I don't like this new era of streaming

A lot of digital releases still have bonus features, as do some streaming options.

I live without the extras too as I can't afford to be buying DVDs/BluRays. It was nice to see the extras back when I use to borrowed DVDs from the library or get them from Netflix.

I don't care for extras on new movies it usually isn't anything I want to spend time on. But on old movie classics the extras are neat. I remember Gone With The Wind BluRay extras had screen test of other actresses for the role of Scarlett O'Hara.

Same.

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It's interesting to see this topic come up so frequently. Whenever there's change this conversation happens again, just with a different object. The industry needs to adapt, or it will die. It's simple as that. I think most people pirate because they can't otherwise afford to consume the art, and if they make it more affordable they'll actually make more money in the long run. Movie studios need to put their movies on streaming services for reasonable prices if they don't want people to pirate them. I don't understand why artists even want to go the industry route in the first place. Rule number one for artists is don't sell out. They talk about working in the industry like it's the only way to make movies.


I'm waiting to see how AI will revolutionize things.

I am amazed that this is still an argument for pirating. I can rent a movie without leaving my home for the same price I was renting them when I worked at Blockbuster in 1994. Inflation hasn’t touched it.

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I would go further than that. For less than what you'd pay for ONE movie on VHS at retail in 1994, you can get all the content you can watch in a whole MONTH from practically any streamer.

💯 as the kids say. Or maybe as 48 year old men say now.

The problem with streaming for film buffs is that lots of obscure older stuff isn't available to stream anywhere. New films sure there easy to found to stream.

I'm not really arguing for pirating. I'm just pointing out what the situation is. Personally I try to find a balance between what I can afford to support and how much I want to consume. I don't think morally I can justify pirating at all, except maybe in the case of obscure movies that aren't accessible otherwise. I probably should just be more selective and only consume what I can afford to properly pay for. I probably will get there, but it's hard not to when it's so easily accessible.

Or.... maybe movies that are in the public domain?

I figured public domain went without saying. *wink*

Don’t you think streaming has done more to solve that problem than make it worse? The landscape of what’s available to me now, I wouldn’t have dreamed of it 30 years ago.

I think that, like any other form of distribution, there's good and bad. The offer and prices are definitely an advantage and most of them allow you to replicate something similar to the cinema experience with the right equipment. I use some and it's definitely cheaper overall than going to the theater. However, there are a few issues I have, first one being that similar or close is not the same and the theatrical experience still beats it any time of the day.

On the other hand, it has absolutely screwed up the previous models of distribution. And I'm not saying that just because it is something notably new, but because it is affecting the domestic release market very badly and also because the cinema release is being pressured by it. They have a difficult time working together.

And finally, the issue with catalogues. They are huge, expansive. And also a hot mess. Netflix, to put an example, has tons of stuff buried in its catalogue because their recommendation algorithms based on trends are essentially creating two categories: the hot new release that is number 1 everywhere... and a shapeless and boundless mass of titles that will never get a chance to stand out to the potential viewer. And there are two visible consequences of that:

-Everything is ephemeral. The immediate success these platforms define doesn't matter as much in an extended period of time, and gems of the week are constantly forgotten. The concept of cult classic is losing its significance and I'm afraid this trend may wipe it out entirely, because there is simply not a chance that anything in the catalogue has permanence.

-Something quite a few people have pointed in a far more eloquent way than I could, but that oddly I don't see mentioned as often as it should: streaming, so far, has not been able to fulfill the one purpose digitizing large amounts of content could. The streaming platforms have proved absolutely incompetent at preservation. And this bugs me A LOT, because they do have the tools, however they treat their entire catalogue as background, dispensable noise in a way that is unacceptable in the 21st Century after having experienced such big cultural losses due to lack of proper preservation in the previous Century. Some authors had to resort to piracy to have access to their own works when the streaming platform they were in just made them disappear and erased all legal trace of them. I know a lot of those insanely big catalogues is probably low-quality filler, but still, they have a value that is not taken into account.

Of course streaming has made availability of old and classic movies much more accessible to the public, no doubt about it. But for me what has made finding old movies much easier than 30 years ago is the internet, movie sites and a VPN.

i have embraced it and own zero dvds

In my thread from a couple of days ago regarding Apocalypse Now, Holden Pike made comment how important it is to own physical copies of films that are especially near and dear to us. I haven't seen the theatrical version of Apocalypse Now in 20 years or even more and it's sad because whenever it does come on streaming it's the Redux version and the copy I did buy on DVD is the Redux version and I made the mistake about five or six years ago in not picking up the blu-ray of the theatrical version.

