The Movie Experience

I was struck by the wording in an ad for Blu-ray discs the other day. They talked about the fact that you get a dvd along with your blu-ray disc, so that you can “Share the movie experience with your family on the go.” What movie experience? How did we get to the point that the experiences a family has together are movie experiences, where truly, you are not experiencing anything together. Except sitting in front of a screen, watching the creation of someone else’s imagination.

Not that I am saying watching movies is bad. I watch movies frequently, and am in fact watching one as I type this. But I do not consider it an experience. It’s something to watch while I am typing, or doing something else with my hands. It is an amusement, and nothing more. If I want to have an experience with my family or friends, I will turn off the tv, and do something else. The only time I really consider watching a movie an experience is when no one cares if we talk through it. Like a few weeks ago, I watched The Hobbit with a couple of friends. One fell asleep a short way into it, while the other and I talked pretty much the entire movie. We discussed the philosophy of Tolkien, talked about his other books, and I think we even talked about who was attractive and who was not in the movie (In spite of the fact that the friend was a guy, and we were pretty much only talking about attractive guys…). I would call that a movie watching experience. A time where the movie takes a backseat to the relationships of the people watching, whether it is family, or friends.

I remember one time going to a movie with just my Dad and my sister. There were maybe 2 other people in the theatre, and they were sitting all the way at the back, so we were able to talk as much as we wanted. Which, for my Dad, was a lot of talking :~) I don’t even really remember what the movie was. I know it was a Harry Potter movie, but that’s only because I know the only movie the 3 of us have gone to together without Mom was Harry Potter, because she just didn’t care.

Or the time that my family went to see Prince Caspian without me. I think I was in India. And I was a little bummed. But when I got home, it was still in the dollar theatre. So Dad and I got on the motorcycle, and went to see it. I remember that I had to take my helmet into the theatre, even though he left his outside, because mine was nicer, and we were in a sketch part of town, and he didn’t want it stolen. Mine was also actually Mom’s new helmet. We talked during the movie again. That just sort of happens when you go to movies with my Dad. He’s not much for being quiet during movies, even in a theatre. We talked about how cool it would be to race a Friesian through a series of streams the way that Caspian did at the beginning. I’m sure we talked about other stuff too, but that’s the main thing I remember.

I hate being with people who freak out if you speak during a movie. I was recently watching a movie with a friend, and every once in a while, he would just stop the movie (I’d not seen it before, and he didn’t want me to miss important parts), and ask me what I thought of a certain part, or just to make a comment about it. Sometimes, if it was a slow part, he’d just talk over the movie.

Anyway, I am sort of rambling about “movie experiences”. All this to say though, I don’t really remember the movies I’ve watched half the time. Most of the movies I’ve mentioned, I remember details because they were also books that I have read. But movies to me are entertainment. Usually something to do as I am doing something else (typing, knitting, reading, etc). The movie experiences that mean a lot to me are the experiences that help me in some way to grow closer to the people I care about. And that definitely doesn’t include sitting for a couple of hours ignoring each other. If that happens, I usually fall asleep.