MY PERSONAL VIDEO LIBRARY 34

After my last article, a friend told me that instead of talking about cinema-going, I should refer to live-streaming. He was referring to my argument that nowadays people take films as their new religion, replacing the former “formal” religion. In my article, I suggested that people go “religiously” to the cinema every weekend rather than to Mass. He corrected me, telling me that watching movies on the internet is the dominant behaviour. I think his observation is valid, and I embrace it completely.

The point, of course, remains that films are taken as “gospel”. People seem to forget that films are meant as entertainment, as escapism from mundane monotony, from daily disappointments and failures, and from the tragedies of life. Instead, people look at movies as compasses that help them orientate themselves in life.

I was recently thinking about an iconic scene from the Sopranos series of two decades ago.

Tony Soprano is a New Jersey mobster who loves his two families: he loves his two children and he loves his other “family”.

On one occasion, another mobster taunts and sexually harasses Tony’s daughter. When she tells him, Tony drives up to New York City, where the “bad” mobster owns a restaurant, walks into the restaurant, repeatedly strikes the guy with the butt of his pistol, and then grabs him and puts his jaw against the counter and curb stomps him, knocking out nearly all his teeth.

Any father who loves his daughter feels good at this fantasy, and, deep down, almost envies the mobsters who can avenge themselves without the need of State intervention.

But it is a fantasy. And the script-writers hint at this at the end of the scene. As the “bad” guy lies on the floor of the restaurant unconscious, one waiter tells the other, “Let’s bring the mop”. This absurd line leaves no doubt that this is but a fantasy, not real life. In real life, you’d tell your colleague to call a doctor or an ambulance if your boss lies on the floor unconscious, with his teeth knocked out.

The constant exposure to fantasy – not just in mainstream movies but also, say, in the ubiquitous vast selection of pornography freely available at the click of a button – must have profound effects on people’s psychology and moral orientation.

Stories always impart lessons in morality.

New Testament stories, which people used to hear at least once a week, impart lessons based on the values of Christianity (forgiveness, charity, altruism, etc – and all in all, heroism: Christ is the ultimate hero, He who sacrifices His life for the benefit of all of humanity).

Movies impart lessons based on other values.

The question becomes, where does freedom of expression (and the freedom to make money) end?