Friday, September 26, 2003

Movies - Good and Not So Good...

So, as I previously mentioned, I stacked all of my movies in order of preference (ascending) and will watch them in that order. Well, I noticed something very odd.

Why does Bergman's The Seventh Seal find itself lower on the totem pole than Ephron's You've Got Mail? How could the TV series Soap (first season) be rated higher than Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan? How could these obvious errors in judgement - nay, errors in justice - have occured? I mean, look around! The critics couldn't agree more! The Seventh Seal is a better film - obviously! Spielberg kicks ass over Soap! Doesn't he?! Huh?!

Yep... it was a dilemma. I mean, looking at it objectively, I'd made some serious errors.

Right?

Well, perhaps not. After all, movies are art. Crappy or not, they are an art form. Therefore, they are subjective. There is no way to look at movies objectively. Saving Private Ryan makes me depressed - no matter how good the beachhead scenes are! Soap is light and quick-witted. Sometimes you just prefer the one who is easier to be with. The Seventh Seal is profound and holds some of the most amazing moments in cinema. ("I'm playing chess with death!") You've Got Mail is not only light to the verge of meaningless but it also was one of Rosa's favorite films. So, how could I possibly prefer Ephron's movie to Bergman's? Maybe for that very reason. Maybe Rosa's connection raises my opinion of it.

We can't always figure out our own motives. The hell with figure out those of other people; we very often don't know what drives our own machines! Very often, there's more than one motivator or reason for doing something. But, we do. We do what we do.

And if none of this has meant anything, consider this the capper: George Romero's Day of the Dead made the top five!

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