Why The Movie Quotes?

Smokey: I know you don't smoke weed, I know this; but I'm gonna get you high today, 'cause it's Friday; you ain't got no job... and you ain't got shit to do.
(Source: Friday)


As a child I sat in front of the TV for hours. I would watch anything that was on the television, but as the real Dr. J will tell you, there’s something about movies that captivated me. There’s a story about my affinity for television and movies that gets told every year at Thanksgiving. It’s the story of how, as a child, I was left with a bowl of popcorn sitting in front of the TV. My parents wanted to see how long I would stay up watching TV and eating popcorn. Well they went to sleep and woke up the next day to find me still sitting there watching movies. I couldn’t even walk at this time, all I could do was reach my hand in a bowl of popcorn. (Because back in the day you used to put a little oil in the pot and the corn and put a top on the popcorn until the top just about flew off. Then your dad would have to hold it. Then you got yourself a bowl of Tupperware and poured the popcorn in there, with some salt and Old Bay. #Butyalldontknowaboutthatlife.) Needless to say, movies captivate me.


I’m a movie buff. Save a couple years when I developed a random case of cinephobia, of which I’ll explain later. I think that movies have the power to change us, to make us think critically and to submerge our thoughts in to deeper thinking than short 30 or 60 minute TV shows can. Just the experience of sitting in a room with so many people from all different walks of life staring at one source of entertainment. And when you hear a movie quote, it suddenly hits everyone. For example, this quote from Crash:


“Look at me. You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself.” Terrence Howard to Ludacris (Cameron to Anthony)


It is at that very moment that we are reminded that although there are several reasons why crime exists in Black America, it is still embarrassing.


I use the movie quotes because there are so many times that you are sitting watching a movie and you have a revelation of enormous amounts. I use the movie quotes because whether it be Bridget Jones Diary or Booty Call, we can always take away something from the movie. I use movie quotes because it’s not some wise man like King Solomon, or some famous guy like Malcolm X, or an ignorant fool like Wacka Flocka Flame, it’s a movie character. It’s plain and simple, it’s a fictional character, and it’s a 12 second snippet in a movie that is probably 100-120 minutes.


Do you remember how you felt when you walked out the movie theater after seeing the first Matrix? Do you remember how you felt when Tre turned and tried to run down the middle of an alley while people were shooting? (Instead of on the side like real Gs would have.) Fellas, remember that part in Swordfish when she dropped the book? These moments, these are the moments that we never forget.


But quintessentially the best psychoanalytical meaning behind the movie phrases is this; people are auditory, visual, or kinetic learners. Translation, people learn by hearing something, seeing something, or doing something. The movie quote captures them all. You can remember the character saying it, you can remember seeing it on the movie screen, you can remember what they were doing, or what you were doing at the exact moment the quote was spoken. In a sense, for the people who miss the meaning of the movie quote or don’t see why they apply, I doubt they’d even get it if I broke it all the way down.


So there’s the meaning behind, the damn movie quotes.


PS – About the source, I watch movies every day. That’s why you’ll never see me tweeting about some reality show on VH1. Typically I just pick something from a movie I saw the night before. Or if something happens, and I remember a scene from a movie, I pick that movie. I try to switch it up as often as possible and try to be inclusive of all walks of life.