lordofdance
Posts 10
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8/14/2007 3:13 AM
posted awhile ago
Determining Favorite Movies the Existential Way
I'm not an expert on Existentialist thought or anything, but using the concept of 'Bad Faith' as a means of making a personal favorite movies list is an interesting idea. Bad Faith, as I understand it, comes into play whenever an individual behaves in such a way that their authentic self is betrayed. Because people are entirely free to make their own decisions in life, a person who does not act on this freedom is not being authentic. No person has a defined role or purpose, and so there is no excuse to limit one's self to a particular course of action based on artificially created boundaries. The way see it, anyone who determines their favorite movies based on any criteria beyond what is personally enjoyable is acting in Bad Faith. For example, many people feel obligated to include movies such as Citizen Kane or The Godfather among their favorites, even though there are many other movies that they enjoy more on a personal level. There is nothing requiring anyone to actually like Citizen Kane, but many people see it on some Greatest Movie List and feel pressured to include it as a favorite. Or perhaps they feel validated by including it. I've seen numerous people post their favorites list on websites and then other people offer criticisms of the list. Frequently lists with the most familiar and widely regarded movies recieve the strongest approval, and the same movies tend to pop up on each list in various combinations. Of course, there is nothing wrong with liking a familiar, widely regarded movie, but it seems absurd that these movies show up so often. Certainly, out of all the many movies released, there must be movies more personally rewarding than The Godfather. Fine, The Godfather is a classic, but too many people stop at the classics and don't look any further for a more personally rewarding movie. To create a list of movies and label them as favorites, but not watch anything outside the realm of 'Great Movies' is acting in Bad Faith. The only real criticism of someone's favorites list that might be valid is that it's not personal enough.
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lukasblu
Posts 172
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8/14/2007 5:11 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Determining Favorite Movies the Existential Way
very interesting and very true in many ways.My solution ,i made different kinds of favorites list.I made a universal favorites for movies that i liked and people that i know that liked it.The universal lists also includes movies that got high critical praise reviews & awards and plus,i have too like the movie too. My other list, personal faves are movies that i liked no matter what anyone else thinks;some othe movies in this lists includes my guilty pleasure movies and movies that touch me or relate to me at some level at some time in my life.This movies doesn't have to be highly rated or praised,mainstream or blockbuster movies,etc... Then theres another category of films i liked in the past but now i no longer regard as highly as i did back then.Either because my feeling about the movie has changed or i just can,t recall the movie as well because it was so long ago i saw the movie last or i am just blurred with all the flicks i have seen throughout my life;Maybe i need to see the flick again,to jog my memory. And then theres, a vice versa,flicks that you did not like then but now you like them.
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indieabby88
Posts 327
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8/14/2007 1:06 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Determining Favorite Movies the Existential Way
Wasn't there a "Friends" episode like this?
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Risselada
Posts 2068
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8/14/2007 1:56 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Determining Favorite Movies the Existential Way
I think what happens is that the movies that often pop up on those lists are going to perpetuate themselves. Because people will see those lists and then want to watch the movies too. To find out about them and to engage in conversation with people about the supposed greatest movies that more people are likely to have seen. Of course movies like this are going to have a lot more information and dialogue surrounding them. I think you may be discounting the fact that honestly lots of these really are great movies that touch more people as personally great that other movies. Why do you deny that might be true? Especially when some of them become so influential that movies coming out today are in debt or in reference to them. So that in a way by watching movies today we are being sculpted towards liking the older influential movies.
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lordofdance
Posts 10
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8/15/2007 1:04 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Determining Favorite Movies the Existential Way
I don't think anyone should want to be "sculpted" into liking anything. Todays movies may very well owe a debt to those of the past, but that doesn't obligate anyone to automatically like any of them. It is true that there is more dialogue and information about such movies, but that is no justification to just watch the classics and not search for movies that might be more personally fulfilling. Perhaps people who are supposedly touched by the classics are actually being touched by the prestige that comes with liking them. Maybe being part of the crowd makes them feel good. I don't deny that there are people who genuinely like the classics, and I even said there's nothing wrong with doing so. However, the classics should only be a starting point. Some people don't get that and end up selling themselves short.
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lordofdance
Posts 10
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8/15/2007 1:07 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Determining Favorite Movies the Existential Way
I don't watch the show, but I'd be curious to see the episode you're talking about.
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lordofdance
Posts 10
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8/15/2007 1:11 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Determining Favorite Movies the Existential Way
I can't really differentiate all of those anymore. Either I like it or I don't. I guess I could go through and make a seperate list of rankings for the widely accliaimed movies. Maybe I should just go through all the Greatest Movie lists and rank them according to my own opinion.
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joem18b
Posts 689
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8/15/2007 1:33 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Determining Favorite Movies the Existential Way
I'm currently watching all the movies on the IMDB Top 250 list that I haven't already seen. Why? Because my son asked me how many of them I had seen and there were a lot of them that I hadn't. Bad faith? Am I doing it to impress him? He hardly watches movies; asked me the question out of idle curiosity. Pride? I felt embarassed that I hadn't seen more on the list, but nobody else around here cares one way or the other. Maybe a little OCD going on?
Some of the movies - Sunset Blvd, Requiem for a Dream, Metropolis, for example - were a real death march. 5 or 10 minutes a day. Masochism? On the other hand, today - Hot Fuzz. In the top 100. And actually, I do feel quite satisfied about seen those 3 movies, and Double Indemity and M and Rashomon and the others that I watched in bits and pieces. On some level or other I liked them a lot. Stockholm syndrome? Can it be that I like a movie a lot after forcing myself to watch it 5 minutes at a time?
And speaking of The Godfather, my wife and I were on vacation in San Diego when that movie came out. A lot of buzz because the book and Mario Puzo were so popular at the time. (Nobody knew from Coppola.) The night before, we had seen Ameracord, the Fellini film. When we came out of The Godfather, I said, "That was very entertaining, but you can certainly see and feel the difference between a master like Fellini and a beginner like Coppola." Now The Godfather is a masterpiece and who remembers Amaracord? Go figure.
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lordofdance
Posts 10
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8/15/2007 2:22 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Determining Favorite Movies the Existential Way
I don't disagree with watching the classics at all. That is not Bad Faith by itself. Claiming them as favorites wholesale without exploring other movies is Bad Faith, though. Stockholm Syndrome.... that is a theory worth considering.
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indieabby88
Posts 327
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8/15/2007 12:13 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Determining Favorite Movies the Existential Way
I don't really feel obligated to include "The Godfather" among my favorite movies, although I really do like it. Sarah Vowell once wrote an essay about how she was totally obsessed with that movie, and every time she watched it, she felt like a member of the Corleone family. While that movie isn't really a favorite of mine, I do enjoy watching it, for a similar reason. I just like the closeness everyone has in that family. For example, my favorite character in the movie is Sonny. I know he's a womanizer and a bully, but the way he comes to his sister's defense really resonated with me. The guy may be kind of an asshole, but he really cares about his family.
But enough about "The Godfather," as that's not really the subject of this discussion:
I agree that the only way to determine favorite movies is to go by what you enjoy. There are certain times when I've watched a movie I felt I had to like because it was by an important director, or had an important place in cinematic history. I can't remember exactly what movies those were, but once or twice I've definitely had the feeling that I'm supposed to act like I like something, which never really ends well.
This theory could also be applied to music, and in fact, I can think of more personal examples of bands or albums that people like because they are "supposed" to like them. I have one friend who isn't too hot on The Cure simply because he wants to listen to the music on his own terms, not because everyone tells him he should.
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