I’ve felt déjà vus many times in my life. I wouldn’t say I get it a lot, (maybe a dozen times in my life), but judging from how déjà vus is portrayed in movies and TV, I guess I get it more than script writers or directors or producers. Maybe they’ve never felt it. Or maybe I’m feeling something else, and I’m misusing the term?

In movies and TV, déjà vus is identified when something happens again. I mean, actually happens again. Like in The Matrix, when Neo sees the cat walk past the doorway, and then he sees the cat walk past the doorway again. <Keanu Reeves>”Whoa, déjà vus.”</Keanu Reeves>

That’s not how I’ve felt déjà vus. My déjà vus isn’t actually seeing something happen again. It’s almost totally just a feeling of having experienced something before. Being a feeling, I don’t think it could be accurately portrayed in any kind of visual medium, like movies or TV.

Yes, I know that many people call, “déjà vus” when something actually does happen again — like when they see a second person trip over a cord stretched across the floor in a high-traffic area. But that’s just using the term to be funny. Right? Like saying, “I read your mind,” when you predict what someone else is going to say. You didn’t really read their mind like a psychic. Right?

I’ve walked into a room for the first time ever and had the gut-level feeling that I’ve walked into that room before. The feeling only lasts for a few moments, and it’s not a memory. It’s a weird sensation. I remember the first time I ever felt it: I was at the home of a friend of my parents, (I was probably 11-12-13 years old), and I was standing in the kitchen looking out into the living room. Someone walked across my field of vision, and the sensation struck — it was like momentary blip in reality. It wasn’t disorienting, or disturbing. It was just a sensation of, “this moment — everything around me — has happened before.” And then the feeling was gone.

Have you ever felt real déjà vus? Is my description what you felt? Or am I the one who is weird?

Bullgrit

Peter Jackson will be taking the world back to his vision of Middle Earth with the prequel to The Lord of the Rings: The Hobbit. After his wonderful production of The Lord of the Rings, that pretty much became a cultural phenomenon, I’m excited and hopeful about The Hobbit. I trust Peter Jackson with this story.

The Hobbit was the first fantasy novel I remember reading, way back circa 1981.  My introduction to Middle Earth, and to the fantasy book genre in general, coincided with my first getting into Dungeons & Dragons. So it sits comfortably in a nice little second breakfast nook in my heart. I recently read the book to my boys.

The Hobbit – Behind the Scenes

The film won’t be released until some time in 2012, but Peter Jackson is giving us a video blog of the filming. I found it not just interesting, but endearing.

Bullgrit

I am excited and apprehensive.

The movie website.

Captain America is my greatest hero. I respect him above any Star Wars or Star Trek character, and above any other superhero. This movie could be awesome, or it could be terrible. Sadly, from what I’ve seen produced by Hollywood in the past decade, I don’t give awesome a 50/50 chance. I don’t trust Hollywood with this kind of character.

I almost don’t want to even talk about this. Such is my great fear of it being total crap, and being a total rape of the Captain America story. As much as I would love to see a well-done Cap’n A movie, I also very much would tell Hollywood, “Don’t you dare put your shitty little hands on this icon.”

But it’s too late for that. It’s done. We’ll see what the result is in July.

Bullgrit

Continued from here.

It’s been right many years since I’ve seen The Sons of Katie Elder, but I could remember most of it. Strangely, though, I couldn’t remember how it ends. Turned out I did actually remember the ending, I just didn’t realize the John Wayne Western ending I remembered was for this movie. They’ve all kind of gotten a bit jumbled in my memory over the years.

Before the movie started, Calfgrit10 asked me about Westerns:

“Is that where they have the guns that they have to click to make them shoot?” he asked.

“Yes, they have to pull the hammer back before they pull the trigger to shoot it.” I explained. “It’s called single action. . .” and I explained how they work.

“And they use those rifles with the handle underneath?” he asked. He sort of mimed the action of a lever under a rifle.

“Yep, that’s called a lever action,” I explained, and I described what that action does mechanically.

He was remembering the time I took him out shooting guns with my father and brother, (and brogrit’s girlfriend).  He shot my dad’s single action revolver that day.

I inherited that .357 revolver, as well as a lever action .30-.30, when my dad passed. They’re up hidden in my office now. While Calfgrit10 and I were discussing the weapons of Western movies, I had the urge to go get the guns and show him. I wanted to say, “You know, I have a couple of those kinds of guns. Let me show you.” But, that’s too close to, “Hey, you wanna see my dad’s guns?” But those words are dreadfully dangerous. So I put the thought away. I could show him in a more appropriately reverent and calm moment some time later outside the excitement of movie time.

We watched the movie, and he seemed to enjoy it. He didn’t get up from the sofa with me, and he didn’t talk about other things during the scenes. That’s signs that he was engrossed in the experience, just like me.

Afterward, he said he liked the movie, and would be interested in seeing another Western with me some time. Great. I wish we could have watched the movie with my dad, and had three generations of us men loving a Western at the same time. That would have been cool. My dad would have really enjoyed that.

Bullgrit