Every movie lover has their secret source for their favorite stuff.
A lot of our staff are New Yorkers, or former New Yorkers, and we all remember having a spot downtown to get movies. From Mondo Kim’s and TLA video to theaters like the Angelika and Quad, in every town, big and small, there’s a special spot for movie lovers. When the days of the privately-owned small video store and movie theater went ended, movie lovers were left with very few alternatives. You could rent online from sites like GreenCine, Netflix, UrbanFilmClub — or you could turn on your TV.
Most TV networks take movie lovers for granted, as we’re only as good as the amount of commercials we respond to. But then there’s TCM. The Turner Classic Movies channel went on air 15 years ago today. It’s one of our favorite channels. It’s on in our lounge area a lot. While most people see this as the channel with the black and white movies (which, for audiences of color, usually means “get ready for some offensive images” ), when you understand and love movies, you know to click on “info” when you turn past, because you might be missing something really important.
There are channels dedicated to “Black” movies, but the great thing about TCM is that you can see Black and Asian and Hispanic people in the true context of classic cinema. It’s one thing to see an all Black cast, quite another to see how Black stars and filmmakers were truly depicted in the golden era of cinema. Really eye opening stuff.
Their day-long focuses on actors and actresses are truly like classes for actors. It was in one of these day long spotlights a few years ago that I found a Humphrey Bogart film I’d never seen. Why does that matter? Because it was a little film called “The Harder They Fall“, from 1956. This is a Boxing movie with Bogie as a down on his luck reporter in a classic struggle of conscience play. Loved it. TCM is the only place that shows “A Face In the Crowd”, Andy Griffith’s first movie and quite possibly a film for anyone trying to understand Rush Limbaugh. Late last year, when we were setting up our company, we were all up late one night, and, turned the sound up on TCM. Interestingly enough, “The Harder They Come” was on. It was the first time we’d seen it on TV. Commercial free. Awesome. And while “The Black List” is great on HBO, who can forget the Elvis Mitchell interview with Laurence Fishburne on “Under The Influence”? TCM gets it, and they have for 15 years. We hope the day never comes when they have to run a commercial. We’d rather endure a PBS style pledge drive and pay for the station. This reviewer can honestly say, unashamed, that he regularly chooses hotels when he travels based on whether or not they have TCM. They’ve never let me down on the road.
To celebrate their 15th Anniversary, TCM is having guest programmers come in and talk about their favorite movies, but on April 30, they are doing a day of Denzel Washington movies. Even the toughest critic has a favorite Denzel Washington movie.
If you aren’t already completely hooked on this channel, you have to visit tcm.com and check their schedule. There’s something coming on that you haven’t seen, and if you have, it’s worth seeing it again.
Thanks for the classic film lessons, TCM. Here’s to 15 more great years!
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