Movies (May 28)

One of the greatest forms of art, and certainly the most appreciated form of art, in todays culture is that of movies. Sure you haven't really thought about movies as art before but when you think about how a movie is made on film in much the same way that a photographer takes a picture it is really hard to deny movies as art. While they are similar to something such as the theater only with a lack of live actors performing their artful skill, the movie is greater for many reasons. See the world in which we live has made the movies a cultural phenomenon whereby we will gladly spend $7 to $15 to see the latest movie on a regular basis. Movies have become much like television where you are not a part of the conversation unless you have seen the latest movie. Movies have also taken the idea of escapism to an extreme unmatched by any other art form or other form of entertainment. We have swaped out reading for the movies when it comes to taking ourselves to far off worlds and situations far beyond what we deal with in everyday life. We look at movies to tell us how to act and how to discover who we are and who we want to become. We use movies to pass the time and dream of what could be, either right now in our own lives or in the much distant time from now, past or present. No other art form has sought to maximize technology to create something truly unique where the experience if truly something that has never been done before yet feels so familiar. The power that movies have is also a very dangerous edge on which we will always walk as long as the population in which we live continues to go to the movies.