The Problem with Movies
Daniel Gross over at Slate writes about the diminishing time between movie theatrical and DVD releases. Probably not so good for Hollywood, he concludes, but great for consumers.
I've written about this phenomenon before for two reasons: One, I'm fascinated by what is clearly an enormous shifting paradigm, the end of the movie theater era. (The social and economic consequences are going to be really interesting.)
And two, I can't wait. Every time I go to the theaters these days, I hate myself for doing so—kind of like the way I feel on those rare occasions when I eat fast food.
Among some recent movie theater experiences I've had are these:
1) A guy who sat in a seat behind me and repeatedly coughed without putting his hand over his mouth, which had the effect of a gentle but intermittent disease-carrying breeze on my hair, until eventually I turned around and asked him to stop.
2) An older couple who sat down behind me and proceeded to pull out a series of Tupperware containers containing their plentiful, and odiferous, dinner.
3) Moviegoers who laughed and cheered at the most hideously violent scenes in
Hostel, a not-particularly-good film about the dangers of globalization and hormones, especially when combined.
There's an interesting dynamic here: The more people who care about manners stop going to the movies, the more the only people left who do go are the ill-mannered, which means that people who do care will be even less likely to go...and so on and so on. In this way, the movie theater is a reflection of our national public culture generally. Forgive me for sounding like George Will, but manners and civility are beating an increasingly hasty retreat into pockets of isolation...it's a cultural flight, not unlike the post-World War II exodus to the suburbs. The beneficiaries are Netflix and the makers of plasma TV sets, multimedia stands, couches, and gourmet foods. But I suspect that we're all losing something.....
