Unforgettable movies from my childhood
We all have vivid memories of certain movies we watched as children. These movies moved us – provoked us – scared us – amazed us! In many ways these movies shaped us, and gave us clues about what we wanted to do when we grew up and what our tastes were. I quickly fell in love with the fantasy genre and all things wizard, sword and warrior – although cinema technology in those days couldn’t always do justice to the ideas. I remember finding ‘Westerns’ boring, but ‘Eastern’ kung fu movies were awesome!! So here are a few movies that had an enormous impact on me growing up. Many of these I have watched well over twenty times and I still consider them some of the best movies ever made. If you missed any of these movies, do yourself a favour and track them down and give them a watch.
Enter the Dragon – Robert Clouse (1973… of course I didn’t watch it then!)
Bruce Lee kicking ass in his own special way! Every time I saw a Bruce Lee movie I became a raving kung fu master for a few hours and practiced my technique on my sister.
Pete’s Dragon – Don Chaffey (1977)
One of Disney’s first full length features with real actors interacting with animated characters. The dragon was seriously cool and cute.
Wizards – Ralph Bakshi (1977)
This movie blew my mind!! It’s a seriously weird and dark futuristic fantasy with strange animation, negative photo effects and a fascinating story. A must see!
Superman (the movie) – Richard Donner (1978)
The one that started them all! Christopher Reeves will always be the only Superman to me. I’ve wanted to be superman ever since. I used to love collecting the superman stickers off the Pepsi bottles.
The Dark Crystal – Jim Henson (1982)
One of my top 5 movies of all time. An epic fantasy adventure done entirely with puppets and robotics (not muppets). The story was fantastic and the production was ahead of its time.
Tron – Steven Lisberger (1982)
The first sci-fi I really enjoyed. People get sucked into the ‘internet’ and end up fighting sentient viruses that look like badly dressed people with killer frizbees… OK, so you need to see it to understand it. This had some ‘Matrix’ concepts long before the Matrix.
The NeverEnding Story – Wolfgang Petersen (1984)
Who didn’t love this movie?! A classic fantasy tale with one of the most memorable theme songs ever (after Rocky’s “Eye of the Tiger”).
Labyrinth – Jim Henson (1986)
OK, so Jim Henson rules!! Another masterpiece with puppets and actors in the form of David Bowie and (sigh) Jennifer Connelly in her first major role. This also has my favourite soundtrack ever – performed by David Bowie.
Willow – Ron Howard (1988)
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love this movie, starring Val Kilmer in one of his best performances ever, this movie has everything: love potions-action-adventure-wizards-swords-comedy-short people-even shorter people-trolls… you name it.
Please send your list and share your memories!
