Watch Movies Twice - Part 1

I will start this newsletter with a few movies that I didn’t like or didn’t even finish the first time I watched them:

• Whisper of the Heart

• Om Shanti Om

• The Godfather

• La La Land

• Hera Pheri

• Taxi Driver

Now, you know these are excellent movies, but there was something that made me not like them.

Maybe I was dumb before to not like these movies. Maybe I now pretend that I like these movies to be cool. Maybe the movie changed, or maybe I did. Let’s try to answer that.

Flawed Recommendation System

My flatmate is a bigger movie buff than me. He has this constant habit of recommending films to people around him. He also faces a lot of disappointment daily as people sometimes don’t like the movies he suggests. It happens because his recommendation system is broken. He doesn’t take into account the taste of the person he is recommending the movie to.

This is the story of most people who recommend stuff. They don’t realize that everyone is not going to like what they like. There are a lot of factors that make a person like something. Sometimes, a person is too pretentious to watch Shahrukh Khan. Sometimes, a person is too scared to watch a horror film. Sometimes, a person is too rational to watch a movie on reincarnation (yes, I am talking about Om Shanti Om). Sometimes a person is too obsessed with a plot that the action surrounding the plot is lazy writing for him.

But, does that mean that IMDb's top 100 list and other recommendation sites are wrong? Well, not exactly.

Developing Taste

The first thing you need to understand about taste is that it’s neither subjective nor objective; it’s somewhere in between. The subjectivity of taste is always rooted in objectivity.

What does it mean in the context of movies?

It means that the more movies you watch, the more you will move towards objectively good cinema.

When you first start watching movies, everything is new to you, everything is entertaining, but due to your natural inclinations, you move towards a certain style of movie. For me, it was Rajkumar Hirani. He was the first director who pulled me towards his movies. Due to the star culture of India, I ended up liking Aamir Khan, and I got to know that Rajkumar Hirani made those films only last year. But I can remember watching 3 Idiots and PK again and again because there was a certain vibe to them.

Now, when I am watching movies like 3 Idiots and PK, where everything is explained explicitly, how will I enjoy watching something like La La Land, Taxi Driver, or The Godfather, where the message is not so explicit?

But the good thing is, I can slowly move towards them. I watched Shawshank Redemption, which not only has a good story but also subtly talks about how independence is something that humans cultivate inside their minds and not inside or outside the jail. It subtly criticizes the whole prison system and uses Bible quotes to foreshadow the whole movie.

I didn’t get all this in one go, but as I went deeper into understanding this movie with an open mind, I discovered a new type of cinema where the subtle message is as important as the main message.

Then I can watch something like The Godfather, where I can keep an open mind, watch it, and maybe not truly understand it the first time, but I am entertained by the subtle transformation of Michael into a man.

I can then go to a movie like Taxi Driver, where I liked it the first time but didn’t understand what it was trying to convey. But when I thought about it again and filled in some information through some analysis on YouTube, I enjoyed it way more the next time and could appreciate the depth with which it understands the loneliness of a man.

All the exploration leads you to a set of objectively good movies that make the IMDb lists and other recommendation sites. There will always remain some subjectivity that will make you like something, but even after not liking the movie, you will be able to point out the appeal of the movies you didn’t like. All because you have developed some taste.

Wrapping Up

There’s one more thing that makes you like something, but I don’t want to stretch out this newsletter, so I will talk about that some other day. You can subscribe and wait for that newsletter to land in your email.

Until then, I would like you to please share this with your cinephile friends.

More importantly, I would like you to give that movie a chance that you didn’t like the first time but your friend said is the most epic movie ever. Maybe you have changed enough to like it this time.

Thanks for reading, and cut!