Movies vs. Books

It was only a few years ago that I truly started to see that movies were indeed an art form in and of themselves, along the same lines as my beloved books (which I have always considered and most likely always will consider to be the highest form of artistic human expression). However, for most of my life I had always thought of movies as a sort of throwaway entertainment, much along the lines of a Big Mac compared to a perfectly done porterhouse steak with a baked potato on the side.

However, it wasn't until I started getting nostalgic that I began to realize that movies weren't just badly digested fast food. Nostalgia, yes, brought this new idea to me. I began to remember snippets of dialogue from movies, much in the same way that I remembered a line or two from some hazy novel tastily devoured so long ago. Then I began to notice how much dialogue from motion pictures has made its way into the communal patterns of speech - our American culture.

For example, I can say "Thar' she blows - the GREAT WHITE!" with the same fervency and frequency that I say, "I looked into the trap, Ray!!"

You get the point. I found a turning point.

So, OK, I admit it. Now, I decided, what am I going to do about it?

I started doing what I always do in instances like this: at that point a few years ago I began to start a journal of every movie I watched and every book I read. As you can probably guess: I watched MANY more movies than I read books. The reason for that is obvious: a movie takes reveals to the watcher a story that unrevels itself in a two-hour space of time, whereas a book is a courtship that can last days (or at least one long airline flight).

Another drawback is that once you get into hard-core movie-watching (and I mean the watching part, not "hard-core movies" - don't be so dirty-minded!!), the temptation is to push it as far as it'll go. (And a cookie goes out to whomever thought of the book first, not the Johnny Depp movie that was based on it!).

Suffice it to say, eventually I had to stop writing in the journal because there were so many movies (and a few books) and I just enjoyed watching them more than writing about them. But now that I've been "dragged kicking and screaming" into the 21st Century (ref. 1st post in other blog: LocuaCity) I now intend to establish THIS blog as a forum for talking about movies as an art form. So, again, as with all my blogs, I welcome requests/comments/suggestions/feedback. I want to be introduced to movies I haven't seen, and I want different angles on movies that I say I don't like.

Basically, let's talk.