THINGS I LEARNED FROM THE MOVIES - PART 1

'Apollo 13,' 'Dangerous Liaisons,' and 'Poltergeist.'

Yes I am college educated, but clearly I didn't pay attention in class because most of my education has been through film and television. I have been marinating on this post for a while. I have made this list Part 1 because I could go on and on. So instead of one mammoth post, I will create a series of posts over the next few months. This may be a good idea for a blogathon, so if anyone would like to make their own posts about "things they learned from the movies," please feel free! The more the merrier.

1.) If you eat tainted meat maggots will eat your face???

'Poltergeist' (1982) is one of those films that scared me very badly as a kid. Even to this day I will only eat a well-done steak. Yes, yes I know that a medium-well steak tastes better, but what can I say 'Poltergeist' ruined steak for me.

2.) They put men on the moon without calculators. 

The 'Apollo 13' crew and mission control did immense mathematical calculations by hand! They were also able to get from the earth to the moon and back again with only enough amps to power a coffee maker. A coffee maker. Seriously, my cell phone had more power than their spaceship. What's amazing is that even with all of the technology we have today, we are unable to send a person to the moon in 2015. I'm sure if we were motivated to do it we could, but as of right now we cannot replicate something they did in 1969. That's unbelievable. This is why I'm looking forward to seeing 'The Martian.' I want to live in a world where the United States has a space program again.

3.) I learned from 'Dangerous Liaisons' that cupping (or that fad Gweneth Paltrow was into for a while) was a holistic treatment for tuberculosis. 

At the end of 'Dangerous Liaisons,' Michelle Phiffer's character is dying after being dumped. I never knew what she was dying of until I saw the final scene when the nuns are cupping her. When I saw the movies in the 1980s (as a young girl--who watched movies far too old for her), I thought they were punishing Phiffer's character. Now that I've watched the movie as an adult I realize that she was dying of tuberculosis and that cupping was a form of treatment.

'Untouchables,' 'Apocalypto,' and 'The Net.' 

4.) I learned what prohibition was from 'The Untouchables' and 'Miller's Crossing.' 

I lived in Chicago for a while as a child and teen. You would think I would know all about the Untouchables and Al Capone as a Chicagoan? Nope. I learned all about the prohibition era (when manufacturing, possessing, and selling alcohol from 1920 until 1933 was illegal) from a movie. I also learned what a speakeasy/juke joint was from 'The Color Purple.' The prohibition era was an interesting time in American history.

5.) I learned that anthropologists view human sacrifice differently than I do from 'Apocalypto.'

My sister and I got into a terrible argument about whether or not human sacrifice (i.e. ripping people's hearts out while they are still conscious) was ok. I was on the side of "NO" it's never ok. I don't care what culture was doing it. Admittedly, it's a Mel Gibson movie so I'm certain it's rife with inaccuracies, but the whole human sacrifice thing has actually happened throughout history in numerous cultures. But my sister (who was anthropologist at the time) tried to explain why human sacrifice was important and how it was not wrong in certain contexts. And of this we disagreed! Our argument became so heated that she almost threw me out of her car...while she was driving.

6.) I learned that the internet really sucked in 1995 from rewatching 'The Net' in 2015.

Ah, 1995... a year I remember well. That was the year that my high school first got the internet. T'was a novel invention then. I remember asking my physics teacher what "WWW" stood for. Recently, I was looking for a CD Rom drive to play that ancient bit of technology called a "CD." Loll and behold, my laptop doesn't even have a CD Rom drive, just a flash drive. I wouldn't dare attempt to bust out the floppys or the zip discs. Watching 'The Net' reminded me that I was pretty much a troglodyte 20 years ago.

'Fatal Attraction' and 'Mermaids'

7.) I learned what a stalker was from 'Fatal Attraction' and I also learned that I never want to be in an abusive relationship from watching '9-1/2 Weeks.' As a young person sneaking into the living room to watch VHS movies much too old for them, I knew early on--that those relationships sucked. Ergo, I want to be with a person who was A.) Sane, B.) Would NOT abuse me physically or verbally, and C.) Respected me and I them. I think the same could be said of '50 Shades of Grey,' but I haven't actually seen that crap.

8.) I learned that people used to dress up in costumes for New Year's Eve parties from 'Mermaids.'

I really wish this tradition was still ongoing. I would love to dress up in costumes all year round. I guess it's called cosplay, but dressing up for New Year's just sounds like so much fun. I think this trend should come back.

Coming soon, what I learned from the movies part 2.