Wow. It has been a long time since I wrote anything on here…
After deleting several of my old columns, the only one I kept up is an extremely outdated 2007 piece on what movies are MIA on DVD. Actually, since 5 of the 10 movies are STILL not available on DVD, I guess it’s not completely useless. But it is outdated in the sense that nobody really gives a shit about DVD anymore. Blu-ray has taken over – among movie geeks, and increasingly now, the ‘civilian’ population.
So I kept the column mostly because I’m here to continue an updated version of the same rant…
Which will make me sound like a Grumpy Old Man before my time.
Which is fitting because it turns out I can’t get the Widescreen presentation of Grumpy Old Men without buying a BD player. Or the theatrical version of Betty Blue. Or the new commentary on Taxi Driver. Or…well, you get the idea.
And, of course, this is only the beginning.
I would not be surprised if most of those still-MIA titles don’t skip DVD altogether and just premiere on BD. What’s the problem with that you say? Nothing really. At least the BD format allows for the playing of all my old discs – I’m not sure it would have taken off as a format otherwise – and indeed, ‘upconverts’ them to even better quality. I have no doubt I will eventually succumb to the inevitable, especially since BD players are getting ridiculously cheap now. But as Hank Hill might say, I’ll tell you what…I’m just sick and tired of buying new copies of films I already own. Hear me: I won’t be robbed blind! Again!
That’s why I’m only going to be buying rarities/special cases like the ones above and a very short list of “visual feasts” that benefit from the ‘Look And Sound Of Perfect’ – movies like Terrence Malick’s Days Of Heaven and The Sound Of Music, true objects of art and obsession.
Okay… Maybe the James Bond Series when it’s released in complete form. And The House Of Flying Daggers would be very cool.
And then, yeah, sure, I’ll have to get all the Pixar classics.
And I need to get a few of my most loved Westerns to see what BD does to the gorgeous vistas of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, The Cowboys, and Little Big Man. Or, for that matter, No Country For Old Men and Paris, Texas. Then maybe just a few of the most gloriously visceral popcorn movies ever made, like Jaws, The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and The Bourne Supremacy. Spielberg’s underrated masterpiece A.I. has to be in there…with E.T., naturally. Then all the DePalma classics – Carrie, Scarface, The Untouchables, Mission Impossible. The David Fincher movies because they are incredibly visual. Oh, and wouldn’t it be cool to see All That Jazz and Hair in true 1080p? And Barton Fink. And American Graffiti. And Dirty Harry. And —
Goddamnit!!
Here we go again…
This ain’t my first rodeo. I’m old enough to have gone through quite a few platform upgrades, forgive me if the deja vu has me a little queasy this time. I find myself nitpicking this new “perfect” format. No matter what everyone says…is this level of resolution always a good thing? In some cases, it exposes too much film grain for my taste, too many flaws in special effects, actors’ make-up or just their faces. Do I really want to count the pores and moles on Redford’s face? Or in some examples I’ve seen, it just gives a film a sterile look that robs it of all the warmth I remember. Much as Jazz may fare better on old-fashioned vinyl than on the crystal clarity of CD’s, I think the same is true of some old movies. Especially from the 1970s, my favorite era, where the naturalistic cinematography benefits from some softening.
I know… This is probably just technical ignorance on my part. Nostalgia. Stubbornness.
I guess what bothers me even more than the studios selling me the same product over and over again, is the fact that all this oohing and ahhing over BD seems to be emblematic of something larger, a trend towards caring more about the flashy gift wrapping of a film than the actual content. Movies today are all style and no substance. With CGI, we can do anything our imagination can think up, and we’re a little drunk with that power, and either as a direct result or just incidentally, we have lost quality storytelling.
When I was a kid, we watched movies in terrible pan-and-scan chopped-up ABC Movies Of The Week, scratched prints on late night horror programs, on tiny Black & White TVs with vertical hold issues, at Drive-In theatres with crappy speakers, on videotapes with all the resolution of a mudbath…you name it, we suffered it. Why? Because it was about THE MOVIE. Not the format, THE MOVIE.
Even the fact all Blu-rays have the exact same blue plastic case bothers me. When I look over at my two thousand DVD’s, I see a multicolored diverse cacophony of spines, each one reflecting that particular title and movie experience. I pride myself on the wonderful eclectic variety of genres in my collection. I don’t want to look over and see a uniform line of tiny blue spines devoid of any individuality! I know it’s a trivial point, but it’s an apt metaphor I think for the way movies are turning into assembly-line product.
Sigh.
But yeah…I can see where this is going, and I know I ultimately will not be able to resist the urge to buy and see my favorite films in spectacular crispness on a huge flat-screen television.
I’ll give in, I’ll eat my words I’m sure – but for now, I just needed to rant…
Now you kids get off my lawn!
RR