9. We Remember Dates By Years in Film
What were the years of the Civil War? *Thinks back to Glory. "1861-1865." When did the Titanic sink? *Thinks back to Titanic. "1912." When was the Writers' Strike? *Thinks back to what won Best Picture that year. "2007-2008." This is how films help us in a practical way. See enough movies about true-life events, and they'll be engrained in your head. I can't tell you how to solve an algorithm of U x 76 pi, or even if that is an algorithm at all, but I can tell you all the important events of 1991 because The Rocketeer was released that summer. Does it make sense? Not much, but there it is. Want us to be able to remember our anniversary? Take us out to see a movie. We'll remember, if nothing else, by the release date. Are you really paranoid about us not remembering the day we got married? After the service, tell the driver of the car not to take us to the airport and our honeymoon, but to make a beeline for the nearest showing of Madea's Giraffe Exploitation (working title). It may seem silly, but it helps us. And then we're able to fire back a lot of details about that day, if the movie left a big enough impression (good or bad). "Of course I remember, honey. You wore white that day." "That was my wedding dress." "And here I am, not wrong."
Cameron Carpenter
Contributor
Cameron Carpenter is an aspiring screenwriter, current film and journalism student, and self-diagnosed cinephile, which only sounds bad in certain circles. Devoted fan of comics, movies, theater, Jesus Christ, Sidney Lumet, and Peter O'Toole, he sometimes spends too much time on his Scribd and comicbookmovie.com, but doesn't think you're one to judge, devoted reader. You can follow him on Twitter to watch him talk to people you didn't know exist. Oh, and Daredevil is quite the big deal around here (my head).
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