Movies (and TV) are surely part of my and many others’ upbringing, but can movies teach us anything? TV’s greater potential to educate.

In the previous section on this website, I presented my discussion of music. Compared to music, I find movies much harder to learn about. They are also subject to the same questions I raised about music. See the next section on this website on the arts for more about this. I started listening to music when I was young, around 1960, and it was easy to listen to music on a radio, even if the choice at that time was limited mostly to AM top 40 until FM became popular with a wider selection corresponding to the changes in music during the 1960s. However, movies were a different matter. First, it was harder to be able to watch them. Before I was old enough to go to a movie theatre, I had to depend on family members taking me with them which was usually to see a film they wanted to see. Like other activities of my childhood, I did not enjoy being taken to the movies I saw in theatres. I did not know it at the time that those movies only represented a certain kind of movie, usually popular action movies or the occasional historical drama which I found boring. I did not know there were other kinds of movies. So I formed a negative opinion of movies from an early age based on the kind of movies I had seen up to that point.

The only other place I could see movies at that time was on tv which was limited to the VHF broadcast channels in our house. This was long before the days of videotape, not to mention DVDs which came later. I do remember seeing old black and white movies on tv, but my tastes at that time were in a different direction. First cartoons and then anything that had a fantastic element to it. I grew up on that kind of tv. I can’t watch it anymore, but it was important to me at the time. I also did not know at the time that I could have watched a larger selection of movies if anyone in the family had the required technical knowledge to add UHF reception. I was too young at the time to know-how. Some of the movies that I did see did register an impression. Many were romantic dramas. There were also westerns. I can only think of a few movies prior to the time I graduated from high school and left home that once seen I have never forgotten. Lonely Are the Brave and Bad Day at Black Rock are two.

The first time I can remember seeing a different type of movie was when I went to college. For some reason, colleges are fond of showing artsy films, especially from European directors. While they are pretty to watch, I also found them boring and pretentious. To this day, there are very few European films that I like, and having to view them via subtitles makes for more work than it is worth to me. However, there are still some subtitled films I like. It was not until I was in my 30s I think that I began to make an effort to find films that I like. The way I did this was entirely at home on tv. I carefully read through the tv movie listings and began watching those films whose descriptions sounded like something I would like, and sure enough, I did find films I like. However, to this day the percentage of films that I like and have kept copies in a film collection is very small compared to my collection of music recordings, about one-tenth of the size. Like music, I don’t want to spend time trying to find more. Movies are time-consuming to research and watch which is another reason why movies are hard for me to learn about. After making an effort to educate myself about films, I found that there were certain categories of films that I liked. The list below is not necessarily in order of importance.

First of my preferences are films with superior scripts and dialogue. I believe that great films must begin with great scripts. No matter how good a director or the actors or any of the other members of the production are, I believe a bad script will not make for a good movie. However, a mediocre script, or a subject which has been covered too often in movies, can still rise above the average if all the other parts are above average. Films based on known novels or plays often make above-average scripts.

Second of my preferences are what I might call the genre. Certain genres just don’t interest me. I don’t like films whose sole purpose is comedy. I don’t mind if certain characters or situations are comic as a natural part of the story. I have never liked sitcoms on tv either, and I won’t watch them to this day. I don’t like films whose sole purpose is action and violence. There are only a few films I like which I describe as films where the corpses pile up, and the violence in those films is not gratuitous, i.e. it is not the sole purpose of the film. My favorite genre is probably domestic dramas. One of the types of films I like portrays ordinary people living their lives. There are only a few westerns in my collection. Besides the two unconventional westerns mentioned above are A Man Called Gannon (remake of  Man Without a Star) and Hired Hand.

Third of my preferences are actors I like to watch. I am probably biased about this. Growing up on fantastic tv, such as Outer Limits, I took a liking to many of the actors in that show whom I still like to this day. There may be other tv shows that biased me in favor of certain actors. I also liked detective stories. Had I been older I would probably have been interested in live tv dramas (but not comedies) or I might have seen more episodes of shows such as Twilight Zone of which I have only seen certain episodes to this day, but these programs were a little before my time.  Sometimes I like watching a film just to see a particular actor or, conversely, I can’t watch certain films because of a certain actor who is in it. It’s not that I dislike that actor, I just don’t like the kind of films they make. A few of my favorite actors are Robert Mitchum, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Lloyd Bridges.  Two of those preferences date from my seeing them in my childhood. I could make a much larger list if I looked through my film collection. Could it be I like actors who seem to know how to handle any situation? Lloyd Bridges knew how to handle himself in Sea Hunt. Humphrey Bogart was like that. So was Patrick McGoohan (Secret Agent which I like because of the intrigue and battle of wits and The Prisoner, which has personal meaning for me).

