From: "eric walker" <eric.walker@channel1.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: why i watch movies
Date: 17 Aug 92 10:24:34 EST
Reply-To: "eric walker" <eric.walker@channel1.com>
Distribution: rec
Organization: Channel 1 Communications

MC>4)  If movies are so bad - then what is good?  I mean take a
MC>    look at Shakespeare if you want gore, idiotic mistakes and
MC>    lame plot lines.  How much better could movies be?

     "Good" means, quite simply, "entertaining."  If I enjoy a movie
     so much that I could easily forgive any flaws, that I want to
     see it again, and that I like thinking about this movie and
     laughing at the jokes ("Sleeper"), or shuddering at the suspense
     ("Aliens"), or thinking about the deep character development ("Raging
     Bull"), then it's a good movie.

MC>5)  And the final question - What would you regard as a GOOD
MC>    movie - one that fulfills all the standards you set for it.

     A GOOD movie is a movie that entertains.  A truly great movie is
     one that entertains an audience like they have never - or almost
     never - been entertained before.
          I remember the first time I saw James Cameron's "Aliens."  I
     didn't really want to see this movie; I had already seen "Alien,"
     and I wasn't impressed.  ("Alien" wasn't much more than a "Friday
     the 13th" in outer space, with a bigger budget and better actors.)
     But my brother really wanted me to see it, so I took him to the
     theatre and prepared to see another gore-fest.
          This movie blew me out of my seat.  That was the first time
     my blood actually froze in my veins while sitting in a movie theatre
     (I'm only 24, so I've seen most of the great classics on video and
     not in the theatre).  I cared for the characters.  The action was
     unbelievably exciting.  Burke the Nasty Yuppie was such a slime-
     ball that I was shouting out (softly) "feed him to the aliens!"
     When the movie ended, I felt drained.  I loved it.
          (SPOILER WARNING for the movie "Rear Window" below!)
          I saw Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" for the first time
     earlier this year.  I'd heard good things about this movie, and I
     wanted to see it for myself.  As Jimmy Stewart began to suspect that
     his neighbor had murdered his wife, I felt suspense and curiosity -
     did he do it or not?  I also felt a dread sense that I was going to
     be disappointed: I had seen Hitchcock's "Suspicion" only recently,
     and it was a terrific suspense mystery - until the very end, which
     was a terrible cop-out!  (Hitch was forced to re-write the ending.)
     I had a gut feeling that L.B. Jeffries was seeing a conspiracy when
     there was none, and his friend the dectective would prove that there
     was no murderer.  But when Raymond Burr looked right into the camera
     at me, I was on the edge of my seat.  This was terrific suspense.
     And when it turned out (SPOILER WARNING!) that he DID do it, I
     laughed out loud - I was vindicated, and the movie was a genuine
     masterpiece through-and-through.

     Now THAT was a good movie
---
  SLMR 2.1a  Modemac was here!
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