Are We Facing the End of Cinema As We Know It?

I love Movies…with a capital M. Big screen; small screen; in-between screen; IMAX or phone; indoors or out; theatre or home theatre…I just love watching Movies.

What is a Movie (capital M) you ask? According to Merriam-Webster:

“A recording of moving images that tells a story and that people watch on a screen.”

Hence my “Any screen that’s handy at the time” obsession. I once watched Avatar on my iPhone just to see what it was like. The verdict? It wasn’t close to the 3D experience of an IMAX, but as it was what was handy at the time, I loved it.?

In fact, as a kid, I fantasized about our streaming digital world…I dreamt about watching movies on demand, wondering what it would be like to watch whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.?

Imagine watching The Wizard Of Oz (the Judy Garland version is my favorite movie), not every 2-3 years as it rotated onto the TV schedule, but whenever I wanted. Or Ben Hur, Funny Girl, Casablanca, The African Queen, 007—you get the point. And how could I not mention the Ten Commandments, always shown around Passover/Easter and sometimes on a Friday night when I couldn’t watch??

Saturday Night at the Movies was one of my favorites, as was the afternoon movie on WOR-TV Channel 9 in NY when I was home from school…and sometimes I lucked out and it was Marx Bros…WOW.

I went to the movies at least two Sundays a month when I was young, and multiple times a week when I was older. I saw the first Star Wars five times the week it opened, the first time with my BFFL, Zel. I cut school to see The Godfather with my best friend, Marty, the week it opened. I also stood in the pouring, cold rain to get into Blazing Saddles the night it opened with my friend, Michael—I think we made the midnight showing.

I went to the opening of each Lord Of The Rings with my daughter, Tanya. I sat texting one of the producers, a friend, as he attended the opening in LA at 9 PM their time and we sat in NY at midnight ours (yet again).

By now, you get the picture…I am obsessed. Always have been. Always will be.

Which is why I’m flummoxed, seriously, by the annual Oscar-inspired and catalyzed stories like:

• “The Death of Movies”
• “The Demise Of Studios”
• “The End of Cinema”

BTW, back to Merriam-Webster…Cinema, with a capital C, does not mean just a theatre, it also means:

• Movies (capital M)
• The film industry as a whole
• The art and technique of making motion pictures

So, why am I flummoxed??

Because the Movie industry, in my view, has:

• Never been stronger
• Never produced so many great movies to choose from
• Continued to evolve the craft
• Returned to using real locations and CGI as appropriate
• Values
• Scripts
• Directors
• Actors

Of course, with the increased quantity, there is also more garbage that’s being produced to fill the insatiable maw that’s been created by the Netflix DIGIBABBALE. Not to mention the poor marketing practice of putting everything online with equal access…A practice I’m glad to say is being changed by others.

I mentioned using real locations and CGI as appropriate for a reason. I urge you to search (my readers know my fondness for MSFT) the assured predictions by analysts and pundits who were sure that all movie production (small m for them) would be in front of green screens and costs would plummet as no one would ever go back out on location.?

Back to the death and demise predictions that sprout during Oscar week.

Don’t confuse a poorly produced, irrelevant show and an archaic and out-of-touch voting protocol with the general health of MOVIES.

Stop the full-on BS about streaming taking out studios…what the hell do you think Amazon and Netflix are? They are not indie producers. They are as much of a studio as studios. In fact, brilliant naysayers watching the opening of any Amazon-produced movie might realize the great animated logo sequence ends on none other than…Amazon Studios. There you have it.

As for the rest of the DIGIBABBLE BS crowd—you know, those who think that AI and Big Data will render our own tastes obsolete—I quote from a 2014 NY Times article. The article was titled, “Amazon Adds Art to Its Data.” It was a report on a year of Amazon production failure after they had predicted their data, knowing all about you, would change movie-making (small m again) forever…The killer, money shot quote was by Roy Price, then head of Amazon Studios (get that reference?). He said:

“It's not like you can come in on Tuesday and the computer says DOOT, DOOT, DOOT…here are the shows you are going to do.”

And, in my view, since then they have been doing a great job. Scripts, directors, and actors of note…and to be fair, serious producers.?

So, who cares:

• if you watch the Oscars or not?
• what anyone wears on the Red Carpet
• that some movies will win stupid amounts of statues when no one has seen them because they are boring (someone had to say it)
• about the pseudo-political rantings of a few entitled people
• the false drama that has been building for weeks

All you need to care about are the great Movies you have seen and plan to see. The big ones and the small ones. The real indies and the mega studio releases. The actors that you love and the stories that will move you.?

I am reminded of the story behind the release of The Wizard of Oz in 1939. The Movie did not get great reviews. It won an Oscar for best original score and one for best song. No great shakes.

Yet, one reviewer wrote that although many of her colleagues trashed it, she predicted that long after their names and reviews were forgotten, children and parents would still be watching Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, the Wizard, the Witch, and setting up the next generation to share from there. It was handed to me by my parents, me to my girls, and now me to my grandchildren…she was right.

And that, folks, is what Movies (with a capital M) are meant to be.

So, ENJOY Movies and stop worrying about the DIGIBABBLE.

And, PS…since Billy Crystal, I haven’t watched the Oscars either.?

And as for my opening question? NO way!! Not even close!!

What do you think??

What’s your favorite Movie with a capital M?

PPS…Report from the scene:

• Will rocked Chris
• The bark of the Dog was irrelevant
• At least Encanto won…a picture people saw and loved
• And Venus…

One final, final thought…my friend and colleague, Larry, points out that this year the Oscars were an important and well-needed uniter of people. We finally had arguments to rally around that weren’t political, about Covid, or return to office.

And for that alone we should be grateful!!!?