The Silver Screen Oasis

We all love movies, that's one of the things that binds us here.

I would like to get your take on the Power of Film.

I believe it has the power to show us who we were and what we held important, what we believed in and why. I could pontificate at length (and probably have over the last year, LOL) but I would like to know:

What do you think is the Power of Film?

Film is a powerful thing. It can show us, as you say what we are and were, but it can also show what we can become. That can be good and bad.

Capra can do well in showing what can be the best in (some) people. THe desire to do the right thing. It can show the desire to serve others or a cause or history. It can also do those things with a skewed perception of any of those topics. Propoganda can be useful or a dangerous thing. It all depends on who is behind the camera.

It must be a powerful art form because we come here to talk about it so often. Movies make us feel better, know more, think more and even argue at times. They affect us in different ways and therein lies the power of it.

Whether it is Gregory Peck in "Mockingbird" or Wayne in "The Searchers" who both in their way deal with racism to "Duck Soup" or "Buck Privates" in that they make us laugh, we remember it. There is power in that we remember.

Lynn, volumes can, and have been, written on this question. I can give you my short answer:

The power of film causes me to stop and watch whenever any montage of great actors, directors, films, etc., is presented on TCM, AMC, or any other TV channel. Seeing only a few seconds' worth of films and/or faces, and feeling excitement, warmth, chills, and tears as each brief but sometimes very familiar entry goes by. And then thinking and talking about what I've just seen for hours afterward -- that's the power film has over me.

Hi, Lynn.
I believe at one time, movies were the most influential thing in our lives.
More so than schools, radio or newspapers. I also believe that time is past.
Many people smoke and drink, among other things because they saw it done in movies.
They set styles in many places, dress, hair styles etc.
In the 30s everyone went to the movies.
The movies influenced the food we ate, the medicine we used the songs we sang and so many other little things.
Good topic .... mel

The power it has for me is the powerful pull of an ESCAPE.

I thought about the question all day, but concluded that one of my heroes of the Cinema has said it all -- and more -- far more eloquently than I ever could.

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So what's Sammy's movie about again?

What is the power of film?
The same power as the storytellers around the campfire from the stone age to the present day. The movies allow us to vicariously know, see, and experience a thousand aspects of life. This allows us to visit other times and places and our understanding of the stories, and the way that they are told, changes as we go through life. It also reminds us that the pain, joy and understanding that we each experience are not new, and that we are not alone in the crowded world. The ability of films to almost mimic human memory and to affect us so viscerally--almost without our being aware of the effect (for good or ill) is the difference between the moving image and other forms of storytelling.