Cinemania : Post deleted

Well said ingridthe way i look at itthese people are not doing any harm to anybody-and as you said -its nice to escape from some of the things that are going on in the real worldif they are happy,and have few problems-fair play,sometimes wish i could give work a miss,and be in the cinema all day.

These people have wonderful lifes and I admire them all greatly. They're my own personal heroes.

You use words such as "pathetic" well to that I say they, and I, are bigger film-fans than you are. :)

Pathetic we may be, but I don't care, I get to watch movies.

Yes this is more important to me than having what the average person considers "a life". Which I don't.

One thing I should add is I never actually go to the cinema I'm these guys but with DVDs. It's not the experience, it's the film /TV show.

I disagree with the last sentence of Blad33's February 5, 2006 posting, which I take to mean "It's not the [nature of the viewing] experience [that counts], it's the [particular] film/TV show [that one's watching that counts]".

In my opinion, spending most of one's life watching movies in theaters may be wasteful and self-destructive, but it nevertheless has a certain nobility to it owing to the inherently high quality of the movie theater experience: that is to say the high visual quality, and also the high audio quality if the film happens to have a high-fidelity and/or multichannel soundtrack and the theater's sound system properly supports that.

Spending most of one's life watching movies in a middling-visual-quality format like conventional DVD's, on the other hand, is just sick.

Well not all of them are that nice. The old lady has no right to assume she can get away with whatever she wants. Strangling an employee of a theatre just because she was doing her job does not really sound harmless to me. And the other gentleman in this documentary who stated that he will not let anyone sit in his favourite seat and is said to resort to violence to get them out of that seat is very wrong. They are all pathetic in a likable way, some of them I do feel sorry for, regardless of the fact that they may seem happy. I think their compulsion has denied them an even bigger world to discover and although they may seem happy and comfortable now, their obsessive hobby will one day be the cause of a scary and miserable end to their lives.

I think when Jack said he'd possibly resort to violence if someone sat in his seat, is clearly an exaggeration. Look at him, he's a puny little guy who has virtually no exercise or energy.

I personally think all these colourful misfits are perfectly harmless - and even the incident where roberta supposedly strangled a ticket usher. well, I have to say, you get things like that whever you work, especially when dealing with members of the public. Just because some nutter is a film fan makes them no more dangerous than the guy who strangles you at the gun shop.

I'm more interested in what their dying wishes would be. And also, what sort of funeral would someone like Jack want when he finally shuffles off this mortal coil and would he want the event filmed in super 35?

And is heaven anamorphic?

"I think when Jack said he'd possibly resort to violence if someone sat in his seat, is clearly an exaggeration. Look at him, he's a puny little guy who has virtually no exercise or energy."

On the deleted scenes of the DVD, there's a scene where he talks about how he got into a bit of a conflict with a late-arriving woman in a movie theatre. She was disruptive to the audience and finally ended up sitting in front of him, and he started to kick her seat. She turned around and told him to stop and he said "Next time, get to the theatre on time." She said "What does that have to do with it?" and turned back to the movie screen. He continued to kick her seat, and she stood up, now REALLY obstructing his view, and so he knocked her down. She apparently really hurt herself, because she was wailing in pain. He said that he felt bad about it, but that he wasn't going to help her because that would mean missing the movie. He said he heard someone say 'Call the police', and that any normal person would've left the theatre at that point. But he wanted to see the end, knowing the cops would show up and arrest him.. And that's what happened.

It's interesting how the characters various dysfunctions were slowly unveiled as the film went on and they each became a little more pathetic but no less interesting.

Stephen Kijak is a talented documentarian. His Scott Walker 30th Century Man was very good also.

I actually found myself to be somewhat envious of Jack, given that he is able to totally devote his life to film. Money isn't an issue for him, at least at the time that the documentary was made. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if I never had to worry about money, I would probably do the same. I live from paycheck to paycheck and simply can't afford to see every film that I want to in the theaters. It sucks. I feel like I'm missing out. I just want to watch movies and be left the hell alone. Reality, for the most part, is very disappointing.

I have heard the subjects of this documentary by more than one poster as "noble." They are nothing of the sort. Three of them are societal parasites and one of them, Jack, is just mean, with no apparent socially redeeming qualities. Don't get me wrong, I was entertained by the documentary, but these folks add absolutely nothing positive to society. I've always been in favor of building a fence along the southern US border, but I might reconsider my stance if a fence would prevent people like this from leaving the country.

they produce nothing positive for society, huh?


as opposed to who? the average person being willfully ignorant is some how positve for society?

* * * *
Reality, for the most part, is very disappointing
* * * *

One day you'll realise that that is really all up to you.



The main problem that I have with the people in the doco is that, to me film is great especially when I can relate it in some way to my own life and personal experiences. If one has no lifehow can film reach the true levels it should be reaching, and does reach for the people with full rich lifes.

I have a hard time understanding how you can gain any kind of entertainment out of watching a documentary that features subjects that you would call parasites. If they add absolutely nothing to society then how are you able to get any satisfaction out of watching this documentation of their meaningless and parasitic existence ? Sorry, but there is something about unwavering judgment and righteous indignation without forethought that makes me angry. When I see a documentary like this I think its possible to get a lot from it. Not the least of which may be some sympathy or at least understanding of people who are by turns flawed, dysfunctional, and pathetic, but in ways that are most human. This may not be a noble existence, but it is an existence. It's one of the myriad of ways that a human is capable of expressing itself. And like any other human being, beneath the dirt and mire there lies a capacity for growth and redemption, no matter how unappealing the surface may be.

Try to be slightly more open-minded. Open minded in a way that these subjects and other "parasitic" and obsessed people may not be.

I think what the original poster who wrote "societal parasite" meant (and I definitely had this thought while watching the film too), is that they live off of other taxpayers' money while going to movies all day.

Many people have to work hard for their paychecks and can't even afford to go to the movies but on occasion. Now, some of the folks in this documentary may have some degree of mental illness, and the old lady gets a pass (she's old, what is she gonna do?), but some effort should be made on their behalf to find employment like everyone else has to do.

Not everybody has to make an effort to find employment. Is it wrong for a person who inherits a fortune to never work again in his life? Is it wrong for someone to be supported by another, if that other person is willing to support him or her?

I think these are personal moral choices. If you choose not to work, because you don't have to work, for whatever reason, then that is a choice that you make. If society is willing to give you welfare money, then why not take advantage of this? Ultimately, these people are free to do whatever they want with their time and if there is something wrong with it, then maybe you should lobby your congressman to help pass a law making employment mandatory. I forget the specific ways each individual was able to support themselves, but I know they arrived at this lifestyle from a variety of different places. And yes, mental illness was one of them.