I'm back to CineTV, responding to its current contest, asking about our favorite movie from our childhood. Seeing the prompt, I didn't have to think much about the answer. It's hard to say what the first film was that I got to see, or even the first time I went to a movie theater. Everything tends to bled together in the murkiness of childhood memories. However, I can most definitely remember the first time a movie left a deep impression on me.
The year was 1984, the place a backwater town on the Hungarian plains, and yours truly had recently turned five. Though I would not call my upbringing sheltered, my parents tended to be quite strict on what they allowed me to see. Their reasons were probably the typical, not wanting to expose me to tons of violence, even if just visually. However, to me they explained this by claiming they were protecting me from nightmares, and weirdly even films like E.T. or Star Wars could potentially cause bad dreams. So I had to wait a couple of years - actually until we got a VCR - before I could see those iconic films.
Better Luck with Indiana Jones
My uncle on the other hand did not prescribe to my parent's philosophy, and one evening when he was asked to take care of me, he took me to the cinema. We walked through heavy snowfall to this shabby old place with only one screening room, but they were showing Raiders of the Lost Ark, which I suppose my uncle wanted to see anyway. So before entering the theater he made me promise on all things holy and important to a 5-year-old, that I would not tell my parents that he took me to the movies. I loved the secrecy, and I swore I would never say a word. Satisfied with my sincerity, my uncle led the way in.
We had missed the first minutes, but this didn't bother me at all, since we got thrown right into the middle of an exotic jungle scene, with enormous spiders crawling on the guy's back. This, I remember, was already enough to consider this film worthwhile of seeing, but it only got better. Treasures of gold protected by intricate traps that our hero barely escaped from, including the giant boulder rolling through the tunnel. I was in a deep state of suspense, and this was only the first scene!
A Film with Limitations
The film came to our cinema a few years late, and even then undubbed, and even without subtitles. Not that any of this mattered, since I could not read anyway, and had I heard the dialogues in my native Hungarian, they probably wouldn't have made much sense to my five-year-old mind. Occasionally I asked my uncle, but I think his English was not much better either. Or at least he didn't bother explaining to me what Nazis were, or the story of this weird box they were looking for. I did not mind too much, since the film kept piling up one mind-blowing visual after the next. It took us from the tropical forest to some frozen mountaintop, and eventually to the desert. And in each place more amazing action was to take place. At some point my young mind must have reached saturation, and eventually sensory overload.
Undeniable Enthusiasm
By the time we reached the scene where the bad guy's face melted from his skull, with his eyeballs rolling out, I was way beyond getting scared. It was yet another ohhh, and ahhh, and wowww... though at the same time I remember my parents' warnings popping into my mind. Was this one of those things that would cause nightmares? I could certainly see where they were coming from, but I also remember thinking that I had such a great time this evening, experiencing so any incredible things, that seeing a melting face in my dreams might be a small price to pay for it. In any case, I was too busy enjoying the memories of the film to be too worried about it.
As we walked home from the cinema it was still snowing. I could not stop talking about this extraordinary film I just saw, including aquaplanes (another feature I remember that impressed me a lot), pyramids, and hidden treasures with their riches and curses. My uncle was obviously happy that I was not traumatized by his decision to go against the wishes of my parents. Because one thing was clear: Keeping my promise and my mouth shut about the film was way beyond my capabilities. And so it did not take very long for my parents to find out... I guess it was that same evening.
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They were not upset, at least not with me, though my uncle might have gotten his tongue-lashing, since this ended up being also the last time he took me to see a movie. But for the time being I was grateful to him, because it gave me loads of stuff to discuss with my kindergarten mates. As for the nightmares, I can't say that I didn't have any, but at least none of them had anything to do with this Indiana Jones movie.
For the next coming years, this remained among my top favorite experiences, and though I never managed to remember its admittedly weird and complicated title, I considered it to be my favorite movie. Only much later - I must have been around ten or eleven I guess - did I put things into perspective, when I saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. By then its context made much more sense to me, and I could immerse myself into the story itself among all the spectacular scenes. Most importantly, I kept recalling how much I enjoyed the first film of the trilogy, which even today remains pretty high up among my favorites.
