+1
The whole 'escape' issue is a bit murky for me. It's really the same problem I have accepting movies as 'entertainment.' I've certainly used movies as an excuse to avoid work or given specific tasks before (procrastinate from doing homework, to avoid hanging out with people you don't want to see or whatever) but for this purpose movies are merely a tool and frankly interchangeable with just about anything else you can think of which takes up time: reading, other types of work, listening to music, alphabetizing your comic collection, walking in circles endlessly, hanging out with people, etc. etc. etc.
I also wouldn't agree with the other idea of escape which assumes 'movie reality' is somehow better than 'real reality.' It just doesn't stack up, for me. Real reality is much richer and more interesting than any movies I've seen. And anyway it doesn't account for the fact that many of the movies I like are much more bleak and depressing than real life. You have to be pretty ****ed up (or at least a good deal moreso than me) to say the world in Vengeance is Mine, Andrei Rublev or Aguirre: The Wrath of God is a happier, more pleasant world than the ones we live in, for example. Movies that have likeable and believable characters whose experiences and emotions I can share do have a certain appeal but it's just so rare that I come across stories that have these characters that I can't point it out as a major reason to watch movies. And anyway sympathetic characters don't have to exist in a pleasant world for the movie to have the same sort of appeal, so it doesn't really characterize a form of escape there either.
So reasons to watch movies would include:
1. to meet interesting and sympathetic characters and share their experiences. ->(it's pretty rare that I meet them in a movie so this isn't a major reason but more of an added bonus for me.)
2. procrastination (fill up time while I wait to do nothing.) ->I still use movies for this sometimes, but not too often anymore (fortunately, but there are plenty of other procrastination tools besides film in the world.)
3. (a) to be taken to interesting conceptual and/or visual places that I wouldnt experience otherwise. And (b) to find the rare movies that do this to me. ->this is the best reason I know, and my reason for watching a movie usually falls into one of these two subcategories.
4. Various combinations of the above three.
And nonreasons to watch movies include:
1. Entertainment -> because to be entertained just about anything suffices so there's no real distinguishing qualities here. Presumably crappy movies can be just as entertaining as good movies can be just as entertaining as a good novel can be just as entertaining as a good/crappy comic book, television show, conversation, experience etc.
2. Escape to a better world -> because 'real life' always beats out movies. This assumes your experience of real life is greater than going to classes/work, eating pizza at the roller rink with your friends, and sitting in front of a computer screen at home (definition b). If that's what you mean by real life then movies probably are better, but I would posit that that sort of life is itself a form of escape from 'real life' (which would make movies an escape from escapism.) My answer might be different if I was living in crushing poverty working at an emotionally and physically incapacitating job, but I'd like to think I'd still choose 'real life' over movies.
EDIT- this last aside isn't in answer to anything specific in this thread or a reason to not watch movies but just some thoughts on the one thing that I think makes movies more appealing than real life, versus the rest of my post -EDIT
There is one place that I agree movies do beat out real life:
they are faster and more predictable/familiar than real life.
The appeal of this isn't from movies' familiarity with our real life experiences but with our simulated experiences in other movies that we've seen. An example of this is when you see a movie about teenage romance and know that the nerdy wimp hero is going to win the bombshell because of other movies that you've seen. You further know that they will live happily ever after eternally in love. Not from experiences in real life but from shared experiences in movies. You know what a laser gun sounds like from watching Star Wars (the same place you know what space ships look like.)
Note that I'm saying that this appeal isn't the pleasance of the outcome but in our familiarity with the rules. Compared to real life (at least, the real life that I've experienced) movie worlds are much easier to navigate, the experiences easier to assimilate and enjoy. There is a certain appeal in this; such is the power of genres, formulas and symbols.
Last edited by linespalsy; 10-07-04 at 08:55 PM.