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Why I Own So Many Movies. (1 Viewer)

Malcolm R

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When I grew up in Windsor Ontario, there were two movie chains in town, one called “Famous Players” which had about 5 theatres, and one called “Odeon” which had 1. The “Odeon” got “Jaws” at the start of the summer, and which stayed all summer. This blocked the next movie which was supposed to play, in the theatre, but never came until its sequel came out. This movie was called “Star Wars”!
Was Jaws a revival showing? Jaws was released in 1975, Star Wars in 1977.

Or else that was one heck of a "held over". ;)
 
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PMF

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Yesterday, I chanced upon this newly established thread as hosted by Moderator Mike Frezon.
I focused mainly on the question at hand, while delving deeper into the night and morning as to that personal reason of "why".
By the mid-afternoon, I delved back in, again; yet this time it was down a different path;
as my gut had told me that this other route was going to require a period more conducive of reflection, thought and respect.

I delved into the links and tributes concerning Dr. Fowkes.
His was a name unfamiliar to me, as my HTF membership had occurred some 4 years after his passing.
Yet this is the power of technology. Find a topic, link or thread and everything comes to life, again.

Indeed, here is a gentleman who was much loved and remains much missed.
After reading the outpouring of tributes I, too, became saddened by his loss;
as my discoveries of Dr. Fowkes had lent itself towards a deeper gratitude and appreciation of HTF.

Post #5 of this thread contains a link entitled "We Created This Thread".
For those newer members gaining greater insights into the foundations of this community,
I would suggest you spend the time and most certainly find your way to Post #85;
as supplied by Adam Gregorich and the daughter of Dr. Fowkes.

As it is, my newer answer as to why we collect has found its way closer;
something to do with holding onto moments, memories and creating more;
yet the articulations of such will require some further time and distance.
 
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TJPC

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Was Jaws a revivial showing? Jaws was released in 1975, Star Wars in 1977.

Or else that was one heck of a "held over". ;)
All I know is Jaws played forever, and my parents saw Star Wars only when they came to visit me in Hamilton later that year, after I had gone on and on about it.
 

Josh Steinberg

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I love this thread - Mike, what an inspired idea!

I think the reason I own so many movies has changed over time.

For me, it all started when I was a kid. My parents didn't have cable, and I even had some years where we didn't receive broadcast channels reliably. People talk about kids and gateway drugs, how if a kid tries a sip of beer or whatever, that'll ruin them for life. Chemical substances never did that for me, but the VHS was the ultimate gateway drug. I was hooked from a very early age. My parents say that I knew how to use the top-loading VCR before I could walk.

When I was a kid, my viewing choices were limited to some fuzzy broadcast signals, and whatever the local video store had. I can't remember exactly what my allowance was or how any of that worked, but I remember that I would get to rent a movie a week, so it was important to get the choice right. Like Adam posted earlier, I could easily spend an hour or more browsing titles and hoping to find something that appealed to me. Always looking for that hidden gem. Always looking for more of what I loved, as well as new experiences.

Collecting movies, when I first started as a kid, was a way to ensure that I'd always have something to watch that I liked. My parents had a small library of movies, mostly things that they taped off TV (they had good TV reception before I came along), and that got me hooked early on with watching movies at home, and the very concept that there were more movies in existence than the ones being advertised at the local movie theater or on TV. There was a whole world of cinema out there!

The next stage in the evolution of my collecting came when I discovered that there were movies I wanted to see, but that the local video store didn't carry, and that didn't play on TV. When I got into Stanley Kubrick movies, just as an example, it was easy enough to find "The Shining" at the local video store, but finding a title like "The Killing" was more of a challenge. It was just a fact of life that if I wanted to see certain movies, I'd have to buy them. So I did.

What I find amusing is that, even growing up, my parents and grandparents wondered why I'd want to own so many movies. They had some decent points. What was the point to owning all of these things if I never had time to watch them? They'd ask me that without a hint of irony, while at the same time, they all had large collections of books that they'd buy new, read once, and then put on the shelf to never touch again. They could have just as easily went to the library and gotten the book for free, but they decided to buy it instead. I don't know that they ever truly understood why I did it, but I think they respected it more after I pointed that out.

