The world in which they lived (and died)

We've talked about this before, but I like to bring it up: Eric and Dylan lived (and died) in another time.

At the bottom of this post, you'll find a long list of movies that they liked and talked about, many of which came out while they were at CHS. I'll talk about some of those in a minute.

But first I'll talk about a movie that they likely hated.

sororityalpha posted this picture in the "Columbine pictures" thread:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

That was two months after the van break-in, during the roughest stretch of Eric and Dylan's roughest year at Columbine.

In 1998, March 25 fell on a Wednesday. On the Monday of that week - the 23rd - Titanic won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. It was already the highest-grossing movie ever released up until that time. In fact, it was still the number-one movie at the box office - it was more popular than all of the new movies that were coming out. That song by Celine Dion was playing nonstop on the radio.

(Lost in Space was the first film released after Titanic that opened in first place. It hit theaters on Friday, April 3.)

What did Eric and Dylan think about Titanic? Did they find it hopelessly lame? Did Eric shake his head and say, "*This* is the same James Cameron who directed The Terminator and Aliens? What the fuck is wrong with him?" Or were they touched by the stirring story of a tragic love affair between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet?

How many of you reading this are old enough to remember the time when Titanic was playing in the theaters - late '97 and early '98? (More than a few, I know.) Think about how much has changed since then - not only in the world as a whole, but in your life. How long ago does that time seem to you?

(I'm a few years younger than Eric and Dylan, but I was old enough and precocious enough to have experienced many if not most of the same pop-culture phenomena that they did. In some ways, those years seem like they were yesterday; in others, like they were a billion years ago.)

Now think about the fact that, at the time that those movies were being seen for the first time, Eric and Dylan were getting into all sorts of trouble.

I saw Titanic in the theater - twice. The first time was the night that it opened (Friday, December 19, 1997). (I had been fascinated by the tragedy for years.)

The weekend before Titanic came out, I saw Scream 2 on its opening night. I was too young to be admitted, and not resourceful or ballsy enough to try to sneak in, so I had to beg an older relative to take me.

A few months earlier, I had begged and cajoled her to take me to see Scream 1 when it was re-released in the spring (or was it summer?) of '97. (It opened the Friday before Christmas in '96.) She finally relented. I loved it. We also saw I Know What You Did Last Summer on the night that it opened (Friday, October 17).

What movies did Eric and Dylan see in the theater around that time that Titanic hit theaters, if any? Event Horizon opened in mid-August '97, Starship Troopers, on the first Friday in November; Alien: Resurrection, on the day before Thanksgiving. (Lost Highway opened in February '97.)

Eric Harris wrote:

“YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE!!!? G rated MOVIES!! Like the Lion King or HERCULES or Warriors of Virtue.”

Hercules opened on Friday, June 27, 1997. I saw that one in the theater, as well. I was too old for Disney movies - in fact, I was watching R-rated movies in the theater by the time that I was seven - but my grandmother asked me to take my little cousin to see it. Both of us were thoroughly bored.

This was the same cousin who ruined a screening of The Fifth Element that my grandmother, in one of her dumber moves, took all of us to see on its opening night (Friday, May 9, 1997). A few minutes into the flick, he got frightened and began bawling his eyes out. One guy was so angry that he had a near-total meltdown in the middle of the theater. (He screamed that he'd been looking forward for months to seeing the movie, and that we had fucked it up for him. He cursed us out and then stormed out to the lobby to demand a refund.)

If you didn't get to see a movie in the theater, then you had to wait for the TV showing (pay-per-view, followed by HBO) or the VHS release. (Few folks had laserdisc players. DVD was still getting off the ground.)

There are so many things that we can talk about - TV shows, for one. Buffy and Dawson's Creek were both ultra-hot at that time.

We can also talk about their computers.

I'm one of the youngest people who can honestly say that they cut their teeth on an Apple II, so I don't see a 75-MHz Pentium PC as being *that* old. But compared to what we have now, the computers that Eric and Dylan thought were such hot shit were laughably underpowered. And think about how slow their Internet connections were. Think about how little there was, comparatively speaking, to see on the Web in those days. YouTube was but a gleam in somebody's eye. Streaming RealAudio was cutting-edge.

I spent many long hours searching for and downloading nearly-unwatchable (and -unhearable) QuickTime video clips that were the size of a postage stamp on-screen. And I was glad to have them!

How big was the hard drive that Dylan destroyed? A few gigs, maybe.

Nowadays, I can easily download several gigabytes' worth of stuff in a few minutes. I have multi-terabyte hard drives scattered all over the place.

The time in which they lived was not *that* long ago. But, in many ways, our world is a lot different from theirs.

