March 30th, 2006 -- Written by John Campea
Hey there folks, John here. It’s a slow news day around here, so I thought I’d hit you guys up for a little help with something.
On Tuesday I’ve been invited to speak at Niagara College on the topic of movies. Now, I know what you’re thinking… Movies is a pretty broad topic. So I’ve narrowed it down to Why we love the movies and The significance of Movies.
I’ve already got most of my stuff together… and then it dawned on me… I’m not that bright. Upon this realization, I though to myself Why just limit the talk to my tiny bit of knowledge and insight when I can draw upon the mighty brain banks of The Movie Blog horde!!!
So heres your chance to add to my little presentation to the students at Niagara. In the comments section below, answer one or both of the following questions.
1) Why do you love the movies?
2) Why are movies important?
Be as specific or general as you’d like to be. I’ll email you and let you know if I used your thoughts in the presentation. Whheeeee!
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I guess most people would argue the socio-political importance of movies and how they are used to reflect on our society, etc. but really for me, I love movies for pure escapism!
Perhaps I should rename myself Shallow JetLag?
At an early age I was attracted to entertainment; music and theater, and Film brought everything together.
Movies, give us worlds we wished we live in, and tell stories that should never be forgotten, characters that we love or love to hate. There are stories told on film that we can relate to and become inspirations to us.
Going to theater (with proper theater etiquette) can be a great experience. The house lights dim and you hear the trailing whispers of excitement. You are there with friends or family or complete strangers watching a tragedy unfold, or another finding a lost love one. You are pulled into a world on celluloid and it doesn’t let go until the final credit rolls.
Movies are important because they inspire others to pursue things they may never have thought of, it can give them confidence or somewhere in the screenplay a character says exactly what an audience member needs to hear.
As I quickly write this, it’s hard for me to say exactly why I love the movies, but I know my life wouldn’t be the same without them. They have become my hobby and my professional career. It is always exciting to look forward to a movie; sharing with a friend or sparking up conversation with a stranger. In that sense, movies can bring us together.
Hope this helps. It’s more generic than what I think I could say; it was done pretty quick, but I need a break from work ha-ha.
Alex
1) Why do you love the movies?
I can’t say i do love movies anymore. With television shows offering better plots and storylines, and having budgets to give us “movie level” special effects then there is no reason to pick 99% of movies out there over Battlestar Galactica or Lost.
2) Why are movies important?
They used to be important because they gave people a place to get together as a group. But with cheaper and better home theaters then there is no benefit to paying at a movie theater just so you can be disrespected by punks and single moms.
For me, movies haven’t “moved me” in almost a decade. And the actors in movies aren’t even the best actors anymore. They are faux stars who’s only claim to fame is a good publicist and the knack for manipulating housewives into confusing public exposure as talent. So in my opinion then movies no longer are important.
I’ll try to keep it short.
1) Why do you love the movies?
Provides a way for me to escape into another world and let pure imagination take control. To become someone else or be some where else for a short period of time, without the risk factor of course.
2) Why are movies important?
I really can’t answer this question as that would require me having decent knowledge on how the cinema has impacted society.
Therefore, to “me” movies are important because they provide pure and solid entertainment and many times help understand situations from other point of views, education if you will.
1) At their best, movies give me an insight into someone else’s ideas/world in a way that’s concise, entertaining, perhaps even educational or profound. They put some segment of life (or fantasy) into a context and form that’s digestible. The combination of writing, acting, music, directing, etc. make films the most well-rounded artistic medium which can draw you in like no other artform imho. Again, that’s at their best. At their worst, they suck $12.00 out of your pocket while bending you over the popcorn counter. :P
2) See above, except the last part.
I think these questions can only be answered from a broader view. Movies are modern audio-visuell narratives, so we first have to look at the question, why do we love narratives and why are they important.
First a bit of history:
Human beings are fascinated by narratives probably since they can talk. It can be speculated that our ancestors sat in a cave listening to storytellers. This hisory can be traced through mythical stories, e.g. the bible and greek mythology, Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad to minniesingers in the middle ages. However, somewhere between the 6th and 5th Century BC storytelling in the western culture developed also into theater. (However in the history of media every new medium does not just replace the old one but the old and the new one live side by side) First just one storyteller talking to a large audience (Thespis of Icaria)and then a recitation with alloted roles, and by the 4th C. BC Aristotle already laid down his poetics (the rules of how to write a play) (and our modern day screenplays (especially the mainstream ones) are sometimes frightenly in accordance with his rules). The lapse from theater to movies is not a big one, and primarily a technological one. The possibility to play just once and to watch it everywhere and as many times as one pleases makes movies very attractive as a tool for storytelling. (Of course every new storytelling technology has also totally new properties which are often recognized from the very beginning and are exploited (see the amazing SFX of the brothers Lumi√®re)
Ok. So now we can devide your questions again in to two:
1.What we love/is important about narratives?
