5 minutes
What do you want to watch a movie?
Abdullah Al Qamzi
Abdulla.AlQamzi@emaratalyoum.com
June 20 2021
Some readers who know me personally joke about the phrase: “The viewer will guess the movie while he is asleep,” which I usually mention in my movie readings.
The question that is asked to me: Why do I watch what I know the end of?
And what's the point of that?
It is an experience, and any movie you watch is an experience.
We say: Why do you go to a certain restaurant and choose a food that you know, or go to a certain cafe for a drink that you know?
It is also possible to venture to a restaurant/cafe to try something new.
I go to a coffee shop for black coffee, and I have a friend who whenever he sits with me orders a cappuccino, and I beg him to change and he doesn't accept and says he doesn't want to try something he doesn't know.
The human soul is multi-temperament and moods, there are adventurers with experiences, and there are those who do not want to change their experience and adhere to the safety zone.
In films, the question is classic, and there are great directors who say that they find no pleasure in films that they can guess, but their words are not sacred to the elite of viewers or to the general public.
There are reasons to watch movies you can guess their endings:
First the memories: I've been watching movies since the nineties and I still re-watch movies that I memorize, and the more I try to watch them, the more I enjoy them, and the happy memories come to me.
Secondly, experience: If you knew that Jean-Claude Van Damme, for example, released two films together: the first is called “The Battle of Death” and on the poster of the movie the Belgian martial arts star kicks another man in the face, and the second is called “Broken Romance” and on his poster you see Van Damme with a beautiful actress smiling together, which one will you see?
The first poster tells you this is a Van Damme you know, and the second tells you maybe this is another Van Damme-like person you don't risk watching.
And of course you will go to the first for a certain reason that we will mention in the next paragraph, and the other if you enter it, you often want to laugh at the hero because you know that he is not suitable as a romantic hero.
Thirdly, pleasure: There is pleasure in watching any movie, especially if it is a struggle between good and evil. You enjoy watching the hero defeat his enemy in the end, and you know that this will happen in the last scene since you sit watching it at its beginning.
You enjoy watching Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Van Damme do what they do well in their films.
You enjoy the detective who finds the killer or eventually kills him, and you watch the movie to see him do it in front of you knowing that this is what will happen.
You enjoy watching the hero win the heart of the girl he loves, in all genres you prefer the ending your heart desires, which means you choose to watch something you know and can guess.
The question is not why you watch a movie that you can anticipate, but what you want to see?
Situation: I watched the movie "Posse" by Kirk Douglas, and after the disappointing ending shocked me, I couldn't sleep easily and my heart kept pounding with anger.
Films of this kind are bold, and if all films are like this, you will not find audiences for them.
The human soul is multi-temperament and moods, there are adventurers with experiences, and there are those who do not want to change their experience and adhere to the safety zone.
Abdulla.AlQamzi@emaratalyoum.com
To read the previous articles of the writer please click on its name.
Abdulla.AlQamzi@emaratalyoum.com