It’s time people start acknowledging that what they can get out of movies is more than 1.5 hours of entertainment while eating overpriced popcorn. There is value in an art medium that can provide blissful escapism while still showing us things we might not know and giving us ways to explore and reimagine the past, present and future.
I recently attended the Louisiana International Film Festival and was reminded how expansive film can be. Of all the films at the festival, 90 percent will never show in Louisiana again, despite being important stories of what it takes to break cycles of poverty and send inner city girls to college, the effects wars and war culture can have on a single person or a whole community and pull us out of our heads and back to our younger selves.
For centuries, the breakdown between highbrow art, such as theatre and classical music, and lowbrow art, like movies and television — entirely subjective, of course, and utterly contentious — has sparked discussion in virtually every artistic medium.
Despite film being one of the most multifaceted media out there, most classify it as lowbrow entertainment. Movies, and other mediums such as television and video games, are at a trough — their construction is no longer innovative yet still too novel to have a revered place in history.
Everything about movies indicates their lowly status in entertainment, from their easily consumable advertisements to the way we look at or ignore their stars and the industry’s attempt to make the genre appealing to everyone.
There are many pulp films out there such as “The Boss Baby” or “Baywatch,” but the commercialization of these films extends to all. Sheeny late night hosts ask actors about their glamorous vacations while trailers are chocked full of shocks and bright lights.
Films most commonly considered lowbrow are usually considered so for their top box office sales. They bank on big names and special effects to draw in crowds. Their trailers consist of flashing lights and names in 120 point font. However, this facet of the entertainment industry shouldn’t cause one to inherently judge it as on par with the commercials for Spanx and cereal that border it.
Actors are more notable for their fame and status than their craft, and televised ceremonies are rife with awful hackneyed banter between celebrity presenters who forget what movies and movie making are all about.
The Golden Age of Hollywood is revered while people scoff at the industry today. Maybe this is because the entertainment industry is constantly changing, in the same way decade-old music is always considered more impressive than new sounds. Films like “La La Land,” “Moonlight” and “Hidden Figures” were all very different in style and perceived sophistication, yet reminded us of worlds and stories we won’t soon forget.
When audiences think of movies, they think of experiences. A combination of sounds, scripts and visual cues that make the medium as close to real life as possible. Maybe it’s this accessibility that makes movies “lowbrow.” Film subjects are not removed enough for us to respect them the way we can respect sculptures or records. This causes screenwriters, directors and actors who have achieved fame and decoration to receive eye rolls while musicians and other artist are seen as true.
Yet movies are most impressive because of their packing. All of these other media, such as literature, sound and picture, are rolled into one to make a masterpiece that actually costs more in production than any song or play.
Movies also speak to the ingenuity of human advancement like other media can’t or don’t often do. Sure, a film like “Avatar,” abound with computer-generated images, may feel inauthentic and not very high on the artistic scale, but the creation by editors and sound mixers of a whole new world is magical in itself.
Ryan Thaxton is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from Monroe, Louisiana.