2.What is special about movies as tool for storytelling?
The answer to the first question is manifold. There are many causes and reasons for our love of narratives. Here a few:
*neurological: It seems that one of our best developed memories is the narrative memory: We perceive ourselves as actors in the play of life. We remember stories much better that uncontextualized facts (this is also used in memo-techniques)
*escapistic: stories let us forget our deplorable lives and identify ourselves with heroes and their adventures
*epistemological: We learn through stories things that often can not or only very abstractly can be learned otherwise. Especially about ourselves, us humans, the human condition, emotions, morality, social behavior, consequences of our deeds etc.
*cathartic: a sudden emotional breakdown or climax that constitutes overwhelming feelings of great pity, sorrow, laughter, or any extreme change in emotion that results in the renewal, restoration and revitalization for living (from Wikipedia..)
*aesthetic: The beauty of a story, of the scenery described (imagined/pictured), of the actors, etc. has a great appeall
more can be surely added to this list..
2. The answer to this might then be quite simple: The movie is the leading narrative medium of our time. It delivers the best illusion of being inside a story (without annoying 3D-glasses or strange smells..). It is where most money is put into. Where most of the best actors want to play, where, compared to a novel or a theater play, most people are involved and (in the best case) criticize each other to a better result.
Hope this was helpful…
One addition: Because the movies are the leading medium many of us know the same movies, the same narratives, and this then plays a major factor of who we are and what our culture consists of.
Why do we love the movies?
Well for me movies is like an escape from reality for awhile. Movies take you into another world. When there’s nothing to do on a raining day you can pop in a DVD and be entertained. It’s not just the movies It’s also the people in the movies. Actors/actresses are not like ”normal” people to us. We see them as much much more. Actors/actresses are one of the main talk in people’s life’s.
Why movies are important?
Without movies I don’t know what life would be like, movies are my life. I love watching and making movies. Movies can play with our emotions. They make us sad, happy, scared etc etc. Movies inspire people. People can relate to the characters in the movies. Some people go to the exterme of thinking they are that character in a movie. Without movies life would be one dull uninspiring place.
Movies are a part of everything that is right in the world. movies are a symbol of imagination and what it means to come up with an original idea and act on it. like i said they are a symbol, think of it in every aspect of life. coming up with velcro, or sticky pads, or the ipod, or anything that someone thought was a good idea and it blossomed into a product! movies are just that except also entertaining. where in the world do most movies come from? mainly from countries that encourage freethinking and inovation. maybe im just rambling, maybe im onto something. i dont know im not that smart. take it for what youd like, either way i love movies.
Well i may not like them as much as u but I like them. They are not as entertaining as a video game but i like to relax to them. It lets me escape reality the same as a video game and its like reading with Pictures. I rather try to make a movie than wath thu I like the fact you can tell your story in about 20min-as long as u want i guess. Stroy telling is apart of out culture since man walked the earth and its evolved from pictures to word to now motion. I also like to go to the threater and be with people. But here is a quote that stands for me
“I hate people but i love gathering ironic” or something like that
We’ve come to need movies because we don’t have communal fireplaces anymore.
Movies help us articulate the big questions about life, they are a dramatic way of asking “what if?”
Movies help us see a different world beyond ourselves, and at the same time they comfort us that yes, we are all a little alike.
I love movies because I don’t have to solve the problem - that’s what the protagonist is for. My wife, on the other hand, loves solving the problem. That’s the beauty of a good story, well-told. You can enjoy it actively or passively.
Thanks for asking the question - it’s good to think about this kind of stuff!
It doesn’t matter whether you’re after something to make you laugh, cry, scream or go “Wow this car chase/fight scene kicks ass”, movies are intended to do one thing: entertain. And that’s exactly what they do, unless it’s a piece of shit and bores the fuck out of you.
Who the hell doesn’t enjoy a good movie? The answer, is no one. What sounds better than after a long hard day, you sit down in your armchair, possibly with a bowl of popcorn or potato chips or whatever, chucking in a DVD and losing yourself in the world of fictional entertainment? Relaxation is a thing that 6.5 billion different people crave. Everyone needs to relax, otherwise we would go insane. And the easiest way to relax, is to get comfy in your lounge, either by yourself or with other people, switch off your brain and tune into a good movie. They give us a chance to escape from the rat race and forget about our own life.
There are probably a million billion more reasons why we love movies, but the bottom line is they entertain us and we can’t help it. That’s as straightforward as it gets. If there was no such thing as movies, life would suck. It’s as easy as that. As bad as it sounds, they are a major part of life and it would not be the same without them.
