Culture On Demand: Part One
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeois Proletarian
I've become fascinated of late with how the broader adoption of entertainment technology has affected the average moviegoer. I must here make the distinction that this is a "disasterous train derailment" flavor of fascination, rather than a "childlike" variation.
DVD has spread so many forms of knowledge and entitlement, it's almost like a mutant gene has been unleashed. You no longer have to be a true cineaste to know about behind the scenes hijinks and hiccups from your favorite movies. You just have to sit on your couch and devour hour upon hour of stationary Autopiloted Research.
This phenomena has spread to the emergence of the Trivial Cinemaniac: a being who regurgitates the most tremendously uninteresting details about their favorite $20 spent at Wal-Mart. Ironically, it's the multi-dip-happy studios that may have redivided the classes in movie fandom.
Recent top sellers like Munich, Walk the Line, and King Kong have been released in separate single disc and multidisc Collector Editions simultaneously. Kong and the Rings movies have added Extended Editions to the mix.
Unlike the flurry of Uncensored Director's [INSERT CATCHY LINE FROM FILM] Editions we've seen since DVD hit the mainstream, these conscientious divisions of product features make you pay for The Good Edition rather than pack everything in a One Edition Fits All Edition. This class division is based on entry cost, just as the division between Laserdisc enthusiasts and VHS buyers was based on a perceptively major price difference.
With DVDs, the rough $20ish price point has made it the replacement for VHS as standard video format, but the $10-15 for the Sexy Looking Boxed Edition is almost another Unit of Fun in itself. Americans are nothing if not consumerist packrats by nature.
We invite our friends over, and like Warlords of Commerce and with a sweep of our arm, we say, "Check this out!" and really mean, "Behold! My stuff is great! Do you not wish you also had this unique piece of unecessary kitsch? Indeed I have Things that are replete in Coolness!"
This is the first part of a recurring feature that was inspired by various acquaintances (no one person in particular) commenting on how their twenty or thirty $5 DVDs from Wal-Mart constitute a Film Library and ratify their status as a Movie Lover, which of course, is like calling rape "misunderstood affection".