I’m coming right out and saying it at the very start of this story. I’m going to stand up and hold my hand up high and say that…
I love DVD and Home Cinema…almost more than the Cinema experience
There. Done it. I’ll explain all the reasons why in a later story, suffice to say for now that when I watch a movie I get sucked in, just like a kid does when they sit and stare amazed at the moving pictures in front of them, that’s me, and that goes for my whole being. I get totally transfixed and outside distractions break that link and pull me right out of the movie. Distractions in the movie do that too, like bad plot lines and characterisations, anyway.
That’s how I get, totally absorbed, 100%, and if anything happens (even the Girlfriend asking a question) it knocks me out of the movie and spoils the experience. So imagine me in a crowded cinema with packet rustlers, seat kickers, popcorn riflers, plot recappers and what-happens-next-ers! Sometimes I don’t understand how people can get a full experience from the cinema unless it’s easy going entertainment. Anyway, I really have to stop this rant, this is for another story! Back to Mr Stone…
So I was surprised to read in Film Rotation (that other excellent movie related Blog) that Sam Riami prefers the Cinema experience to the DVD, and does kind of go on to suggest that he doesn’t like the DVD so much. Now that does surprise me, especially when his DVD’s tend to provide so much more material and insight.
Then today I see a little story on IMDB about a certain quietly spoken Oliver Stone who says:
…he is not at all enthusiastic about the coming of age of DVDs. Video Store magazine quotes him as saying during a recent press event, “It’s the end of movie-movies the way we know them. … If you walk into a room with 5,000 DVDs, how are you going to respect movies? How do you know the good ones?,” Stone asked. “It’s going to the LCD — the lowest common denominator. It’s making movies into supermarket-shelf items, which is probably the best you can get at Wal-Mart. … It’s hopeless.”
I think Mr Stone has just come out of a rather long coma or something, as am I the only one who remembers an item called Videotape, and those places called Video Rental Stores?
Did they signify the death of Cinemas and the Movie experience? No. What they did do is increase accessibility to the Movies and probably had a knock on effect of bringing audiences to the Cinema. Having catalogues of back movies stored in a central location is called a Library my dear Mr Stone, this is a good thing, it means the over rated, over produced pieces of pulp that you so often produce can be kept for posterity and seen by a much wider and unsuspecting audience. Doesn’t that tickle your fancy?
What it does probably mean is that the more discerning Cinema fan, who has gone to the trouble of investigating and building a home system and spending a lot of money in the process, actually enjoys the experience more and appreciates what the Director has created for them. In fact, I would go so far as to say this audience is probably one of the most vocal for pushing to see such things as the Director’s Cut or versions of movies released that were previously banned. The home consumer market did that, not the Studio led, over priced Cinemas!
(Saying that, I do wholly love, and openly plug, three Edinburgh cinema’s Dominion, Cameo and Filmhouse. The latter two showing foreign and independent movies and the former being a wonderful family run cinema)
So, Mr Stone. Next time you think about such comments think about the revenue you receive from this market, the repeated sales from people who have probably already paid an over inflated price to see your film in the Cinema, and are now buying it to watch it again at home, at their leisure, in an environment they can control and possibly with friends who haven’t seen the movie before.
I tell you what is LCD, and that’s Directors stuck in an land before time (and videotape) like you. Now get off your press release high horse and go and make a bloody decent film.