And with technology these days, movies are becoming more and more portable which continues to make us increasingly lazy. Before you know it, we will have regulation-sized sunglasses with built-in screens behind the lens that you can load movies onto via Bluetooth from a computer. Or maybe even a microchip that can be planted into your brain that projects a holographic screen in front of your eyes. Okay, that one probably won’t happen until the year 3000. But it sounds cool doesn’t it? It will happen one day.
The scientific advances in technology will continue to make movie-watching more enjoyable. We just have to wait. “We” meaning humanity in general. Not you and me. But for now, I am happy with the good old TV screen or cinema screen to give me my enjoyment.
Movies are essential to our sanity.
I hope that didn’t bore you too much guys. I started typing and couldn’t stop. :)
I think i love movies because i love a good story. Weather it’s friends, my old man or people you just meet.And not just the story itself but how that person tells it. To me movies are just a different way of telling a story.
Why are movies important ??
for me they are important because TV sucks the corn out of my shit
In one word? Escapism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escapism
In three words? Escapism, reflection and education.
Some people like to see reflections of their own life up on the screen but I don’t see the point in that. Documentaries like The March of the Penguins let’s us both escape and get insight and information about the world around us.
This is just off the top of my head and there’s probably more to it.
/Joel
I love movies because of alot of reasons. I enjoy everything a movie can do to you. Movies can inspire, they can bring you to your knees, they can make you think, they can make you strike up friendship-ending arguments galore, they can give you that always sought after sense of escapism, they can make certain points that are either difficult to understand, or difficult to discuss, they can entertain, etc. etc. etc.
Movies can show us the highest of highs in the human race and then shove our faces in the lowest of lows, and that sort of brutally honest duality is hard, but nice, to come by, even tho very few film-makers get that brutal.
There’s really nothing a movie can’t do (or at least, nothing the right movie-maker can’t try to convey).
I could ramble on and on, but I got work in the morning….
As for why movies are important, I don’t really want to get into the social ramifications of the cinema, one because it’s late, but mostly because I don’t care. I love movies, and if you don’t, good for you.
I love films and hate movies. What does that say about me? Thats not rhetorical, i’d actually really like to know.
Thanks
1. i think people love films because we can experience & see things that we wouldn’t or can’t in our own lives. they can help make sense of possible emotional issues thru relating ourselves in the characters. people also love to talk about them.
2. they’re important for probably the very same reason - they can make you understand your own life and who you are, as well as the pure entertainment/ escapism factor!
p.s. good luck with your talk!
Movies should not simply exist to entertain. It is obviously an aspect of filmdom, but it is not what makes a movie great. Top Gun, Starship Troopers and John Carpenter’s Vampires exist only to entertain, and there’s a reason why none of them will ever be on anyone’s top 100 movies of all time.
Movies should not only exist to provide an escape. Otherwise Crash, Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption would never be considered good, because they don’t let us escape. They pull us deeper into reality, not farther from it.
Great movies are the ones that make us feel something. A kinship, a relationship with the actors on screen. We laugh, we cry, we hope the good guy wins and the bad guy gets it. The best scene in The Thomas Crown affair is not when the two are having sex all across the apartment, it’s when Crown steps into the museum and proceeds to put the painting back. The anticipation, and the idea that “he might just get away with it after all,” are exemplified in this scene. The best scene in Shawshank is when Andy plays the music of the Italian women, or when he gets the beer for his fellow inmates. It reminds us to be free, to feel alive and hopeful in any situation.
The truly great movies exist to elicit emotion out of the audience. Think of Braveheart. When Mel Gibson yells “Freedom,” right before he dies, I am moved almost to tears. Even comedies do this. Ocean’s 11 provides excitement, and there is a sense of joy and wonder when they finally pull it off. The best scece from Be Cool is when Christina Milian (sorry if I spelled it wrong) and Stephen Tyler are singing Cryin’ together because then you know that this girl is really gonna make it, and there is joy and pride in your heart.
“…And this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost. This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire.”
-Edward Morrow
I would say I love movies most for the chance to live vicariously through characters who have very little to do with me … I love foreign films for that reason, and gems from many other genres
Everyone loves movies. It is embedded into us. Man has always loved story telling. Way before we had movies the stories were always told. Whether it be on paper, in song, on stage, or just sitting around listening to someone talk about places and things you would never actualy see. But you could close your eyes and you were there. But how good do we have it now? Pay your ten bucks sit back and you are taken there. Eye’s wide open. Emersed into the story tellers story. I love walking away from a movie and having that feeling in my stomach that I just really experienced something. I love movies because they make me laugh, cry, hate, and love.