Saturday Epiphany at the Movies

Have you seen a movie that changed your life? Are you famous? If you answer "yes" to both questions, perhaps you will be interviewed for the revised edition of Robert Hofler's new book. If you answer "no" to either question, you can spend the intervening years opening yourself up to a life-changing movie and/or becoming famous.

I looked at the slideshow of 17 "awe-inspiring flicks," which includes Danielle Steel's choice. Her epiphany didn't happen until 1999 and by then she had written nearly 50 novels (and she was 52 years old).

I was terrified by a movie that I saw when I was about 9. It was "The Mountain," which featured brothers Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner climbing said mountain to reach the remote site of a plane crash. One wants to help any survivors and the other wants to loot the corpses. One falls to his death near the end of the movie. I used to replay that moment at night if the sliding doors on my bedroom closet weren't fully closed. I'd see the black gap of the open door and visualize the snow bridge collapsing. It was weeks before I could get past that.

I went to the movies more or less weekly when I was in school. More than anything what's changed in my life is that I hardly ever go to the movies. They come to me.