this day, I am yet to see a better documentary about the Second World War. From this documentary, my love for history was strengthened.

?You see, I already had a love for history based on my dad’s love for history and as he always hammered into my head, “ always seek to know more beyond what others know” my dad realized I had a knack for history early when as a 7yr old, I would take all his Time, Life and Newsweek magazine subscriptions and read them. He always knew where to find them whenever they were missing. He would quiz me about world events, leaders, wars, and generals. My dad promoted my love for both history and movies by buying a lot of them.

?At 10, I knew a lot about places, events, history, world leaders, this was further enhanced by having Social Studies as my favorite subject only second to my love for Mathematics in primary school. I had read all the works of Shakespeare, my literature skills now aligned with the movies I had seen relating to them.

?Over the years, I have met fellow movie buffs who were amazed at my movie knowledge. Working at BP (British Petroleum) in 2008, my Boss and a few of us went out for happy hour and ended up talking about movies, he was stunned that I had seen Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” I informed him that I had seen almost all the works of Charlie Chaplin and how “The Orphan” was my favorite.

During my time working in both Romania and Düsseldorf, my love for history, defined the sights and sounds of my travels. I yarned to visit the historical sites of each city. I visited the monasteries, castles, and any place that I had read about.

?On one occasion in Düsseldorf, it was the 75th anniversary of D-day, my hotel was directly across the river Rhine, and just the thought of knowing that on that day 75 years ago, allied forces crossed this same river facing opposition from a barrage of enemy gun fire. The scene from “ A Bridge too far” flashed through my mind, where Robert Redford was saying the “Hail Mary prayer” while he and his men were crossing the river under heavy artillery fire.

?In Bordeaux & Paris, at the city centers, I was reminded of the French resistance or freedom fighters and their brave fight to liberate their country as narrated and seen in the actual footage of the best war documentary “The World at War” as narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier.

?In Hawaii, I asked my tour guide to show me the location where Elvis filmed the “Blue Hawaii” and Jack Lord’s 70s classic “Hawaii 5.0” was filmed

?At the Ranger Museum in North Carolina, I was reminded of the 101st, the mighty screaming eagles and their heroic acts as depicted in the classic “Band of brother” miniseries. And John Wayne in the “Green Beret”.

?Romania, my visit to Bran Castle made famous by its controversial but loved occupant, Count Dracula, that was a dream come true.

?Now not all the movies, I have seen are war movies, riding the train in New York, I was thrilled and excited that I was in the same subway I had seen in the cult classic “The Warriors” and countless other movies.

?“ The Sound of Music “made family bonding for i and my siblings a memorable time. Sergio Leone’s western movies made us love the west and cowboys. My brother, always the cool one played blondie (Clint Eastwood) the good guy who could do no wrong and I, always the troublesome Tuco Ramirez. Toshiro Mifune enforced our love for Asian culture in “The Seven Samurai” and of course Bruce Lee made martial arts our self-defense religion.

?My fascination for literature only made strong by the oratory skills of the Master himself, Sir Richard Burton in “Shakespeare” and watching Ronald Reagan’s famous speech in 1987. All I needed to spark my knowledge of religion was shaped by the religious classics- “The Bible”, Great heroes of the Bible, the star-studded epic Jesus of Nazareth and the Message” Leadership skills came from watching and then reading about Ronald Reagan in my dad’s magazines.

?You see, in my case, Movies sparked an interesting in learning more about the things, places, events and people I was watching on TV. Some have benefitted more than I, for instance, Wyclef Jean ( musician) stated that he learnt how to speak English in Haiti by watching America movies on TV.

?With the beaches of Normandy, Passchendaele, the Somme and many more still on my list, I guess for me the benefits are far greater.

?Knowledge is found in any and everything, you just have to know and live your passion.

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