How to have it, and why the general public cannot get it.
I love almost every film I’ve ever seen in some way or another. There are so many films that emotionally draw me in, and most of them are films that the general public think are “stupid” or they just don’t like. I just finished watching Moulin Rouge for the billionth time, and I really love this movie. I may love almost every movie, but this kind of love is reserved for certain cinematic gems. To separate the two loves I’m going to refer to the first love, the love I have of movies in general, as family love, because I love them the way I love my family members. They may not be great to have around all the time, and you certainly would get tired of them if you had direct contact with them 24 hours a day, but you love them just the same. The second love, like the way I love Moulin Rouge for instance, I’ll refer to as true love.To truly love something (or someone, in this case an actor or a director) your feelings must go beyond that of family love. You must go beyond the initial kinship you feel, and go beyond the joyous feeling you have when the good scenes happen. True love is something you feel all the time, and after you’ve watched a movie and you’ve established a true love relationship, the feeling will stay with you for the rest of your life. You’d actually never have to watch the film again, and you’d still feel it, but you have to watch it. To not watch a film like this would be to deny yourself of a part of you. That’s what a true love film is, a part of you. Deep down, it has grown on you, and no matter what you do you can’t get it removed, and you can’t leave it behind.
The feeling will fade over time, especially if you don’t get yourself a fix now and again. But it will never leave you. It will pop back up when you least expect it, like when you watch another great film and you realize that even though what you’re watching is great, it still doesn’t beat the feeling you get when watch the other film, your true love film.
Just like in life, you will have many true loves. The difference when speaking of films is that one true love film will not replace another, it will seat itself beside the rest that are shacked up in your soul. If you ever want to find yourself and figure out what kind of person you really are, this is a good place to look. Someone once said that films can be a window to the soul, (at least, I think I heard that somewhere), and this is one hundred percent true. Don’t believe me? Well, here’s an example or two.
Ask someone what their favorite movies are, and pay attention to not only what they say but also how they respond. I do this to the new people I work with (since I work at a video store, it seems like a relevant question), and it’s quite fun. If they answer immediately and begin spitting out title after title, no matter what the titles are you can obviously deduce that the person is not only sure about these being the favorites, but he or she has some passion for why they are the favorites. If the person has to think about it, then pay close attention to the titles that finally emerge. If they think about it for a long time, and then all they can come up with is Half Baked and Dude, Where’s My Car?, then this person doesn’t have any passion for films, he or she just rents stuff occasionally and probably couldn’t name any actors in the films just mentioned.
Basically, this is the general public. They don’t really care about the films, and probably don’t like films that make you think or have any kind of underlying themes. To name some films that I know the general public thinks are stupid, The Others, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (yep, that’s right), and A.I., just to name a few. It’s because these films contain characters and storylines with depth, interesting shots as well as plot devices, and above all, they are really good movies, and I’ve learned that the general public doesn’t want to watch a good movie, they just want something fun. Fun and good are two very different words. Both words describe something in a positive way, but with very different results.
Back to the favorite films question, if the person thinks about it and then names off films that are thinking films (A.I.), period pieces (Pride and Prejudice), foreign films, or just weird Independent films that you may never have heard of, then the person is not only passionate about films, he or she knows what they are talking about and has a love of films. The general public is not capable of having a true love film. They can’t do it, because you have to get inside a film to be able to truly love it, and the films the general public think are great are lacking in substance.
I’m not exactly sure what I started writing this for, I think I just needed to say some of this. I know that I’m probably a freak when it comes to the way that I think about films. When I watch a movie for the first time, I have to have certain conditions. The kind of conditions that I know will help me fully immerse my mind into the film, whatever it may be. The best way to watch a movie is:
Totally alone, anyone else in your presence could at some point break your concentration.
In the dark, blocking out the real world, again, so that nothing breaks your concentration. Even the smallest bit of light could be distracting.
With a good picture and good sound, although depending on the previous two conditions, you can probably get into a film you’re watching on a small TV without any stereo sound at all.
