+1 (Off-Topic)

by Claude Errera , Wednesday, December 18, 2019, 16:40 (1602 days ago) @ Cody Miller

I don't care what it says it is. I don't care what it ACTUALLY is. I care how much it entertains me.

It is in effect lying to you. The fact that it still entertains people is a testament to the power of getting the surface level details right. But I think that may be delightful, but fleeting.

Okay, sure. (I don't know if we're talking about a specific movie any more, or just movies in general; I'd moved away from Civil War in my head, but maybe you didn't. Doesn't really matter, for the purposes of this post.)

Here's the thing. Movies that are deep, that point out a little-understood universal truth or succinctly describe a thorny topic that humans debate regularly without coming to a consensus - these movies stick with me. (I think they probably stick with most of us.) Movies that are glitzy, or glamorous but shallow, or lying to the audience in more than a superficial way... those don't stick with me (or, again, probably with most of us). But at the end of the day, they're both 2 hours long, and they both cost $15 (or whatever we're paying these days). And they can both be entertaining in the moment, and enjoyable to visit, and worth the $15 (or whatever). And while I'm 100% positive that there are deep movies that went right over my head, or shallow ones that hit a nerve, in the end I'm okay either way - I either enjoyed the 2 hours in the theater, or I didn't. And no amount of telling me about the layers I need to consider to really APPRECIATE what I watched are going to make any difference at all, to me.

Movies are one of the very few places on this planet where I'm okay being lied to.