Most film studies emphasize directors. Just out of curiosity, when I found a film I liked I have looked to see who the director was and see what other films that director made to find out if there is another film by that director that I want to see. I found that the correlation is weak. Possibly if I wanted to take the time to research and watch more films, I might find a stronger correlation. However, I’m sure studio executives learn which directors are known for doing certain kinds of films and when the studio wants to make that type of film, they call those directors. This may account for why some directors have made more than one film that I like. Of course, what I say about directors here does not apply to those directors whose films are strongly influenced by the personality of their directors, for example, Ingmar Bergmann and his American counterpart in certain ways, Woody Allen. Their films have a distinctive style. I like many of their works.

As for the importance of directors in the making of a film, I like to quote what veteran actor, Robert Mitchum replied when asked in an entertaining interview whether he thought directors were the most important persons in making a film, speaking of his work at RKO’s “B” movie unit. This interview was in the documentary Hollywood the Golden Years: The RKO Story (1987) (TV Series) aka The RKO Story: Tales from Hollywood:

“Interviewer: Could you choose the directors you wanted to work with?

R.M.: It would make no difference.

Interviewer: No difference?

R.M.: Still doesn’t.

Interviewer: You don’t believe that the director makes the picture?

R.M.: I have no idea. Possibly he does, you know. I have the same general attitude that John Huston taught me. Johnny said: ‘if they want the bad pictures, we can make them too. Cost a little more.’ Doesn’t concern me.”

Fourth of my preferences are films which teach some kind of lesson. I don’t mean a moral lesson, like good triumphs over evil, but something deeper than that.

Fifth, and this may seem to contradict my preference above for realistic domestic dramas, are where ordinary people are placed in extraordinary situations for them to deal with.

The last category is where a character in the film, usually the main character undergoes an experience which I myself have gone through. This category and the previous category can produce films which most people would find very eccentric and they would not like or understand them, but I don’t expect them to relate to a film where what happens in the film is not part of their experience. Many such films are obscure films. Like music, I am interested in obscure films. There are also well known films in my collection. As I look through my film collection, the percentage of known films to unknown films is about 50/50.

Finally, there is the question of what value are films? Are they worth the resources that go into making them? What can be learned from them? If I look through my personal collection which represents decades of collecting, although only a few may be added a year, below in parentheses are some common themes I found that explain why I like them. These are not in any order. I haven’t commented on all of them for time reasons:

Over the Brooklyn Bridge

Family opposition to Jewish/non-Jewish relationship (echoed in my personal experience)

Scarecrow

Character study: failed contact with angry ex (echoed in my personal experience)

5 easy pieces: man doesn’t respect woman of a lower class (a great film)

Carnal knowledge (another great film)

The Graduate

Adam at 6 a.m.: demise of relationship (echoed in my personal experience)

A Name for Evil

(Under-appreciated film about following a plan to its disastrous conclusion) Note: this film is missing about one-third of the film on VHS and DVD which ruins it.

The Swimmer

(Similar theme as the previous film)

The Teacher

Realistic portrayal of a mentally disturbed person

Two People

Character/relationship study with Peter Fonda and Lindsay Wagner (see also dialogue with her boyfriend in Paper Chase about his need to understand the world–me too)

Razor’s Edge (1946 orig.)

Finding meaning, not meeting fiance’s standards (personal experience)

Goodbye Columbus

Inability to meet fiance’s family’s standards (personal experience)

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Teetering on the edge

“B” Must Die

Teetering

Last Tango in Paris

Teetering? I’m not a Brando fan but his disintegration in this film fascinates

Big Knife

Teetering

Hustle

(Burt Reynolds) What dialogue. How the world works

Assignment to Kill

Another film about how the world works

Rivals (aka Deadly Rivals)

Stepson too attached to mother plots against the stepfather

Frances

About rebellious actress Frances Farmer and how she is mistreated as a result

Man in the Grey Flannel Suit

How the World Works

More subtle than Rod Serling’s Patterns

Billy Budd

Personal experience

Just Tell Me What You Want

Trying to win back a lover

The Promise

Film critics didn’t understand this one but Danielle Steele did (personal experience)

Brothers Karamazov

Supposedly distorts Dostoevsky, but this film is a favorite of mine

Same Time Next Year

Four Seasons

Rachel, Rachel

I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing

Plain jane looked down on by artists (personal experience)

Mother and Daughter the Loving War (with Tuesday Weld)

Personal relationships

Madam X (version also with Tuesday Weld)