Movie theatres are great, depending on what you go see and when. Opening night is always great, but how many times have you gone to see the big movie and the theatre is packed with either kids or retards (by the term ‘retard’ I mean a person who has no respect for the rest of the theatre or for the movie itself. They usually come in groups and sit in the back, or the front because they came in a half hour late). Theatres are best enjoyed when you see a film that’s not as popular or that’s playing at a time when the retards don’t want to go and the kids are either in school or in bed.
Sometimes conditions depend on what kind of movie you’re watching. Something I get asked by a lot of people is “Can you tell me a good scary movie?” I want to tell them that there are lots of movies that will scare you, but you won’t watch it correctly and so the effect won’t work. There is no way you’ll get scared (to see my definition of what scary movies are, read this: The Ring Review) if you’re with a lot of people, unless you’re in a theatre where the conditions are right. Even then, you still know that other people are around.
The best way to watch any kind of scary movie, whether it’s some cheesy slasher movie or a psychological thriller, is to watch it by yourself (no exceptions) and in the dark. Easiest way is to wait until you have a night where you’re home alone. Watch the scary movie then. With no one around you have no one to protect you, and the darkness not only helps you concentrate on the film, but with horror movies it adds to the tension, because you don’t know what could be standing in the far corner of the room you’re in. This is the only sure way to be scared from a movie, and this method, if you’ll notice, doesn’t really work if you’re on a date or spending Halloween with your friends. Granted, I think I mentioned somewhere else on this site that girls get scared more easily than guys when it comes to horror movies (it’s a fact, sorry), so these conditions can probably be softened down if you’re female and reading this.
Using the right conditions to watch a film is only part of it, because the single most important thing about watching a film and being fully taken out of reality and put inside the movie, is to actually watch it. I think there are a lot of people who don’t like movies only because they weren’t paying attention. Stop goofing off on the computer, stop trying to watch it while you’re on the phone, doing the dishes, cooking dinner, whatever. If you want to watch a film the way it was meant to be watched, you have to stop everything, sit your ass down in front of the TV, and actually fucking WATCH it. Don’t blame the movie for moving too fast for you to catch the info, just because you’re trying to talk to your friends and watch the movie at the same time. It’s not the movie’s fault, it’s yours. In fact, it’s never the movie’s fault, (that goes for all arguments you could ever possibly raise).
All I’m saying is that when people listen to me talk about movies, they don’t seem to understand the way I feel about them. They look at me like, wow, how can you like all of those? Because I try to watch everything, from scary movies to action movies to comedies to dramas, in a way that will put me closer to the movie. Action movies, turn up the sound so you can hear the layers of sound effects correctly. Romantic comedies, watch by yourself, and then after you’ve watched it by yourself, then you can watch it with someone else. The reason I say this is because most guys don’t cry, but a good movie can MAKE you cry, but not in front of other people. I used to never cry, but then I started opening up to the sappy moments, and the part of me that fought it off and said “I’m a guy, I don’t cry” went away for awhile, and now I bawl at the times when I’m supposed to. Not always, but a lot of times it’ll get to me, and sometimes it’s the moments or movies you’d least expect. Sometimes a certain movie will have a scene that will leave most people shrugging their shoulders, but it may hit some personal note with you and trigger some emotional switch inside you.
Just be open to anything. Don’t be so fucking afraid of being scared to go to the bathroom because the hallway’s dark, or to cry when the boy looks his dying father in the eyes and says “I love you, dad,” or to laugh when the blind kid falls down the steps. It’s these moments, when we open ourselves up to the films and let them take us where we don’t normally go in our everyday lives that make us love watching films in the first place.
This has been a rant by Garth Simmons, and I don’t mean to belittle the American “general public.” But I can’t take it anymore! I’m so sick and tired of listening to people bitch and moan about how all of these films that I consider to be some of the best films every made, but the “public” thinks they’re stupid. Listen, unless they follow it up with a half hour explanation covering the acting, directing, writing, and the production values, when a person says a movie is stupid, it’s because that person is a fucking idiot. Plain and simple. THE END.
---Garth Simmons, 2/18/03.
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