I love blockbuster action movies. I can watch them over and over again. My home library is filled with Star Wars, Star Trek, Matrix, Transformers, Lord of the Rings, X-Men, Mission Impossible, James Bond and Bourne Series movies and quite a few of Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steven Segal movies.
A few days ago I was thinking to my self: “What does this interest and fascination with loud, fast and high-octane movies say about me? ” What does anyone’s movie choices say about them? If a subset of people get a high watching dubbed or subtitled movies, is that group somehow different, more sophisticated, nerdy and intelligent? And if I really enjoy watching action movies, am I really masculine, a jock, and a bit dumb?
Obviously, like most things in life, general characterizations are just “dumb” — I need to be careful “you” don’t label me as such either 🙂 We all watch different movies at different times to satisfy different emotional needs and might even have interests in multiple genres. I also have a collection of Japanese anime and get lost in their exceptional visual story-telling.
But I still wanted to dig a bit deeper. In most action movies, generally you don’t have to think much (exceptions do exist). There is a good guy, a bad guy, something to be destroyed, smashed or eviscerated and at the end, the protagonist prevails. So the storyline is kind of known. And music is generally not bad (even though some rhythmic patterns are becoming repetitious). I usually watch an action movie when I want to disconnect. That’s usually after a long day or week. But isn’t an adrenaline-raising movie anything but disconnecting? So why after watching such a movie, I feel satisfied and happy? Do I have a violent, angry or world-conquering and galaxy-destroying streak in me I don’t know of? Are these action movies of today the stadiums and gladiators of yesteryear? And am I the guy with his thumb down screaming: “kill, kill, kill”? Or are my days so uneventful and blah that instead of sniffing or swallowing something to pick me up, I overdose on action and violence? Or is there something really magical (one could say spiritual) in these movies that feeds a higher part of me?
You could say: “C’mon man, don’t read too much into it. Just watch your freaking movie.” 🙂
And I would start thinking: “Hmmmm, does that say anything about you?” LOL 🙂
No more thinking. Good night!
Shawn
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