It dawned on me that we are becoming a society that revolves around movies, and we are becoming poorer as a result. The sheer number of movies being made today is a result of the notion that the public has an insatiable appetite for films, and will pay god money to see almost anything. I have never been a big movie goer. I can safely state that I've probably seen a total of 15 films at the theater in the last 5 years, and I don't feel like I've missed much. There has to be a real compelling reason for me to go to the movies: either it has to be something I'm really interested in, a book I've read that I really like, or something so off-the wall that it captures my attention.
I've always considered myself a book person. I'd rather read a book than go to a movie. I like to be able to come up with my own vision of what a scene looks like, and too often, filmmakers don't get it right. The biggest problem I have is people who place too much value on movies, and expect that real life should be, or is, like what is portrayed on film. The fact is, it doesn't work like that. We have become obsessed with comparing events in real life to what we see in the movies, and that has contributed to a dumbing down of people, where no one seems to be able to come to conclusions based on tangible evidence, they just reference whatever movie they've seen and say "That's just like that movie." It happens all the time, and it's not a good thing.
What we are going to end up with is a intellectual stagnation, because no one seems to be able to think for themselves anymore. It's easier to get locked into a formula for making determinations than it is to actually come up with original ideas and answers to problems. We get into a habit of making judgements about people based on what we see in movies, rather that seeing them for they really are. Nobody should have to live to a standard set by the images we see in film; we should be able to have a capacity to be who we are, in real life. When people begin to realize that life is just a movie, instead of a movie being their life, then we will all be able to have a better understanding of the place we fill in the big picture.