Flash forward to 2018, and my reasoning hasn't changed much. There are still some movies that aren't easy to find for rentals (either on physical media or on streaming services), where buying the movie is the only way to see it. So I still end up with a decent number of blind buys just because it's something I want to see, and I'd rather pay to own it vs. not having the chance to see it at all. And I still buy my favorites for the rewatch value. There are some movies that I rewatch every year. There are others that get watched every other year or so. In those cases, owning the discs has been cheaper than what it would have cost to rent them over and over. There are also some great discounts to be found with physical media these days, and if it's the same price to rent a movie as it is to buy it, I'll usually buy it. If I'm just getting into a certain actor or filmmaker, it may be both cheaper to buy a box set of their films (which might only have one or two movies I know) than it would be to buy those titles individually. That happened a lot with me when I was discovering John Wayne a couple years ago - "The Searchers" came highly recommended, and it was cheaper to buy a package of three Wayne movies which included The Searchers than it would have been to buy just the one movie on its own, and the cost of buying those three movies was less than it would have cost to rent them individually. I'm a big fan of those kinds of deals.

The bottom line for me is that I'm someone who likes to rewatch movies, and I rewatch my favorites probably as much as most people relisten to their favorite songs. It wouldn't be worth it for me not to own certain titles.

And I think some of it is also just habit. The world has changed since I started collecting, and strictly speaking, I could have access to a lot of the same content without having the actually own it. But it's a hobby I enjoy and one that I can afford. And everyone needs a hobby, right?
 

Bernard McNair

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I grew up in a suburb of Sydney called Waverley (no relation to Mr. Waverley of UNCLE fame!!!) In the late 1950's early 1960's we had three screens within walking distance. I recall my life long love of movies started with a Saturday afternoon matinee of Disney's "Kidnapped". Following that experience I spent most Saturday afternoons at one of the local cinemas. The diet of movies was wide but my favourites were the westerns and the musicals. I was introduced to 8mm films by my Grandfather and a lifetime of wishing to collect films developed. The age of VHS was like a gift from above and I have moved through the various formats but have no desire to move to 4k. I own a collection of around 9000 films on DVD and Blu Ray and they give my wife and I immense pleasure. The advent of the new technology of internet usage has opened my eyes to many other films and views on film that I had never been able to access previously (I truly value HFT and the many committed cinephiles who contribute to the threads among many fine international film sites as they have enhanced my learning and enjoyment of film). I imagine that I will continue to collect as there is nothing better than having a whim to see a particular film or genre and having the means in your own library.
 

Rick Thompson

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I used to watch certain movies -- Ex: Some Like It Hot, The Caine Mutiny, Casablanca -- whenever they came on, no matter what time it was. With the advent of home video, I'm freed from staying up till 2 a.m. or so if one came on the air (and that did indeed happen more than once).
 

TJPC

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I grew up in the late 1950s and the 1960s when TV stations needed to fill their airways and did so with hundreds of classic films from earlier decades. I grew to love movies of the 1930s and 1940s, especially musicals and comedies.

There was no way to get a copy to collect, so my first discs were the soundtrack LPs of every one I could find. I bought the commercially made ones and moved on to ones that were obviously home made by people from the soundtrack.

Later as technology moved along I purchased an audio cassette player and would stay up all hours of the night taping the songs from things like “Hollywood Party”. I had a corded remote that paused the machine and allowed me one chance to cut out dialogue and commercials (later I would do the same with my Beta machine).

So my collection went from a huge amount of home made soundtracks, to shelves of home taped Beta tapes, a wall of VHS, and now two solid walls of DVDs and Blu rays in the basement.

If the Amazon tracking is correct, I should receive my 3D copy of “Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom” tomorrow.
 

Martin_Teller

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I have around 400-500, I guess? I don't kid myself that I'm going to pull one off the shelf and watch it on a whim. That almost never happens. I really only ever do that when I want to show one to my spouse. And let's be honest, most of the time I could get that same movie on Amazon Prime for a much cheaper price... or even better, for free from the public library.

No, my collection is not a well I draw from often (and I'd guess it's not for most of you either... at least I know that when I was a more fiendish collector, watching my new purchases was always a priority over rewatching something from the shelf). It's an expression of my cultural identity. As Josh alluded to above, it's the same with most folks' books. I have a bookcase full of my favorite titles. Some of them I brought brand new and have not cracked them open, but they were old favorites that I'd mistakenly parted ways with over the years. Probably most of them I will never read again, but they are a comfort. They're part of what makes me ME, and sometimes I just like to look over my books and think about the joys they gave me, the ideas they put in my head, the humor and insight and emotion they imparted. And that's what my movie collection does too. Thankfully, I eventually realized I didn't need to own every movie I ever enjoyed to get this. A few hundred (and even that feels excessive) is a sufficient expression of the way cinema has shaped me and enriched me.
 

