Play it again, please

Having a whole bunch of movie channels (and a DVR) is great, though sometimes it keeps me from watching my Netflix movies for months at a time. I can watch some of my favorite movies whenever they're on, over and over again, and quote most (if not all) of the lines. The list is long: Star Wars/Empire/Jedi, Princess Bride, Pretty Woman, Hunt for Red October, French Kiss, Footloose, Crimson Tide, Bridget Jones, Unforgiven... occassionally Dani and I try to build a complete list, but we can never think of all of them. I think it's a comfort thing. I know I can do just about anything around the house - work, laundry, build bookcases, hang pictures, knit, and even nap - and know exactly what's going on in the movie. It's actually harder for me to do these things when I'm watching a new episode of something, like Countdown on MSNBC, or CSI, because I want to concentrate on what's being said. But these movies are my comfort food.

Speaking of which, tonight, Field of Dreams was on, followed by Bull Durham. *sigh* It's no secret that I had a HUGE crush on Kevin Costner when these two movies came out. My dad even got me the cardboard stand-up of KC and Susan Sarandon* from the video store, (that one -->) which hung over the curtain rod in my bedroom until I went to college. (It was conveniently also good for keeping out early morning sunlight!) I can pretty much recite the lines from start to finish on both of these. And they have two of the best speeches out of all the films I love. In FoD, it's James Earl Jones explaining that "people will come:"

... People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

And of course, Crash's speech in the beginning of Bull Durham, explaining what he believes in:

Well, I believe in the soul, the c*ck, the p*ssy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.

Yes, it's probably a waste of time to watch these things over and over, but it's comfortable. They're like my old friends, and I wouldn't want to ignore my friends!

* Random quirk of mine - Susan Sarandon was married, for a time, to Chris Sarandon (aka Prince Humperdinck, from Princess Bride). Strangely, I pronounce her name Sa-RAN-don, and I pronounce his name SAH-ran-don. Don't ask me why, I don't know.