How ‘Transformers: The Movie’ Taught Me About The Inevitability Of Death
It’s the 35th anniversary of Orson Welles’ second to last movie
A friend is someone who will see a movie with you. A best friend is someone who will see a 35th-anniversary screening of the 1986 animated cult classic Transformers: The Movie.
The movie is famous amongst nerds of a certain age. The 85-minute toy commercial was rated PG for a couple of swear words and lots of violence, including summary executions of a few robots in disguise and, of course, the brutal death of a beloved hero.
I didn’t want to go alone because I knew the theater would be mostly grown men my age who were about 13 in 1986 and so I was able to convince one of my closest friends to go with me and eat popcorn and watch some pretty slick animation.
He’s also one of the most intelligent people I know: he’s a theater critic who knows a lot about opera and literature, and he’s the only person I know who goes to art museums regularly to look at art, and I know he goes because his best social media posts are from his frequent strolls through western civilization’s best at the Met. Sometimes, we see experimental theater together and sometimes go to horror movies or superhero movies. He’s also a very kind and loyal friend. For over twenty…
