Movies have become one of the most influential factors in modern society. From starting new trends to educating the ordinary people, movies undoubtedly make an impression on the general public. Since the discovery of the very first motion picture in 1890s, movies have become a visual documentation on events of human evolution. Talking about the movies that are produced for entertainment purposes, here is a quote, from the Pulitzer Prize winner film critic Roger Ebert:
“We live in a box of space and time. Movies are windows in its walls.They allow us to enter other minds not simply in sense of identifying with the characters, but by seeing the world as another person sees it.”
-Roger Ebert
Roger once said that art is the closest that we could come to understanding how a stranger feels and movies as an amalgum of audio and visual form of arts, makes a very complex and sophisticated form of art. There is an undeniable effect that movies have in our thought process. When we exit a theatre after watching a movie, we leave with the definite kind of thoughts depending upon the movie we watched. With our responsibilities of daily life we skip through myriads of social and emotional aspects that keep us humane. We live in a world with so much colors and variations of human aspects but we fail to recognize and enjoy, while busy in our commitments. And that is where movies are a sweet reminder of what we are and what we have. Let us take “Forrest Gump” for instance that portrays the innocence of a guy, with the spirit to make something out of himself despite all the shortcomings. Or the more recent one “Happythankyoumoreplease”, which shows characters, no different from the ones in our neighborhood. The characters in the reel world are no different from those in our real world and the challenges they face are just a version of the ones we face. And movies help us understand life through different perspectives.
Let us take modern historical period movies and old classic ones, they are a depiction of how things were in the days gone by. As ordinary people they tend to be a reminder of our heritage, a source of reminiscence and nostalgia. There are also movies like “Blade Runner” which give us a peek into how things could be in the future, and there are ones that make us laugh and have a good time. Educating us, tickling our funny bones to cautioning us about the future events that could fall upon us, movies have an undeniable influence on our thoughts and actions.
There is little bad with every little good
Movie as a technology has grown from a simple fast moving collection of pictures to a complicated industry. With the technology’s ever growing popularity, movies have now become an integral part of our daily life. Be it in a friendly chat among friends or the daily news broadcast, movies are one of the subjects of discussion. Primarily a form of entertainment, movies as a whole is also listed as an informal source of education. Many people tend to learn from movies more than any other formal source, although that might seem like an overstatement. In many under developed countries movies and television series are used as the means for educating the population for social reform and bring an overall change. There is no denying on a vast reach of movies, this however could have a very bad effect, as not every movie carries the same humane values.
Movies that fall under the genres like historical drama, historical war movies and biopics are often criticized for taking liberty with the historical facts. They are accused of bending the story to dramatize events and make interesting movies. One of such movies is “Pearl Harbor”, which was released under much criticism. With film makers taking such liberty with the historical subject matters, it is both disrespectful and unforgivable. Due to such movies gullible audiences go on to believe a fiction to be the fact, which is not a good thing. On the other hand there are movies that fall under action and horror genres which are criticized for violent contents. Directors like Quentin Tarantino in Hollywood and Anurag Kashyap in Bollywood have their respective reason and logical explanations regarding such contents. Despite their reasonable explanations there is no denying that the exposure to violence may cause personality disorder in kids and other receptive demographic. There exists proper processes of identification and allotting category a movie goes through before its release to diminish such adverse effects. However their presence is only as good as the implementation.
Movies are Stupid
“The point is not to avoid all Stupid Movies, but to avoid being a Stupid Moviegoer, It’s a difficult task separating the good Stupid Movies from the bad ones… ” -Roger Ebert
Often movies are termed as stupid waste of time. The opinion is not wrong on its own but we have to keep in mind that there are literally millions of movies representing a genre and there are numerous genres. Though not all of them deserve our attention but not all of them deserve our indifference either. Thus, the responsibility falls upon us to choose the movie that would be worth the time. In fact the choice of movies differs with each individual. And each genre of movies is targeted towards a specific kind of audience.
Every work of Art is subject to one’s own perception and interpretation, movies are no different. Just like any art, each movie is bound to have its point of view and an agenda. Movies are the most expressive among all forms of arts as such it is capable of covering a huge demographic with no bias of color, age or region. This benefits the film makers with the power to impress the huge susceptible population with their ideas. However, it falls upon the viewer to choose the right movie.
Connecting with a movie
A movie without a definite direction becomes a disaster, as such most of the times it is the director who determines a certain tone of the movie subject. With proper co-ordination with his fellow colleagues director goes on to create a masterpiece that resonates with our life and mindset. This is when we would be sucked into a different world altogether. And that is the real satisfaction of watching a movie. Otherwise it would become a stupid waste of time.
However besides the nuances in the production of a movies itself, there are many factors that affects its connection with the audience. One such case is “The Room” which released in 2003 as an independent movie. The movie was written, produced and directed by Tommy Wiseau, who also acted in the movie. The movie was completely slaughtered by the critics while it did a good business. There are also the DC movies like “Suicide Squad” and “Justice League” which despite the critical bashing go on to collect big bucks. The reason there being the subject matter though poorly executed is dear to the fans of DC comics.
Movies have now become an integral part of human lifestyle. It could very well be a form of social activity, where we would all come together for a good time. There is also one of the most important influences as one of the biggest industry, it employs a large number of manpower. Though a topic of socio-economic influence is worth another article, there is no denying that movies have become one of the social activities. So we could try and divide a movie into good and bad but as a form of art, a movie is just that, an art.