By MICHAEL SMITH Movie Critic on Apr 30, 2009, at 6:54 PM Updated on 4/30 at 6:54 PM
I SEE MOVIES FOR FREE
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A good number of the discussions on film that reach my ears these days are of this variety: They start with "dude," end with "awesome" and are usually limited in words in between to "that was."
So my reaction to a recent e-mail comment from Jerry Pogue (retired Tulsa World night editor, also of the Tulsa Tribune and former sports information director at the University of Tulsa) was such that I felt the need to share.
Jerry was noting my recent blog about the 15 films that Turner Classics Movies named as those most responsible for shaping films of the future. The comment was one that added a certain gravitas to the fact that films can be something more than simply "awesome."
To quote Jerry on the subject of "The Birth of a Nation," Cecil B. DeMille's 1915 landmark epic about the Ku Klux Klan:
"(It) reminded me of the time I saw it. It was 1981 when I was public relations director at Oklahoma Baptist University (where the film was screened)....I saw an older man who was semi-retired but worked at night cleaning the building. He asked me if I knew the way to the auditorium, and I said that's where I was going so we could walk there together....As we walked, he explained that he had wanted to see the movie when it first came out but didn't have the 15 cents admission then. So, some 65 years later, he was finally going to get to see it. Added a little more significance for me."
It should for all of us. It's never too late to view one of the classics. Thank you for writing, Jerry.
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