SAhmed

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As far back as I can remember, I have had a deep love for movies - growing up in England I used to regular purchase magazines such as Radio Times to see what movies and when they would be playing on broadcast TV so that I could create a list and "plan" my viewing around it. This was particularly important at Xmas time - watching Key Largo in the middle of the night or Jason And The Argonauts in the middle of the afternoon.

What drove me to my addiction/vice of collecting movies was first and foremost the concept of owning a movie so that i could watch when I wanted and however many times i.e didn't have to wait 6 months to a year before a movie came back on the broadcast schedule. A second and important factor was when I learnt that a lot of the movies that were being shown on broadcast TV were "pan and scanned" i.e aspect ratios - vividly remember watching a special sowing of Hell In The Pacific in it's original aspect ratio on BBC 1 one late night and having my mind blown by the composition of what I was seeing! Some of the movies that I really liked presented in OAR on a format that I could own ? There was no turning back!

My collection started with Laserdisc ( Brainstorm being my first such purchase ) before progressing to DVD ( Blade Runner ), Blu Ray ( Blade Runner ) and now UHD ( Bridge On The River Kwai ) - wanting the "best" presentation there has been a lot of double dipping in a given format, between formats and finally between different standards (PAL -> NTSC) when moving from England to the USA. Trying to avoid that now as I am sufficiently happy with Blu Ray in most cases.

As has already been mentioned i also sometimes think about what will happen to my collection when I am 6 feet under but then realize it's out my control :)

Anyway I just need another fix and I'll be just fine :)

Regards,
 

Simon Massey

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Great to read some of these posts. So many familiar things to relate to.

I should have known I would be a collector of movies. I remember owning a V2000 and eventually a VHS recorder and we couldn't buy movies then, but I would religiously record movies I loved off the TV and label them, trying to use up every ounce of tape (4 hour tapes = 2 films on 1 tape!!!). I remember when they introduced long play, thinking it was the greatest invention ever because I could double the number of films on my tapes!! The day I finally had the entire Star Wars trilogy on one tape with adverts cut out because Id pause the player at the right moment will be a day long remembered....

And then came my first VHS purchase at 13- and it was all because Id been sold on the idea of Widescreen which they never did on TV at the time. Alien in 2.35:1 and I couldn't get why people would want it any other way. Widescreen became a thing in the UK and I would refuse to buy films unless they were released this way. I remember my friends being impressed with my collection (30 films!!!!) but annoyed when I put them on at the black bars.

I got annoyed that so many films weren't released this way and then I discovered laserdisc!!! Kind of wish I hadn't because I spent a fortune importing discs from the US and if Id just waited a couple of years. $100 for a CAV version of Natural Born Killers or &65 for Aladdin - can't believe I paid this now. I was one of those DVD will never take off people but it was kind of a hope that I wouldn't have to get rid of all my laserdiscs. But I did.

The heady days of crossing the 100 and 200 mark of disc ownership with DVD and wondering how on earth people could own over 1000. I crossed that with Blurays and now I'm onto UHD.

I used to love wandering DVD shops just browsing discs etc - not worth it now because selections are pretty poor most of the time.
 

Simon Massey

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Aah the double issue of the Radio Times was Christmas come early - planning how to record and watch so many movies over 2 bumper weeks :) still get it now but of course doesn’t quite have the same thrill anymore.

As far back as I can remember, I have had a deep love for movies - growing up in England I used to regular purchase magazines such as Radio Times to see what movies and when they would be playing on broadcast TV so that I could create a list and "plan" my viewing around it. This was particularly important at Xmas time - watching Key Largo in the middle of the night or Jason And The Argonauts in the middle of the afternoon.

What drove me to my addiction/vice of collecting movies was first and foremost the concept of owning a movie so that i could watch when I wanted and however many times i.e didn't have to wait 6 months to a year before a movie came back on the broadcast schedule. A second and important factor was when I learnt that a lot of the movies that were being shown on broadcast TV were "pan and scanned" i.e aspect ratios - vividly remember watching a special sowing of Hell In The Pacific in it's original aspect ratio on BBC 1 one late night and having my mind blown by the composition of what I was seeing! Some of the movies that I really liked presented in OAR on a format that I could own ? There was no turning back!

