Film: Mere escape or more?
By: Richard Lei
Tags: Filmmaking, Shower Thoughts

The Mummy(UMG) : Poster, 1932

People love films; ever since the advent of silent films and the rise of worldwide icons like Charlie Chaplin, audiences all over the world have been enraptured by the worlds created by filmmakers. For the first time since the invention of writing and art, people have a new medium to translate their fantastical dreams into reality. If we define an escape from reality as a defensive reaction involving the use of fantasy as a means of avoiding conflicts and problems of daily living, has this brave new world simply become another way in which people escape reality? To some extent, films could be seen as indulging in escapism. However, the answer to me is not as black and white as some people may think. Ultimately, the ability of film to expose an individual to a new level of reality(despite film as a medium bringing your attention away from one’s current reality) makes some films more than just an escape from reality.

Over the years the medium of film, like many other forms of media, has evolved to become more sophisticated and advanced. Gone are the days of silent black and white. In its place, multi-array sound systems, high definition cinematography and a multibillion-dollar industry stand at the forefront of film consumption, creation and distribution. For the average person, films are now accessible more than ever, as streaming services render even the traditional cinema close to obsolete. When faced with such a large range of choices, the primary purpose of film consumption has inevitably become entertainment, for their ability to immerse is second to none. The average person, after all, spends more than 78000 hours of their lives watching television. This level of immersion, coupled with a seemingly endless stream of films to watch, has made the consumption of film -now more than ever- a mere escape from reality. In essence, with the solidification of the film’s purpose as entertainment, the likelihood that film being just an escape from reality is greater than ever.

Since an escape from reality is often a defensive reaction as a means of avoiding conflicts and problems, it is in essence, an avoidance of displeasure. Consumption of film, being primarily a form of entertainment, could thus be seen as a medium to easy pleasure which people overindulge in. In an age where a film is more entertainment than art, the film’s pandering to people’s tendency to pleasure perhaps then moulds it to just another form of escape from unpleasant reality. We can see this in the growing consumption of both theatrical releases and in the growing watch time of streaming services. Netflix at this point is a salient example. With each passing year, the streaming giant impressively embeds itself even further into the mainstream, bolstered of course by a seemingly endless and growing selection of original programming that is practically impossible to keep up with. In 2019 alone, it’s subscribers on average spend around 2 hours per day on Netflix. This is ignoring the extreme consumption patterns of the average Netflix users, where the seasonality of traditional film is disrupted by a constant release schedule.

In the face of such a reality, how is film ever anything other than an escape from reality? The key lies in the fact that film can also bring forth an entirely new aspect of reality never considered before. To achieve this, we have to consider the finer aspects of what reality is. René Descartes, with cogito, ergo sum (je pense donc je suis, “I think, therefore I am”), argued that “the self” is the only thing that we can know exists with epistemological certainty. This belief of cogito, ergo sum was one that laid the foundation for the concept of solipsism. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one’s mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside the mind. If we apply this ontological concept to reality, we begin to accept the subjective-objective relationship between our perception of reality and the reality our minds exist in. In the case of film, it’s the ability to carry a message, a symbol or idea beyond from one ‘self’ to another, from one perception to another that is of reality-altering proportions. If we consider the reality that our daily lives and conflicts as merely existing in our mind, and that their meaning is derived from the value that we assign to them, the change that we experience after we watch a film would mean that the value that we assign would not be the same as before. The best way to think about it is to use the analogy of a melting pot. Reality is the melting pot, and your interactions with it are the constant stirring that you do to keep up with the reactions occurring underneath. When you consume a film carrying meaning, you add substance into the pot. No matter how much you stir, the material inside the pot has been forever altered, your reality has been changed.

Some may be quick to invoke the logical fallacy of begging the question, believing that the conclusion of the relativity of reality was already predetermined and that therefore the innate ability for the film to change one’s perception of reality only exists in the world of theory aforementioned. Even if this was taken to be true, it cannot be denied that films offer more than just an escape from reality. Film as an art form thrives despite its dumb-downed, blockbuster cousins. Furthermore, this precludes to the fact that even films focusing on cliches and caricatures can bring purpose beyond escape. Even in the simplest cases, a temporary separation from conflicts and avoidance in daily life does not constitute an active avoidance of it. Furthermore, the fact that you can learn from films, to be more knowledgeable before you went into the film, reflects the reality that films offer more than just an escape from reality. This is not to say that films do not help people escape reality, but that there exists further purpose in the essence of film consumption as a whole.

In time, technology will advance to a point beyond imagination. The level of development that we have now will seem primitive as compared to what humans of the future would have. At that time film, like all mediums, would have evolved even further ahead with everything else; the experience provided at that time would be totally unlike what we have now. Even then, so long as people are changed by films, so too will film’s purpose lie beyond an escape from reality. Like everything else, there would exist films that seek to relief your reality, and films that draw your attention to them. So long as you are certain in your perception, you can then proceed on with faith that you will embrace instead of escape.