I watched Christmas on Mars (by the Flaming Lips) recently but I didn’t want to discuss the movie so much as the format in which I watched it. I downloaded it from itunes and watched it on my laptop. I’m of mixed opinion on watching movies from a computer screen as opposed to a television screen. It’s not better or worse. It’s just different.
Traveling as I do for work, for awhile I was pretty much limited to watching dvd’s on my laptop. I saw a great number of movies via my laptop, including No Country for Old Men, Inland Empire, Big Night, Zodiac, and the Prestige just to name a few. And you know what? I don’t have as distinct a memory of having watched those films as I do if I watched them on a television or saw them at the theatre. I don’t know why that is. Has anyone else experienced this phenomena? Is it a phenomena?
An expert no less than David Lynch has opined that watching a movie on a computer screen is a “total nightmare.” He has said that, “if you see the movie on a computer, with the computer speakers, you haven’t seen the movie, really—but you think you’ve seen the movie. If you could see the movie on a big screen, with really good sound, in a dark room, then you’ve seen the movie.”1
I don’t know about that. Maybe because I use really good earphones when I watch a movie on my laptop, I find that the sound is oftentimes phenomenal. Better than on a television and sometimes better than the movie theatres I’ve patronized. (They either play the movie too loud or not loud enough. It’s never just right.) And the picture is actually better on my laptop than my television image. Just smaller. And maybe that’s what it comes down to: size matters.
Also, in ordering Christmas On Mars online and downloading it, I felt somewhat cheated out of the experience of holding the actual dvd disc in my hands. Like maybe I’m missing something. Like not having that record album jacket to look over while listening to the record album. But I really wanted to see the movie that night and the fact that I could download it and not leave my house was the definition of instant gratification.
What do you think?
1. Movie Maker - Interview with David Lynch
(posted by:wotw)