The problem with being completely dependent on streaming is that a person is subject to the "whims and winds" of the direction society is going and sometimes certain films or even literature become unfashionable and as such might be one day out of print and then for reasons that are not due to licensing, availability, etc streaming services may suddenly decide that it is not in the public's interest to view certain films.

Now I've seen High School English classrooms en masse ban the whole class teaching of works by Shakespeare, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, and others. And my point in showing that is to demonstrate how any crazy thing CAN and DOES happen. Censorship, hate it or love it, is a real thing.

So it's easy to see how a film like say... Breakfast at Tiffany's, one of my all time favorite films, could one day "go the way of the buffalo" if it becomes out of print and then streaming companies and distributers feel that because it's outdated and because of certain problematic issues with the film, that it would best not fit into the spirit, guidelines, and standards of the streaming service, so they may choose to "respectfully" remove it from their services. This type of thing is not only possible, but is highly probable especially as more time passes between some of the great, though dated, works of the Golden Age of Hollywood into these more modern and enlightened times.

Perhaps the highest profile case is with the film Gone With the Wind and anyone with a bit of sense in their head can easily come to the conclusion that one can appreciate, admire, and stand in awe of brilliant art without necessarily endorsing certain thematic elements or messaging or interpretational stances of said work of art. Several years ago HBO Max which had the streaming rights to Gone With the Wind, removed it from its services, but THANK GOD, that decision received a lot of backlash and *I think* Gone With the Wind can now be found on streaming services. However, they just as easily could have "gotten away with it... if not for you meddling cinephiles!"

Another film, much to my dismay, that made the news for a major streaming platform, in this case my beloved Criterion Channel, of all platforms, using censorship and tampering with it is The French Connection when the powers that be saw fit to remove certain language that might have been OK in Popeye Doyle's day, but today is a cardinal sin and will send a filmmaker to the seventh layer of Hell here in 2024 if it's used in a new movie (unless your last name is Tarantino and you get a free pass) and as such is total justified in removing all utterances of in older films such as The French Connection!

So yeah, to me, that's the biggest issue that we're going to see and have seen and I imagine as more films stop being produced on DVDs and Blu-rays and regulated to the confines of garage sales and thrift store bins, and as the calendar continues to move forward and we continue to progress deeper and deeper into a second age of enlightenment... we run the risk of seeing more of this thing. Especially now as HUGE retailers such as Target and Best Buy have announced that they are no longer selling physical copies of films on DVD and Blu-Ray. This is a problem kids, a BIG problem for us fans like myself who admire and love the true and pure art form of cinema. It's why I went and bought a copy of Gone With the Wind on blu-ray even though I already owned it on DVD and the same goes for another film that isn't always fashionable in enlightened times, that being My Fair Lady. And though I own Breakfast at Tiffany's on DVD, I really should probably jump on Amazon to see if I can't find a blu-ray copy to order now that it's on my mind.

But yes, I agree with Holden Pike's sentiments expressed in my Apocalypse Now thread. If you value a film and hold it dear and want to have access to it, a person really should own a hard copy of it, if they find it.

I'm going to post a couple of links too about the stories I've mentioned for reference:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-52990714

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...-b2353180.html

https://www.tomsguide.com/tvs/target-stops-selling-blu-ray-movies-heres-where-you-can-still-get-them#:~:text=And%20the%20company%20isn't,of%20the%20world%2C%20including%20Australia.

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Oh and yes, while I do stream probably 90 percent of what I watch these days... three days ago when Pennies From Heaven showed up on the musical countdown, I just had to watch it as I love that film so much, so I threw the DVD in my XBOX and it played flawlessly and it's a near 20 year old disc.

And then two days ago I got the hankerin' to watch My Fair Lady so I threw on that Blu-ray. So yeah there's still a place for it and I still do use physical media.

I'm going back through this thread and "catching up on it" as it's a fascinating topic for me, but when you wrote The Frogmen, that caught my eye.

Is The Frogmen that film that starts out with the new Navy recruits being interviewed and vetted by the sergeant right at the time of enlistment... an old black and white film? I can't remember exactly what youtube video it was, but I think it was one of those "call in the expert and ask what films get such and such right" videos and it must've been a military person that was heaping praises on to that film as being historically accurate.