How to Make Time Stand Still

After you've seen a movie a few times, what do you do with all the extra footage? I mean, every movie has a story to tell, but once you know that story there is nothing left to enjoy but the familiarity and those classic scenes that draw you in. For instance, we frequently have the "Bourne Trilogy" on at my house. Do we sit on the couch and watch it from start to finish? No. We put it on as background noise. Do we watch some parts of the movies? Absolutely! Anytime that Matt Damon's character is looking through a window and calling Treadstone/Black Brier, or when he breaks into Langley and makes that infamous call (I feel happy just thinking of it), we stop to watch. I love when he sends those shock waves through his enemies. You know, that moment when they realize that they are not in control. These are scenes that actually make everything in the house stop! We work through the rest of the movie, but when these scenes come along...everyone pauses...and when the scene is over, we go back to work and the movie transfers to the background again. Chances are that you can take any film and reduce it down to about 15 minutes of worthwhile, re-playable acting. For instance, when Christopher Plummer sings Edelweiss, we all sit down and sigh. In the A&E Pride and Prejudice...we watch the Pemberley scenes, and the kiss. Oh, and we mute Mary's performance at the Netherfield Ball. Now, you may be thinking that I am strange, that this is a ridiculous topic for a blog, or you may be smiling because you like those scenes too and feel the same way. However, this is a huge dilemma for me! It makes it terribly difficult to choose something to watch/listen to. As I search through the many titles, I think of the plot, the happy scenes, and then the in between scenes (all the parts that separate the happy ones), and then I feel as though I have just watched the whole movie without a television. It's as though I am mentally watching the entire film, and after that quick flash in my head, I have no desire to watch any of it! It's a sudden realization of just how little of the movie I actually enjoy!
Think about it, there are dozens of DVDs in your home. Now suppose you were to take those hundreds of hours of cinematic masterpieces and condense them down to just your favorite scenes...you would probably have a very short film. Naturally it would be rewarding, completely confusing to anyone else, but enjoyable for you. What do you do with all film that you cut? It's really quite pathetic when you think about it. My Mom and I were discussing this earlier this evening. We tried listing the clips that would be in our short compilation. It almost became a game as we would ramble off a title, and then try to recall and relate our time-stopping scenes. Of course, then there are the quotes that have somehow infiltrated themselves into our everyday dialog. An example of this is when you find yourself sitting at a green light, but the car in front of you doesn't move. Sound familiar? That's right! It's The Italian Job, and yes I do quote Handsome Rob to the car in front of me...along with a few other choice words, but we won't go there now...Still, don't you have those moments? Those times when something happens, or someone says something that you associate with a movie quote, and that is the only response that you can offer? It's not your intention to be flippant or silly, but the line just perfectly fits the moment. Well, I have this problem. Wow, I'm suddenly realizing just how influential movies can be. I wonder if everything that I say is really just a series of lines from various screenplays pieced together from a bunch of distorted movie memories.