The Shame of Loving a Bad Movie

When I was younger I was sometimes ashamed of liking movies that people didn’t. I thought that I was an outcast or something was wrong with me. Now I know that it’s all a matter of opinion and no one is right or wrong when it comes to taste.

Image from IMDB

Everyone has that one movie that really touches them and other people don’t seem to like. For me, it’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. As a movie reviewer I know how the movie falls down, I see the areas of the script that are weak. I know where it loses people and how it could have been better.

Despite all of that I see it as perfect it touches something in me that I can’t explain. What I can tell you is that watching that movie brings me a feeling of satisfaction. I really connect with the message it is delivering and how the character grows. It gives me hope that people do change and that they improve.

It can be hard to hear people bad mouth a film that touches you but I think that I know something about the movie that they don’t. I have an inside track to what the movie is really about. That allows me to accept the fact that people aren’t into a film I like. I know that this movie was not made for you. It was made for me. I am the one that has a connection to it so the filmmaker is talking to me.

What you love to watch speaks to you, the viewer; it’s a very private thing. It is a shared experience with the filmmaker and you. If someone is really into a film, they can share the same emotions and the same moment in time that is created on screen. You feel their loss and it is an emotion that is just as real as if it were happing in real life.

This is where the magic happens. You have the ability to show people a different side of life or social structure or the world. If the message is strong enough you can change people’s minds, hearts, and attitudes.

As a filmmaker, you may never know the effect your movie had one the viewer. You at times seem like you are presenting the work that can be a part of your soul to a dark void of the universe and you hope that it makes a connection. I am reminded of Calvin screaming into the verse “I'M SIGNIFICANT”

Image copied from Cry Havok 

To the filmmakers who feel like their art doesn’t matter, it matters, a lot you hold a lot of power with the product you create. Not everyone will get it… but the right people will. And really that message could be given to anyone who creates art.

Remember you are significant and you matter, your art is reaching someone and it is changing lives. You can’t see it, but you can feel it in the way that you feel about your art, someone else has that same feeling someplace.

Keep creating, writing, filming, performing, doing.  I'm receiving you.