Own it on Blue Ray and DVD Monday!
So goes the American accented exhortation to own the latest DVD release. I must admit that I used to be susceptible to these adverts. What with this and buying them from Amazon; picking up cheap ones in the supermarket, I have quite the collection of DVDs. Too many to watch that’s for sure. So why did I buy them?
Well, I’m guessing it’s because I belong to the video generation. Not for us was it enough to wait for the film to be shown on the television. We were in a the start of the video rental revolution and we could watch them when we wanted. The first film that I ever saw like this was, wait for it… Rosemary’s Baby.
Wtf?! Rosemary’s Baby? I mean, I was a teenager. How it happened is lost in the mists of time, but I have a vague recollection that it was our PE teacher who got it out for us when we went away on a residential to play football – it was 1980 something. And never mind any of that, the school had a Betamax player! Yes, we were part of the 25%!
So far so scary. Next up, Police Academy. I remember hiring it one morning when I was doing my O levels. I’d been to collect the newspapers to deliver and whilst I was there picked up the video. After delivering the papers and having breakfast it was time to crank up the video and sit back and relax. This was, thanks to Mike Read, the first time I ever heard Frankie’s Relax.
But enough of that nonsense, I fear I’ve slightly lost touch with what I was trying to write here… video renting –> buying –> DVD buying, ah yes. I mean, what is the actual point in buying them? I have an extensive collection, but I can only watch one at a time. This includes some that I haven’t watched even once.
I must admit that I do have a particular favourite that I do occasionally put on at bedtime and fall asleep to. I will then be woken in the wee small hours as the TV hisses away in the corner once it’s finished. I’m not going to tell you what it is, cos you’ll laugh, but it’s the seventh film in the series of eight about the boy who was a wizard…
So back to the original question. Why do I buy them? I mean it’s not as if I even have the time to sit and watch them – witness my guilty nocturnal treat. I suppose on the one hand, it’s the triumph of nostalgia over realism. Then it’s a cultural / snobbish thing. I want, no I need to be able to have at hand the classic films and TV comedies that I watched whilst growing up in order to prove what good taste I have. I need to be able to sit and recount vast chunks of The Young Ones or The Outlaw Josey Wales to prove just how cultured I am. Ha ha! Like that’s gonna work!