Family split up due to mistake (personal experience)

I Know My First Name is Steven

True story of kidnapped child. Dog is only friend during time

Championship Season

Great script, many veteran actors

Golden Salamander

Intrigue, actors I like

Room at the Top

Great performances, be careful what you want, you might get it

Term of Trial

Great performances: unhappily married teacher falsely accused by student

I Never Sang for My Father

Great performances. Troubled relationship (personal experience)

Georgy Girl

Great performance by Lynn Redgrave and also James Mason, another actor I like

Alfie

Our Town

Great story. Viewers must make allowance for how early this film was made

Falling from Grace

Great performance of slowly failing John Mellencamp and other cast

Unwed Father (the one with Joseph Bottoms)

Great family dynamics study

Separate Tables

Come Back Little Sheba

Great performances

Days of Wine and Roses

Magnificent Ambersons

“40 can’t teach 20”

Lord Jim

So much effort ultimately failing in the end

Tender Mercies

Conrack

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Purple Taxi

Character study in Ireland. Nobody is kind in this film

Light Sleeper

Character study

Dogfight

Another plain jane disrespected by townspeople and not understood

Long Journey Back

Attempts at recovery of girl severely injured in accident

Desperate Characters

Silent Night, Lonely Night and also Happy Ending

Same leads Lloyd Bridges/Shirley Jones

Autumn Sonata

Look for version dubbed into English by the actual actors

Children of a Lesser God

Act of Love

Kirk Douglas

Gone with the Wind

One of the great character studies I can relate to from personal experience

I’ve taken the time to look at a representative sampling of my movies omitting the more obscure films, to see if there is a pattern to what I like. Assume that all these films are in my collection due to good scripts and dialogue, and actors I like. There certainly are films that I relate to because of similar personal experiences, but many others don’t fit that pattern. I see no clear pattern. At this time, as with music, I don’t want to devote any more time than the minimum to either watching movies or tv. If I have to make a choice about watching something on tv, I prefer documentaries.

Bibliography

The best books in my experience about films are simply those that contain short descriptions of particular films that tell a person interested in learning about films whether they might want to take the time to watch a particular film. As I said above, movies are a time-consuming effort and unlike music, if a person is to give films the attention that is required, it is not possible to do anything else while watching them. In other words, the viewer should pay close attention. Otherwise, why bother to watch them if the reader simply regards them as nothing more than background noise? So the books that I would put at the top of my list are the yearly updated movie reference books such as Movies on TV and Videocassette that used to be edited under Steven Scheuer’s name which contains reviews of more than 19,000 movies. This is no longer published, ceasing in 1994 or 1995 I believe. Steven Scheuer hosted the PBS tv series Television in America. In the section of this website on nonfiction, I will refer to an episode from that series in which Studs Terkel was interviewed. A similar reference book is still being published as far as I know under Leonard Maltin’s name. My own opinion is that the less opinionated books like this are the better. In other words, they sometimes make the mistake of criticizing good films. Perhaps the best book of this type would have been a compilation of all the capsule movie summaries that have ever appeared in TV Guide. Unfortunately, no such compilation exists as far as I know. Whatever books were produced under the TV Guide name are not a compilation of that kind.

I should mention that the primary reason I rate review books at the top of my list of books about movies is that it is impossible to watch all the good films that have been made even if there was a way to find out which ones they are. The number of films that it is possible to watch in a lifetime are only a fraction of the total. Books like those above make a selection easier to make. Another movie review guide is Zagat Movie Guide. It is much smaller than the ones above and possibly reflects popular tastes too much. Another small guide is Movies: the Ultimate Insider’s Guide. There are probably many other similar review books. For two reference books about actors and directors, see the Film Encyclopedia by Ephraim Katz, and the less detailed Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion.

I only have a few books about movies. I have one book solely on directors. Reelz channel had a series on directors. There are documentaries about movie history. There are too many to list here. Documentaries should be easy to find. I have a couple books on British cinema which I have not read yet. Anyone interested in filmed plays should look at The Great American Playwrights on the Screen, by Jerry Roberts. As for filmed novels, Novels Into Film: the Encyclopedia of Movies Adapted from Books, by Tibbetts and Welsh will provide some guidance in choosing films to watch. Ultimately, I’m not sure how helpful books are in learning about films except to help limit the choices. The point is to watch films if the effort is justified. I. As for tv, it is probably a crime that tv is not more educational. I learned about geology (Making of a Continent) and poetry (Voices and Visions) from tv programs that used to be part of local community college programming in one city. I’m not sure that kind of educational tv even exists anymore.