Basicly you can select from a list of movies and watch them whenever you like, pausing and restarting them when you have some free time. Or you can fast forward through the movies watching a whole movie in less than an hour!!
I've been able to see two well done foreign films, one Italian and one German/Turkish. They don't have the Hollywood sheen to them, but they tell provocative stories and portray life in a much more realistic sense.
Anyway, all that to say this, there are some really well done films out there that you never see, because they are not a part of the Hollywood thing. And as Rob Johnston says in "Reel Spirituality,"
"Rather than being simply one form of possible entertainment on a weekend night, movies have become the primary storytelling medium for our culture."
I was pleased when I saw that Blockbuster is promoting some of the more seemingly obscure, award winning films, made in places other than North America.
It's like a film festival in your living room.
Go check it out, and expand your horizons.
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I find this curious.
ReplyDeleteThere are some I know and respect who see movies as an art form and a lot more besides. To me they're just a product from a business that will find any way it can of shifting more product.
Maybe it's because I don't embrace the society that these stories are about that I don't feel the same? No criticism in that, just wondering.
I love good movies, for the same reasons that I love photography and music. Movies are only better, because they can put all these elements together and make some super-art. Yeah, there's that whole commercial aspect of it, but I don't find many Hollywood movies beautiful. Plus, they can present a viewpoint better than most mediums, and let you see inside someone else's head. I don't think you need to embrace a society to see beauty in it. Or flaws, either.
ReplyDeleteToo, I rarely watch movies, so when I do, they make more of an impression.
I think its unfair to generalize, but that hasn't stopped me before...
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that most of the Hollywood movies are motivated by the dollar, good taste be damned. Even though there are sincere artists and storytellers in the bunch who would love the freedom to create meaningful works of art, the almighty dollar often has the final say.
That's why I enjoy many alternative films and foreign films. They are not always motivated by the dollar.
Course many of them are then motivated by being an artsy avant guard kind of film that makes no sense to my sensibilities.
It is interesting to me how often, even in Hollywood movies, the theme is redemption.
-Person has a good life, person gets into trouble, person needs saving.
It's like that theme runs through the subculture of society in general. A desire for hope, for redemption.
That last point is interesting, Randall, i.e., the theme of redemption is found in even the most crass of cultural expressions, as well as high art. But then, creation, fall and redemption are ingrained in the very fibre of being, both biologically and spiritually, are they not?
ReplyDeleteIt makes me think so, especially when it seeps out of the human condition in times of artistic expression.
ReplyDelete