My collection started with Laserdisc ( Brainstorm being my first such purchase ) before progressing to DVD ( Blade Runner ), Blu Ray ( Blade Runner ) and now UHD ( Bridge On The River Kwai ) - wanting the "best" presentation there has been a lot of double dipping in a given format, between formats and finally between different standards (PAL -> NTSC) when moving from England to the USA. Trying to avoid that now as I am sufficiently happy with Blu Ray in most cases.

As has already been mentioned i also sometimes think about what will happen to my collection when I am 6 feet under but then realize it's out my control :)

Anyway I just need another fix and I'll be just fine :)

Regards,
Radio
 

johnmcmasters

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I’ve collected movies, books, and music as long as I can remember. In grade school circa 1961, there was something called the “Scholastic Book Club” which offered cheap paperbacks of classic titles that you could order through your school. I remember using my weekly allowance and ordering a 25-cent paperback “The Hound of the Baskervilles” in third grade – one of the first books I ever owned.

The public library was like a home away from home starting even before I could walk. My Mom would take me there and pick out picture books to read to me. Thus, I grew up adoring the shelves of books, the smell of paper, and the rapt sense of quiet in and amongst those shelves. I know it is a cliche, but it was like entering a portal with endless worlds waiting to be explored.

I fantasized about someday having a library – and put “The Hound of the Baskervilles” on a single shelf in my bedroom. I added more “Scholastic” paperbacks to the collection when I could and joined an “Illustrated Classics” hardcover book club – Poe, Verne, Dumas and others. By the time I graduated from High School I had a fairly large bookcase in my bedroom filled and overflowing with books.

My parents owned a fairly large record collection of 78’s – and my sister and I would play them over and over again on the stackable RCA radio/record console in our living room: classic singers like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and big band music (my mom loved Glenn Miller). I also started collecting 45’s and eventually lps – my first purchase of a 45 was “Tossin’ and Turnin’” by Bobby Lewis in 1961. My first lp was a soundtrack, “Master of the World,” music by Les Baxter. My sister, older by 4 years, also loved pop/rock, and she added to the collection of music as the years went by. When I became a teenage DJ at our local radio station, my collection of LPs soared and grew expotentially – rock, pop, classical, moviemusic -- soon I had more LPs than books!

The joy of browsing my books and records was a palpable, tangible, presence in my life – as natural as taking in a breath of fresh air after a thunderstorm. Part of my being.

I loved movies as a kid – perhaps a bit more than books and music. The story passed along by my parents was that my Mom had gone into labor in our local movie theater during a showing of “The Greatest Show on Earth” – had stayed to the end and then gone directly to the hospital to give birth. I went to countless movies as a kid – sometimes brought by my Mom. For example, she took me to see “Jailhouse Rock” when I was 4 because she liked Elvis and had watched me bouncing along to his music on the radio. We had only one theater in my small town, but the usual schedule was double bills that changed every Wednesday and Sunday so I saw at least 4 films every week. There were often special “kiddie” Matinees on Saturdays. During the summer months, there was the Starlite Drive-In, too. If I liked a film I would go more than once – as long as my school work didn’t suffer as a result I could go on weeknights.

Back then if you loved a film you only had a few chances to see it and then, pfft, it was gone – a treasured memory not to be repeated. You could collect photos and soundtrack albums to keep the film alive in your memory. Sometimes you’d get a soundtrack before the film, and the music would create anticipation (alas the films at times didn’t live up to their scores). At college I haunted the film department’s 16mm library – running films on projectors in makeshift screening rooms.

Accessibility to films increased in general due to network TV, Cable TV, and premium channels like HBO. When home video became a reality, films joined my collection. I recall the amazement that washed over me when my very first VCR was finally hooked up to my TV, and I put on my first prerecorded cassette – I believe it was a Disney film (maybe “Pinnochio”?). I was not flush with funds when prerecorded video tapes were first introduced, and it took a while for me to save enough money to take the plunge. Prerecorded tapes were very expensive back then – so I recorded many more films than I purchased. As home video has become more advanced, I have enthusiastically added laser discs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, and 4kUHDs to my library.

