Why Are They Made?

Sometimes while watching a movie, usually one which is not very good, I wonder why it was made. People can have a good reason for making a movie, but then make it poorly. Talented people can do a good job with a movie that did not have much reason for being made in the first place. When people with no talent try to make a movie which never should have been made, the result is a bomb.

Pushing the envelope of still photography, inventors came up with moving pictures. One celebrated example is the machine that was made to prove that a galloping horse does at some point have all the feet off the ground. Another famous early film is the one of the belly dancer, and then there is the one with the rocket hitting the face of the man in the moon.

Commercial use of movies was first to titillate and entertain and maybe later to educate. The first nickelodeon theaters provided cheap entertainment to immigrants and also educated them about American culture, at least as filtered through the eyes of the movie makers. Nickelodeon operators learned early on that they could make more money selling popcorn than selling 5 cent movie tickets, so they pushed for the production of longer movies.

Entertainment and education can blend in a movie, with education coming in a variety of ways. I like to ask myself after watching a film, how I can relate the people and events in this movie to what I know and wonder about real life.  Sometimes it is hard to see much of a message in a film that seems just very entertaining, but I believe it is always there in a good film.

So many films are made, not because there is a need for a new message or a better delivery of an old message, but rather just because there is a whole industry that lives off making films and a whole bunch of people, more young than not, who love to go to the movies. Unfortunately the result is sometimes endless sequels, prequels and remakes.

Movies often disappoint us and sometimes pleasantly surprise us. To paraphrase a famous movie line, "Movies are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."