WRITING CULTURE 2012: Film, Food & Beyond

Why hasn’t this become mainstream fashion yet?
Photo Credit: Peter Jackson I New Line Cinema

By Sean Creamer

watching a film is a concept that always something that has eluded me. Why would someone sit and watch the adventures of others, when they could easily get up from the couch ridden with potato chip crumbs and soda stains, don a set of leather armor, take up the sword and create an adventure of their own (disclaimer: the writer does in fact do this from time to time).
While I do not watch movies often, I personally subscribe to a love of fantasy. Although this world that we live in is chock full of unexplored land, I feel that delving into a fantasy film such as The Lord of the Rings or the space cowboy television show Firefly grasp my adventurous spirit and will hold me upon the decrepit couch long enough to enjoy a good story and shovel popcorn into my gullet.
I love the idea of a coming of age and fantasy movies rarely fail to deliver what I want to see when someone comes of age. Sure, a protagonist can get the girl of his dreams after some romantic hijinks or someone can have a breakthrough with a disease, but real life sucks. This is stuff that kinda goes on everyday.
And honestly, who wants to see stuff that you can see by just looking through your kitchen window?
No. I require the slaying of beasts or human devils to prove that a character has indeed earned their stripes and has stepped fully into the darkness of the world created for them, whether for good or ill.

I can relate with the characters who find themselves thinking that they are destined for greatness, but the adventure has not yet presented itself to them. It is kind of how I feel about life, that everyone has an adventure waiting for them.
While not all fantasy characters may experience a beginning this humble, it is one that I am drawn to and find that it is one of the purist forms of character development.
Don’t get me wrong: I love to watch Seth Rogan and James Franco battle crooked cops and toke on the Pot Marijuana in Pineapple Express, it is always a trip, but nothing compares to the enchanting scenes and magical scores of The Fellowship of the Ring.
A viewer is simply whisked away to Hobbiton’s rolling pastures and homes under the hill. The splendid acting and effects of this movie create such a fantastic world that I cannot help but take up my grandfather’s old sword and challenge my brother to intense duels to the first blood of the thigh.