I’ve had to downsize my collection every now and then. For example, we sold our family home when my Dad moved into an assisted living facility. I’d kept my lp collection in that house due to its bulkiness, and I had to face the hard fact that I didn’t have enough space in my apartment to house the records. So I gifted my entire LP collection to a cousin who was thrilled. I moved from a large apartment into a much smaller one several years ago – and I used the opportunity to scale back my book library. But I still own many books,over a thousand CDs, and probably over 5,000 movies on various media.

I do use a Kindle and avail myself of various streaming services – and I do consider those options to be a part of my “library”. I feel total joy when browsing through my physical and digital collections – knowing that there are worlds upon worlds at my fingertips awaiting reading, viewing, or listening.

My collections, on a purely emotional level, make me feel free.
 
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Rodney

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When I grew up in Windsor Ontario, there were two movie chains in town, one called “Famous Players” which had about 5 theatres, and one called “Odeon” which had 1. The “Odeon” got “Jaws” at the start of the summer, and which stayed all summer. This blocked the next movie which was supposed to play, in the theatre, but never came until its sequel came out. This movie was called “Star Wars”!

Was Jaws a revival showing? Jaws was released in 1975, Star Wars in 1977. Or else that was one heck of a "held over". ;)

Remember, he is in Canada, and as How I Met your Mother taught us:
"Why does it look like 1987?" "The 80's didn't come to Canada until '93"
 

commander richardson

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Wow, 6000 titles! I think back to the 1960s, when the idea of actually owning a film, & being able to see it whenever I liked, & it looking as good as it did at the cinema, was pure fantasy, & now that's come to pass! I think I like buying & owning a film as much as I like viewing it, I don't know what that says about me.

I have too many !!!!!!.........but from time to time I sell some I do not want but a few months later regret this as one I have sold I want to watch again and this has happened more than once. Now I keep them all.
 

Allansfirebird

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My now 2500 title-strong (2600, counting TV series) collection, split between DVD, BRD, LD, VHS, and digital, has built up over the years because I find myself incredibly invested in understanding the history of cinema, particularly as it matured in the US over the last 80 years. I'd find a movie I love, and in researching that movie, I'd then find all the other movies that influenced it, and the web continued. Same thing would happen when reading interviews and books on directors I admire - Scorsese, Lean, Smith, Tarantino, etc. It also grew out of wanting to understand the world my grandfather lived in during his years in the industry as an actor - sort of my way of remembering his legacy.

Also, it's just fun to have nearly infinite choices for viewing options on any given evening, though it can be intimidating when lazy.

The bottom line for me is that I'm someone who likes to rewatch movies, and I rewatch my favorites probably as much as most people relisten to their favorite songs. It wouldn't be worth it for me not to own certain titles.

And I think some of it is also just habit. The world has changed since I started collecting, and strictly speaking, I could have access to a lot of the same content without having the actually own it. But it's a hobby I enjoy and one that I can afford. And everyone needs a hobby, right?

Also - THIS right here, as well. Totally agree with you, Josh!
 

PMF

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[...]I loved movies as a kid – perhaps a bit more than books and music. The story passed along by my parents was that my Mom had gone into labor in our local movie theater during a showing of “The Greatest Show on Earth” – had stayed to the end and then gone directly to the hospital to give birth. I went to countless movies as a kid – sometimes brought by my Mom. [...]
Such a great story that sparks the imagination. My goodness, so many scenarios, had your birth occurred at the theater, itself.

BTW, thanks for reminding me about Scholastic Book Services; as my collection of those handy little paperbacks were also just as enriching as my stack of 8mm Castle Films, as amassed throughout my early grade-school days.:thumbs-up-smiley:
 
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TJPC

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I think this thread should be re-titled “Why I Keep My Wife out of the Man Cave”

upload_2018-9-23_14-56-0.jpeg
upload_2018-9-23_14-57-0.jpeg
 

PMF

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Wished I had some shelves like TJPC for my collection.
But, then again, if I did have shelves like those then I would be compelled to collect even more.:)

I wonder if others could contribute "attachment" photos of additional designs and options, too.:cool:
 
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TJPC

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Thanks! Really, my wife is very indulgent! I had old wide steel shelves from Sears with everything doubled up with some stuff at the back and behind others. She suggested we have the two walls of shelves made when the basement was finished and I put everything in boxes while construction was being done.

I expected to fill one wall and have lots of room for the future. I was surprised to see that I filled most of it all ready. Anything with a dot sticker (mostly TCM) movies is in its proper spot in the collection, but has not been watched yet. The 3 shelves that look black at the right bottom have empty cases for future use.
 

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