Randall Smith
A Portrait of the Crank as a Young Man
Early Years: Aesthetic Eden
Until I was about 14 or so, I used to come out of each movie I went to see with the impression that that was the best movie I had ever seen. As you might imagine, this meant that, in turn, I rated such noteworthies as Star Wars, Buck Rogers, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, and Tron as the best movie I had ever seen. It was not until I saw Treasure of the Four Crowns - In 3-D! that I began to detect subtle variations in filmic quality. Indeed, I started to suspect that not all movies were created equal.
Later On: Don't Call Me Stupid
After that I was lost, because I couldn't rely on films to subsume me anymore. I was cast out of the garden of undifferentiation, and pretty much didn't trust movies wholesale anymore. Now, if you are a trusting sort, which I have tended to be, when someone takes advantage of you, you take it hard. I began to find it easier and easier to dismiss movies out of hand as stupid and worthless, because I felt like the moviemaker was attempting to put one over on me. In essence, I reverted to playing Keven Kline's role in A Fish Called Wanda: the guy who's really, really good at killing, whose big sore spot is that he's afraid people think he's dumb. That's me—and don't call me stupid, Hollywood!
1 May 2005
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Posted by Randall Smith at May 1, 2005 2:04 PM