Sometimes I don't //want// movies to have an intricate plot; sometimes I just like watching movies to relax and be somewhat amused. Not everything needs to make me think, "wow, I feel so inspired to ____ after watching that." If someone regularly spends about two hours watching movies, it would be my guess that they don't really mind that they aren't doing something greater.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

This. I personally love things with meaning as much as the next person, but truthfully, I don't want meaningful things to //dominate// my life. Besides, keeping the meaningful stuff to watch every once in a while makes it more effective for me. Furthermore, I would consider myself to have a high tolerance for the complexity of life, but when it gets to be too much for me, simplistic movies and shows are my outlet. I can allow myself to love the heroes and hate the villains without question in the movies, so that I can go back into the world and be better able to accept that sometimes nice people do bad things and sometimes mean people do good things.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I'm referring to movies on the whole, not every single individual movie. I think in addition to the movies that exist now, there should be more movies like Forrest Gump or The Shawshank Redemption.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

That's fine for individual movies, but I'm bugged by the fact that almost no movies do nowadays.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Because, as with any situation, money has a lot of influence. People want the Titanic and the Notebook, so that's what people make. Also, Slumdog Millionaire is a fairly newish movie.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Well, I mean there is so much opportunity to go deeper with it, but it isn't taken. I think that if there were stronger messages in movies, people would start to appreciate it more.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Some movies do. The viewer can select documentaries, art films and a array of heavy message films. If there was a big market for these types of movies then more would be available.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Are they elaborate stories? What kind of messages do they share?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Well there are so many...here's a few How to Survive a Plague: By the mid-1980s, as the official response to the growing AIDS epidemic remained dispiritingly low-key and at times hostile, the activist group ACT UP began focusing media attention on the disease and demanding action from the government and the medical community. While some members of the group staged protests, others immersed themselves in the research being done on the virus and helped achieve a dramatic transformation in its treatment. The Invisible War: according to Department of Defense estimates, over 19,300 members of the U.S. military were sexually assaulted in 2010 alone. Yet, although the rate of sexual assaults against women in the service is twice that of the civilian population, only ten percent of assault cases end in prosecution, with female soldiers often finding themselves ostracized or pressured into remaining silent. Searching for Sugarman: In the early 1970s, A&M released two albums by a singer-songwriter known only as Rodriguez, who dropped out of sight and was rumored to have died after the records failed to sell. Years later Rodriguez unexpectedly attracted a cult following in South Afric

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Those sound deep, but what about their messages?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

What kind of message are you looking for? I am sure I can point you to a move that tries to tell it. Your point is well taken that movies offer a power (and under used) communication tool. My point is that there are movies out there with every message you could want to hear (or tell) but that people do not watch them because people do not want to "hear it." If your point is that movies should be used for propaganda, then we have a disagreement.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Oh, of course I didn't mean that (even though they occasionally are). I mean, they should, in fact, be the kinds of messages that may be hard to admit to one's self unassisted. Spreading messages like "corporations are greedy", for example, is cliche, and obvious. However, messages like "you don't have to be smart to be wise" could truly be supported by a story or film. It should actually promote something new, not reaffirm something everybody knows and loves to blame on everything (like the former).

by Anonymous 11 years ago

How about: Life is Beautiful Boy in the Striped Pajamas The Fisher King Shoes of the Fisherman Old Man and the Sea Bruto Being There

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Suddenly I wish I could claim to have seen a single movie on that list. Maybe my problem is that I watch too few movies, and not the right kind...

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I feel the exact same way. I'm not a big film person in the first place so when people start discussing films I feel a little out of it.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

The Nazis had it figured out

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Movies still do convey messages, like buy an Audi, buy an Apple laptop, etc...

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Basically almost every movie I've seen in the past year has been either a romcom or a cliché drama. It'd certainly be nice if there were more films with more powerful messages.

by Anonymous 11 years ago