c7_assassin
3rd Level Black Feather
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- Jun 24, 2007
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All stories need a protagonist. As an audience we need someone to identify with; someone to guide us through the story with a perspective that is familiar to us. Which kind of character that might be exactly, though, I've found is subject to change.
An example: I'm watching Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous on TV tonight, a movie I've always liked, despite it being kind of an excuse for Cameron Crowe to listen to his record collection for two hours at the audience's expense... Be that as it may, I've always liked and identified with the main character, 15 year old Patrick Fugit, who is smart but hopelessly introverted, daring but woefully naive, a natural outsider. I saw this movie when I was about his age, and I naturally projected myself onto his character. His pain was my pain; his salvation (I thought) was my salvation. (Also, he loses his virginity to a foursome of nubile rock star sex-groupies, one of which is totally Anna Paquin. That's wish-fulfilment on an absurd scale.)
But watching it tonight, I find myself projecting much more into Billy Crudup, the more mature but ultimately flawed rockstar that our young hero gets to know throughout the film. The kid's problems now seem insignificant (Your mom is overprotective? You think you're going to die a virgin? Jesus, get a life, kid!) while Crudup's problems are now much closer to my own (I've slept with someone I shouldn't have; how many people know? Oh Christ, too many people know!); his experiences now mesh much more closely with my own experiences. And so the 'me' of this movie has changed in between viewings, and I find my perception of the whole film has now changed.
Has anything like this ever happened to any of you? Or am I just getting way, way too into the films of Cameron Crowe? 😛
An example: I'm watching Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous on TV tonight, a movie I've always liked, despite it being kind of an excuse for Cameron Crowe to listen to his record collection for two hours at the audience's expense... Be that as it may, I've always liked and identified with the main character, 15 year old Patrick Fugit, who is smart but hopelessly introverted, daring but woefully naive, a natural outsider. I saw this movie when I was about his age, and I naturally projected myself onto his character. His pain was my pain; his salvation (I thought) was my salvation. (Also, he loses his virginity to a foursome of nubile rock star sex-groupies, one of which is totally Anna Paquin. That's wish-fulfilment on an absurd scale.)
But watching it tonight, I find myself projecting much more into Billy Crudup, the more mature but ultimately flawed rockstar that our young hero gets to know throughout the film. The kid's problems now seem insignificant (Your mom is overprotective? You think you're going to die a virgin? Jesus, get a life, kid!) while Crudup's problems are now much closer to my own (I've slept with someone I shouldn't have; how many people know? Oh Christ, too many people know!); his experiences now mesh much more closely with my own experiences. And so the 'me' of this movie has changed in between viewings, and I find my perception of the whole film has now changed.
Has anything like this ever happened to any of you? Or am I just getting way, way too into the films of Cameron Crowe? 😛
