An August Blogging Project: Movie Scenes That I Go Back To

Update: The project is finished. Here are all of the scenes that I wrote about.

Earlier this month, I was laid up with a particularly nasty bug that left me bedridden for the better part of three days. I spent much of that time thumbing through the three books in Raymond Feist’s Riftwar saga. While I would never qualify them as “classics” per se, there are many portions of the novels that I enjoy a lot and re-read time and again (I suppose you can think of them as “comfort” books).

There are actually a number of books like this on my shelves, books that I find myself pulling out at random — not to read in their entirety, but simply to revisit favorite chapters and scenes.

As it is with books for me, it’s even moreso with films. There are many times where, randomly, I get the urge to re-watch a favorite scene — even if the movie in question does not rank particularly high on my list. Or a line of dialog will pop into my memory. Or I’ll read about a long-forgotten favorite on some blog or forum and instantly want to revisit what made it a favorite in the first place. Next thing I know, I’ve returned from the basement with a stack of DVDs and have spent the last hour or two swapping them in and out of the DVD player.

For awhile, I’ve been trying to think of a blogging project, something to focus on for a time that would be fun to write (and hopefully, to read and discuss). I think you see where this is heading. And so, for the month of August, I’ll be writing something daily (hopefully) about a favorite movie scene — a scene that I go back to time after time. Some of them are high art, and some are decidedly low art, and many are somewhere in-between, and I enjoy them all just the same.

Consider this an open invitation to join me in this project (if you’re interested, comment on this entry or contact me). I’d love to see what trips other folks’ cinematic triggers out there. What scenes move, excite, intrigue, and compel you, and why? What about them lodges in your memory? Why can’t you forget about them?

I’ll be answering these questions for myself throughout the month of August, and I hope you’ll join me. Should be fun…