MOVIES REFERENCED BY ERIC HARRIS:

   Natural Born Killers (1994), directed by Oliver Stone. Eric and Dylan were big fans of this film, and used its abbreviation of “NBK” as a codename for the April 20 shootings. “NBK” is referenced throughout Eric and Dylan’s writings, such as in notes they wrote to each other and in their journals. Many songs from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack are also referenced by them.
   The Lost Highway (1997), directed by David Lynch. One of Eric and Dylan’s favorite movies, The Lost Highway is referenced throughout their writings. In a survey found on his computer by the police, the film is cited as Eric’s favorite movie.
   Independence Day (1996), directed by Roland Emmerich. Eric references this movie in his school diary. On the June 4 section of the calendar, Eric wrote “ID4 NUKE ‘EM!”. Also referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Alien (1979), directed by Ridley Scott. Referenced in his journal and his school diary.
   Predator (1987), directed by John McTiernan. Eric used a sample from this film on one of the Doom levels he created.
   Invasion U.S.A. (1985), directed by Joseph Zito. Referenced in his “it would be great if god removed all vaccines and warning labels…” page. He writes “if you have seen the first few clips of violence in INVASION USA youll know what im talking about.”
   The Lion King (1994), directed by Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers. Referenced in his “You know what I love/hate?” page. He writes, “YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE!!!? G rated MOVIES!! Like the Lion King or HERCULES or Warriors of Virtue.”
   Hercules (1997), directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. See above.
   Warriors of Virtue (1997), directed by Ronny Yu. See above.
   Starship Troopers (1997), directed by Paul Verhoeve. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Pulp Fiction (1994), directed by Quentin Tarantino. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Reservoir Dogs (1992), directed by Quentin Tarantino. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Alien: Resurrection (1997), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   2 Days in the Valley (1996), directed by John Herzfeld. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Enemy Gold (1993), directed by Christian Drew Sidaris. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan. Also referenced in Dylan’s yearbook entry to Eric.
   The Fifth Element (1997), directed by Luc Besson. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), directed by John McTiernan. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   The Rock (1996), directed by Michael Bay. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995), directed by Ernest R. Dickerson and Gilbert Adler. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Terminator (1984), directed by James Cameron. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), directed by James Cameron. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996), directed by Andy Wilson and S. S. Wilson. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Event Horizon (1997), directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan. This is also the movie Eric and Susan DeWitt watched on prom night instead of going to the prom.
   The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), directed by Steven Spielberg. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Dark City (1998), directed by Alex Proyas. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Out of Sight (1998), directed by Steven Soderbergh. Referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   The Stand (1994) (tv miniseries), directed by Mick Garris. Eric mentions it in an AOL chat.
   Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), directed by Tom Shadyac. Eric reportedly called Sara Arbogast, one of his co-workers at Blackjack Pizza, “Ohzay BooBoo” - a phrase he picked up from the film.
   A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), directed by Chuck Russell. Mentioned in his journal - “Step back and look at yourself fuckers, I dare you, maybe I’ll get lucky and you’ll step back to (sic) far like Nick in Em3. w/ the same consequence."

MOVIES REFERENCED BY DYLAN KLEBOLD:

   Natural Born Killers (1994), directed by Oliver Stone. Eric and Dylan were big fans of this film, and used its abbreviation of “NBK” as a codename for the April 20 shootings. “NBK” is referenced throughout Eric and Dylan’s writings, such as in notes they wrote to each other and in their journals. Many songs from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack are also referenced by them.
   The Lost Highway (1997), directed by David Lynch. One of Eric and Dylan’s favorite movies, The Lost Highway is referenced throughout their writings. Dylan in particular saw many similarities between the film and his life. In his journal, he wrote “The lost Highway sounds like a movie about me…”
   Reservoir Dogs (1992), directed by Quentin Tarantino. One of Dylan’s favorite movies, it is referenced in his journal several times.  In his 11th grade school photo, Dylan wears a Reservoir Dogs shirt featuring characters from the movie with the words “Serial Killer”.
   Vampires (1998), directed by John Carpenter. The film is listed on his shopping list (?), along with the soundtrack.
   From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), directed by Robert Rodriguez and Sarah Kelly. Featured on his shopping list (?). Also referenced in a list of movies in a note written by Eric to Dylan.
   Pulp Fiction (1994), directed by Quentin Tarantino. The soundtrack is featured in his plan for his webpage.
   The Doom Generation (1995), directed by Gregg Araki. The soundtrack is featured in his shopping list (?).
   Beach Babes 2: Cave Girl Island (1994), directed by David DeCoteau. Referenced in Dylan’s yearbook entry to Eric.
   Nowhere (1997), directed by Gregg Araki. The soundtrack for the film is featured on his shopping list (?).

I saw Titanic in the theater. Scream too. I saw that one about 7 times and had to beg an adult to take me because I wasn't old enough yet to get in by myself. It does seem like a long time ago in a completely different world.

I didn't get my first computer until 2001/2002. We had AOL dial up. By 2003 we had DSL (which was a little bit better). Before the days of You Tube, I had to use Limewire to download songs and videos. I'd wait all day for one Good Charlotte video to download. Now you can do just about anything on the internet with the click of a button. Watch movies, download songs and movies, read books, make phone calls. Pretty much anything.

Columbine was a very long time ago, in my opinion. Things are completely different now than they were then. But here we are still obsessed with it and still trying to find any little piece of the puzzle that we can.

Personally, I don't think Eric was satisfied with how the shooting turned out. But if he saw how it ended up, how this thing pulls people in for years and years at a time. How so many school shootings happened before and after, yet this is the one everyone is drawn to, I think he'd be happy with that. He didn't get what he wanted in life but he surely got what he wanted in death, didn't he?