DVDs: Higher Art, or Impulse Purchases for the Unwashed Masses?
Film Threat's Doug Brunell put an interesting piece up this weekend about feeling irked when he saw a woman at the store he was shopping at toss a copy of Sweet Home Alabama onto her shopping cart. Brunell wasn't upset because he hates the movie (he hasn't seen it) or because he harbors some secret loathing toward Reese Witherspoon, but because he mourns that DVDs have become casual purchases to be tossed in the cart on impulse, rather than a decision to lovingly mull over, checking out the cool special features, transfer and sound.
Now, I am, admittedly, not a huge DVD purchaser at this stage in my life. For one thing, I have a houseful of young children, and no matter where we store our DVDs, I inevitably find them on the floor (ever stepped on a stray DVD at 2AM and impaled your foot on a wedge of The Land Before Time? Not fun.) or being used as ninja throwing stars in some game the kids have concocted. I am not a responsible owner of DVDs, and our house is not a safe harbor for them, so we simply don't invest much of our hard-earned money on them. I know, however, that many of you folks out there are avid DVD collectors who probably spend a fair amount of time carefully considering your purchases. Even if I was passionate about DVDs, I don't know that I'd get worked up over someone else's casual purchase, anymore than I get upset over someone in front of me in the checkout line purchasing a Danielle Steel novel just because I'm a lit geek, but then again, I do stay up nights obsessing over the box office returns for indie films, so who am I to judge?
What about you? Is it troublesome to you that some people toss DVDs into their shopping cart without really considering the purchase? Does it detract from the allure of DVD ownership, if another person considers DVDs as more disposable entertainment than art? And while we're on the subject: What's the last DVD you bought -- and why did you buy it?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-07-2006 @ 2:15PM
BobMac said...
I quit buying DVDs a long time ago. I quickly realized I watched a movie once and moved on to the next one. I use Netflix now. If I want to watch a movie again, I'll rent it again. For the price of one DVD a month, I could watch more than thirty (if I had the time.)
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8-07-2006 @ 2:38PM
Tush said...
I don't see a reason why he'd have to be upset about other people impulse/casual buying DVD's... it's not like it's a coveted or antique media. I can see people feeling like that about LP's or something, because they aren't produced (in mainstream) anymore.
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8-07-2006 @ 3:21PM
Jette Kernion said...
First of all, there's no way of knowing whether someone who "tosses a DVD into a cart" really is impulse buying -- they could have looked at the specs for the DVD online. For example, this weekend my husband grabbed a copy of Spider-Man 2 off a shelf at Fry's near the checkout counter and bought it in an instant. He'd already looked over the DVD and its special features previously -- what made him grab and buy was that it was on sale, and we were waiting for a markdown to buy the DVD. It doesn't mean that we're devaluing movies in any way. We buy DVDs if we think we'll watch them regularly at least once a year.
I think your comparison to Danielle Steele is appropriate: there are junk-food movies just like there are junk-food books, and art prints, and albums. The problem isn't the ready availability of DVDs in general, but some problems are that junk-food DVDs get released while many classics are still unavailable, and perhaps that the junk-food, cookie-cutter movies are being made in the first place.
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8-07-2006 @ 3:27PM
Ryan said...
How would he know that this woman didn't mull over getting the movie BEFORE she went shopping?
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8-07-2006 @ 3:40PM
Brant said...
Brunell is just whining because this woman's casual purchase undermines his efforts to distinguish himself from the "mainstream." When other people purchase DVDs for reasons other than art, it effectively decreases the value of Brunell's own DVD collection. If this lady had tossed Primer into her shopping cart because she thought it starred Billy Crudup, he'd be even more upset. The guy needs to lighten up. Commodities are consumed by different people for different reasons. Even works of fine art are, in the end, commodities.
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8-07-2006 @ 4:32PM
badMike said...
That was one of the most retarded articles I've ever read. But then again, I loathe film snobs. I don't buy DVDs, but I've had a bunch of homemade ones given to me for review, e.g. Elevator Movie and The Proper Care and Feeding of an American Messiah. Both really interesting movies.
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8-07-2006 @ 4:54PM
JJ said...
I buy DVD's (anime really) like no ones business.. thanks to DVD's my collection has gone from 100 VHS... to nearly 752 DVD/VHS total.
yes i'm a nerd... you should see my videogame collection =p.
Of course tha tall kinda stopped once i moved out and had to pay bills and my own way through life... so now i'm down to 4 DVDs a month...but dang if my D&D habit dont cut into that..
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8-07-2006 @ 9:38PM
M.E.Pritchard said...
Da...We have all become DESENSITIZED to all things MODERN...FUTURE SHOCK...Alvin Toffler...Marshall McCluen...Does anything Really shock you on the news???...Ozzy Osbourne household name...BROADBAND...Da...GET IT????Besides who gives a flying fuck about someones purchasings habits????
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