I remember driving to the video store on a Friday night and encountering a scene out of an end-of-the -world movie — cars jockeying for position on the parking lot, horns blaring, families racing here and there in the glow of the headlights, super-strength mutants with vulcan cannons shooting it out with power-armored fanatics — the works. Then, of course, there where the lines once you got inside, and the diminished chances of finding something you wanted to see. And how about the draconian regulations that demanded a new release be returned — under penalty of a stiff fine equaling what you paid to rent the movie in the first place — by noon the next day. Noon? Great, so I can’t even sleep in after staying up all night watching your damn movies.
I don’t miss any of that.
So, when I was reading Richard Corliss’ condemnation of an infinitely preferable method of getting one’s movies, ‘Why Netflix Sucks,’ on The Times online, I couldn’t really relate to his point of view. He was talking about knowledgeable and helpful staff at well-stocked indie video stores in some sort of urban Candyland — I was thinking about Friday nights at Blockbuster in the ‘burbs and high school kids that think Sergio Leone is an Olive Garden Special. But then I got to thinking that some of his criticisms are similar to ones I’ve made concerning books and bookstores, and the joys of browsing versus the ease of online shopping.
Still, while it may have made me a bit more sympathetic to Corliss’ piece, the truth is I love Netflix and don’t miss the old ways. Much. Cinematical’s Eric D. Snider offers a point for point refutation of Corliss’ article, ‘Richard Corliss Says Netflix Stinks; I Say He Is a Heretic,’ that demolishes many of Corliss’ criticisms. Netflix takes too long? Three days seems pretty good to me, and a huge catalog of streaming movies can entertain you while you wait. Netflix doesn’t always have the latest or hottest rental available? Neither did your local video store, remember?
For a look at just how Netflix is able to work its logistical magic, check out ‘How Netflix Gets Your Movies to Your Mailbox So Fast‘ at the Chicago Tribune. I was surprised at the factor the human element played in this process — every returned disk is inspected by a person. Also interesting is Netflix keeping its locations and transport fleet secret and unmarked.
Netflix itself has made it possible for me to see all those movies I’ve always heard about and never had a chance to see — because, let’s face it, HBO would rather rerun Speed for the millionth time than show Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon, and Blockbuster would rather stock an extra copy of Dirty Dancing than Kagemusha. Having access to all of this is, quite frankly, amazing — it’s enough to turn us all into veritable film scholars if we are so inclined. The selection of classics, hard-to-find films, foreign releases, and series of all kinds makes Netflix indispensable — and if the video stores had been half so good, they wouldn’t have died half as fast.
So, has anything really been lost in this swift conversion to online shopping? Have we, especially those of us in much of the US where the idea of ‘public spaces’ includes little more than the grocery store and the gas station, begun to grow yet more insular and unconnected to our fellow man? Probably — but holding an old-time video store up for praise as some sort of community center only highlights the dearth of such places in our modern lives. While I don’t miss the lines, the hassle, the cost, the poor selection, and the mouth-breathers on staff at the video store, maybe a part of me does miss the pleasantness of browsing, or the minor thrill of grabbing the second-to-last copy of a new release of the shelf, or the simple shared experience of a dinner-and-a-rental date night.
All of that is gone but, hey, one day soon all of us will be getting all our visual entertainments via net downloads anyway, and this brief transitional era will itself seem quaint, and maybe some of us will say: remember the thrill of waiting for an actual disk to come in the mail, and then the kid-with-a-Christmas-present joy of opening it up? Let’s just hope in that future age of getting everything we want, when we want it, they won’t figure out a way to make food and gas downloadable, lest we never leave our houses again.
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For every town or city that had an independent movie store, there were many more that didn’t. And if Netflix and online viewing means that someone isolated from all but the big chains (or from even those) can get a wider variety of movies, I think it’s a good trade-off. There’s more than just convenience here, even if convenience isn’t a negligible part of it. Maybe we’ve given up some community-based activities and places, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find them elsewhere, and better than long lines and understocked shelves at the local video mart. Local isn’t inherently better. And most of Corliss’ complaints about Netflix are out of the company’s control, and a few are just downright petty — maybe reflecting the way he picks and watches movies, but not necessarily the way other people would like to do it.
Greenfield’s totally awesome video store was, amazingly, put out of business by a regional variant on Lackluster Video – the stupid and utterly worthless chain made a point of being cheaper, having more copies (of the drek they did have), etc.. Our intrepid Video To Go up and folded in ‘07. While I largely agree that Netflix is a real boon to both hardcore and fairweather cinephiles, I do miss certain things about the admittedly rare gourmet video store. I miss the browsing the racks, which Netflix hasn’t really been able to mimic, though they get points for trying. I really miss browsing by director, and the honestly knowledgeable staff.
But I think the most valid point is the very fact that tangible objects as means of information storage are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. I could eulogize our local record store as well, but the fact is I myself didn’t go there very often. Technology is forcing a transition these days, and my guess is that this will largely be for the better. If Netflix is well run, they’re already planning for this. If they stay the first name in video, eliminating a costly infrastructure will make them ungodly profitable. Meanwhile, we can look forward (I hope) to musicians and filmmakers re-imagining how their work is presented through new media. I’ll still miss 12″ LP covers, though.
I agree, Fred, some of those points were very petty. And I think Netflix is mostly a change for the better. And, as you say, the majority of us did not have such fantastic video stores to peruse.
I share your concerns about the diminishment of the physical object as a means of data storage, Ben, after all I still buy CDs (dirt cheap on ebay — thanks iPod people!). It’s the analog to digital cultural conversion, and it will be interesting to see just where the pieces fall.
Obviously, people like me will cling to one physical data storage device in the form of real books to their dying day — or at least until Guy Montag comes into our bolthole and invites us to a barbecue. There is a big difference between books and other forms of data storage, however, in that they themselves are integral to the experience being enjoyed — it’s no different to watch an HD streaming movie and a DVD, it is, however, experiential different to read a book versus a pdf.
…it is, however, experiential different to read a book versus a pdf.
That is slowly changing. I have (and rather love) an e-book reader. It’s a slightly different experience than reading a printed book — but not by that much, and I think the difference between the two (if not just in the number of people who care) will get smaller as e-readers continue to improve and more closely resemble what we like about printed books.
That very well could be. I certainly don’t plan on turning my nose up at an affordable and somewhat perfected e-reader when they come down the pike, I just don’t see them replacing books entirely.
As with anything, we shall see . . .
It doesn’t matter how knowledgeable and helpful the video store staff is, if the store doesn’t stock the movies you’re looking for. After so many years of such disappointments, Netflix is like a dream come true. And hey, I never encountered staff that was all that helpful anyway. More often than not, they had no knowledge at all of what I was looking for.
As for insularity, well, I don’t know about some people, but mingling at the video store was never a part of my social life. And no matter where you rent your movie, you’re still going to watch it in the privacy of your home. Besides, we don’t even need movies for that kind of isolationism — tv is bad enough. I know people who sit on their asses watching tv from the time they get home from work until they go to bed. I take a walk almost every evening, and as I stroll through my neighborhood, I rarely seen anyone outside their homes, even before dark. People are holed up in there staring at the boob tube. So it’s silly for anyone to blame Netflix for that.
True enough Bill, the trend for movies has been increased choice and increased privacy. I think the social and communal aspects are really incidental, and something that can be surpassed in other ways. And as you say, it really comes down to personal choice anyway — a lot of people just don’t go out, even for a walk, when they have free time.