Me Da

Da with the guitar, me with the bossy finger

I love my parents and I credit both my them for my love of film but seeing as it's fathers day I'll talk about me Da for a bit and some of our cinematic adventures.

A long long time ago he brought me on my first trip to the cinema. It was a converted malthouse in Birr. The film was Superman 3 and I was 4 or 5. I don't remember much of the experience apart from being terrified at the start when the young fella was injured in a cornfield and crying as a combine harvester bore down on him. Then Superman appeared and saved the day. Me and Da cheered and my love of the cinema was cemented.

Then there was the night a few years later when he came home with a mysterious VHS and told us it was a film about a space dragon that lived inside people. I just seen and fallen for the Never Ending Story and was mad for any kind of film that had dragons or similar beasties. I was 8 and loved all that stuff. We put the movie on and sat back to enjoy it. It was quite a different film to the movies I was used to but dragons!! Then the alien burst out of John Hurt's chest and traumatised me. The film was of course Alien. 8 yr old me was in shreds but please spare a thought for my 5 yr old brother. The poor little fucker.

Cliffhanger was a memorable experience too. I saw it with my Da in the old Savoy cinema in Limerick. My brother was too young to see it so him and my Ma had to make do with The Last Action Hero. Me and Da had to cross the street to another screen for Cliffhanger. It was not a nice screen. The film kicked off with Stallone scrambling across a wire to save a woman from death. We weren't exactly glued to the screen though instead concentrating on the scrambling beneath our chairs. It didn't take us long to realise there were rats everywhere. Legs were thrown up on the seats in front of us and we tried to enjoy the film. I still love it but anytime i watch it I remember the two of us trying to play it cool in the face of a rodent onslaught.

Reservoir Dogs was the following year. I've talked about it here. He brought me and my friends to see it and it was so cool of him. He did however nope out of the film during the ear scene and has still never gone back to it.

Seven was a fun one too. The two of us in Tullamore for the must see film of 1995. Back in that glorious pre-internet era of no spoilers. We were glued to it, nerve wracked, softly cursing at the horror on the screen and then that ending. We walked out of screen 1 shell shocked, got into the car and headed for home. About halfway he turned to me and said "What the fuck did you bring me to that for?" and we laughed the rest of the way home.

I've watched so many films with him over the years. Trips to see Heat, The Rock, Timecop. I've great memories of browsing Xtravision with him, the two of us looking for that perfect watch then crying laughing when he asked for Jimmy Magee instead of Jerry Maguire. Introducing him to Scream and watching him getting angrier and angrier every time a jump scare got him. Watching too many Bond films together too remember but I know his fave one is still Live And Let Die. Going to see the Star Wars special edition re-releases with him in the late 90's and introducing him to the saga he'd missed the first time around. Him introducing me to Chariots of Fire and me trying to pretend I loved it while I slowly died of boredom. The night we watched Natural Born Killers on TV3 until he stormed out of the room in disgust. Him bringing me to see Con Air the night before my first leaving cert exam to take my mind off things. The two of us absorbed by the likes of Unforgiven and Carlito's Way and Bad Boys 2. Watching silly comedies together to help him take his mind off the manky effects of chemotherapy (never underestimate how funny someone getting smacked in the balls is). The last film I saw with him was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri a few months back and I know he liked it because he didn't fall asleep. He's slept through a lot of shit I've made him watch.

It's been an age since we went to the cinema. The Wind That Shakes The Barley I think. Or maybe Casino Royale. Far, far too long ago whichever it was. It's time to get that sorted out.