PHASE THREE by Arnold Bornstein: Being reel about opinions

Discussion about the movies of yesterday and today

By: Arnold Bornstein
   Want to see a movie Saturday night?
   If you go with your spouse, buy sodas and snacks, pay a babysitter and have a fast-food meals before the show, you’re probably looking at more than $60.
   And all you really wanted to do was go to the movies.
   Of course, you could have watched a flick on TV, but there’s also the yearning to get out of the house or apartment. And somehow, a motion picture seems much more enjoyable on a movie screen in a darkened theater.
   If you’re a senior, going to the movies seemed a lot cheaper when you were in high school or only married for a few years. But now there’s the senior discount days, watching your diet regarding snacks, the early-bird dinner and needing a babysitter isn’t an issue.
   At any rate, for the young and the old and all the intermediate ages, our preferences, thoughts and opinions about movies probably could tell us something about ourselves — and that includes paid movie critics — but I’ll leave all that to the psychologists.
   I think that seniors in particular have a wide spectrum of thoughts and opinions about movies, perhaps because their movie-going days began several decades ago and are strewn with old memories.
   Memories of being taken to the movies by their parents. Of an area that was called the Children’s Section, uniformed matrons, ushers with flashlights, Saturday serials, double features, nickel-candy machines, going on a date, theaters that no longer exist, and inexpensive Chinese restaurants for Saturday lunches before the show.
   We often go to the movies and dinner on senior discount day with close friends. I always ask my friend what he thought of the film, and he invariably smiles and gives a thumbs down — although we both know that he does it even when he likes a movie. He then will modify his opinion with a comment such as, "It wasn’t a great movie."
   My follow-up is sometimes, "What was the last great movie you saw?" I think it’s good question, for various reasons.
   If you saw any of the following movies, did you consider them "great" at the time: "Fargo," "Pulp Fiction," "Dances With Wolves," "Goodfellas," "Platoon," "Amadeus," "Tootsie," "Raging Bull," "Apocalypse Now," "The Deer Hunter," "Annie Hall" and "Network."
   The above-listed movies were among those announced in 1998 as the 100 best American films of all time, in balloting conducted by the American Film Institute.
   I agree with those who believe that the cinema can be an art form, but I also think there is wisdom in the contention that art is choice — in more than just movies.
   When we see a film, we are not seeing a performance of a play by Shakespeare, a Broadway revival of a classic drama, viewing paintings in a museum, listening to a symphony orchestra or reading Tolstoy’s "War and Peace."
   And yet a film can be a work of art, while sometimes the other tried-and-true art forms can periodically leave us wondering about judgment and interpretation. Modern or contemporary art are good examples.
   One major aspect that I think separates film from other art forms is the entertainment factor in movies, a factor that isn’t frequently involved in the other classic art forms.
   So the next time somebody tells you a film wasn’t great — and of course there are periodically great films — the key factor could be whether they were entertained. And if they say they weren’t entertained, you may wonder how many hours a week they spend watching TV — and how great or entertaining they consider much of that viewing. Not only art, but also entertainment is choice.
   For your further information, the top-ten American films of all time, announced in 1998 following the American Film Institute balloting, and in order of ranking, were: "Citizen Kane," "Casablanca," "The Godfather," "Gone With the Wind," "Lawrence of Arabia," "The Wizard of Oz," "The Graduate," "On the Waterfront," "Schindler’s List" and "Singin’ in the Rain."
   There must have been a few great American films since the 1998 findings.
   By the way, are there any good movies playing this weekend?
Arnold Bornstein is a resident of Greenbriar at Whittingham in Monroe.