Films that shaped my love of cinema

I always loved movies. Can't get enough of them. I'm an addict. *Stands up* "My name is Ronan and I'm a celluloid junkie." I can't remember a time when I wasn't engrossed by them. I've grown up on them. I can't imagine a world without them. Oh jesus that would be horrible wouldn't it. No flights of fantasy, no escape for a couple of hours. Oh no fuck that.

I was lucky with my parents. We were let watch what we wanted within reason. Well no, its not like we were let loose on 18 cert films when we were 7 ( happened once and was a formative experience I'll get back to later) but in general they didn't stop us from watching what we wanted. I remember once I was about 13 and it was a friday night and I saw a film called Deliverance was starting. It looked interesting so I said I'd give it a whirl. Ma walked in and asked what was on. I told her and she told me it was good but tough and might scare me but she didn't stop me from watching it. Well scared I was and but I appreciated the fact that she let me watch. Another memory was watching a Watership Down when I was about 8. I was scarred after it but Da thought it was an important film for us to watch and I'm glad we did. Having excellent parents who trust you to watch what you are able for was great for my burgeoning hobby.

Below are 5 films that made me into the film fan I am today

• Raiders Of The Lost Ark
• Alien
• The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
• Goodfellas
• Reservoir Dogs

Raiders Of The Lost Ark. 

 Raiders is a masterpiece. I've seen it dozens of times and it never fails to thrill me. The first time I saw it I was young, no idea, 8 maybe. Probably on Christmas day or Easter sunday. Blew me away, didn't give me a second to breathe. It's breakneck speed, the comedy ( shooting the swordfighter is still the best piece of comedy ever put to film IMHO), the scary ass nazis, the drinking contest, the heroine who could hold her own, the stunts, the snakes and that beginning. But the part that got me was the ending. It still gives me goosebumps. We all know it, the ark is opened and spirits pour out. Initially floaty but then hellishly malevolent. That scene of the angelic face turning demonic!!! WHOA. Young me was petrified but amazed. I still vividly remember the feeling of awe I had and for that I'll always credit Raiders as being the movie that hooked me.

Alien

Da turned up one evening with a video cassette and a VCR. I was 7. It was back when you could rent a film and the player from the same shop. The video had no case and no writing on it because every single film in the shop was pirated. People complain about film piracy now but it was brutal in the 80's. The film was called Alien and Da told us it was about a dragon that lived inside people. Sounds harmless enough so we were let watch it. I was expecting Star Wars but this was much different. The people in it were normal people, real workers. Everything was fine and dandy until a man who's voice i recognised as Hazel from Watership Down got an alien stuck to his face. That was scary enough and Ma was a bit concerned until the table scene happened. Blood and viscera erupted across the screen. Me and my brother ( who was 4 at the time, jaysus ) and tbh Ma & Da fuckin roared the house down. I was horrified. But also.....strangely exhilarated. I'd never seen anything like that before and that's the film I credit with giving me a love of dark, scary, tension packed cinema.

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

I saw this for the first time with my nana. Nana loved westerns, old Glenn Ford movies, Gary Cooper facing baddies with his new bride, TV shows like Bonanza and The High Chapperal. Clint and Sara the nun and her 2 mules and so on. One night I was staying there and we watched TGTBATU. From the opening credits I was hooked. Vivid colours and mad graphics and Ennio Morricone's iconic music blasting and just WOW. A lot of people have problems with the pace of westerns but I been watching them for years so It never bothered me. I loved the characters, Blondie was cool and Tuco was a loveable scumbag and Angel Eyes was terrifying and the whole film was just so epic. Huge. The bridge explosion, the desert landscapes, the huge graveyard of Arch Stanton and the arena of death at the end. I couldn't look away. The final scene were Blondie gives Tuco his reprieve just burned itself into my brain. This was just something else. It cemented my love of westerns to this day. I love em, if I come across one on the telly I have to watch it. They are just pure cinema.

Goodfellas 

Probably my favourite film of all time. Definitely my most watched film of all time. I was 15, I should have been studying for my junior cert. Hahaha. There was a film on RTE 1 as it was a Wednesday night. Robert De Niro was in it. I liked De Niro so I wanted to see it. The RTE announcer gave a content warning before the film. My ears pricked up. RTE never did they so this film had to be something special. And it was. In spades. The film opened on a car driving. The occupants pull over, open the boot and brutally and casually murder the bloodied man inside. My jaw dropped. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS??? The next 140 minutes were amazing. Blew my head off. Never stopped for breath. No real plot, freeze frames, voice overs, cameras swooping left and right, the music, long shots following people through restaurants, it felt alive. It was so exciting, the acting, the language, the insight into this strange life of crime. A moment of realisation when watching it that I just loved movies. Loved em. I saw this film again in the cinema earlier this year and it was as exciting as the first time. 

Reservoir Dogs

This came out in 1991 and I was too young to see it and too young to know about it. I started reading Premiere magazine ( remember that one!) aged 13 or 14 so heard all about it and the controversy surrounding it. I was dying to see it after that before sadly it couldn't get a video release with all the film violence brouhaha after the Jamie Bulger murder. It could only be seen in the cinema. One night I got home from school and Da had a surprise for me. Reservoir Dogs was being shown in Tullamore and he would bring me and a few friends to see it. I was over the moon. Finally getting to see this big cause celebre. I know it would be brilliant. And it was. I loved it. Da and his friend walked out half way through it and this made it even better. It was gruelling, it was bloody.....but it was also hilarious, with well written characters and great dialogue and played with time in a fashion we didn't see often back then, flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks. It was brilliant to just get lost it. It instilled in me a love of a good story, of pithy dialogue, of non linear storytelling.

There we have it. 5 films that changed my life, that gave me a brilliant hobby, a way to relax and unwind and fall in love with cinema.