A Praise For Watching Movies Together in Class

     This blog post is in response to a discussion we had on our last day of class. We were discussing whether movies should be shown in class or assigned to watch on our own, and some people said they preferred to watch movies alone. However, I would like to say that I loved watching movies together as a class, and doing so even changed my viewpoint on watching movies that i had in the past.

    See, for most of my life, I've preferred to watch movies on my own. I just appreciated the comfort of being alone in my room and being able to get completely lost in the movie I was watching. But I realized something about what happened when I watched movies on my own: I often didn't give them a solid chance if I wasn't liking them. If a movie was just not impressing me, I could turn it off very quickly, whether it be out of boredom or active dislike for something going on in the movie.

However, in class, we were forced to watch these movies, despite whatever we felt of them. We weren't able to just get distracted on our phone if we were bored, or walk away and get preoccupied with something else. We were forced to keep our attention on the movies, and because of this, I was exposed to movies I would have never been exposed to before. There were so many movies we watched that I would have turned off early, but because I wasn't able to, I continued watching and was often surprised by how much I enjoyed the ending, or how much I took away from the message of the movie.

    Look, I know it might be hard in the future to show so many movies in class, and I know some students have different opinions on this. But I do want to emphasize how much I personally enjoyed it, and how much impact it had on me as a filmgoer. I feel like I give movies a lot more of a chance now, and I often am more open to movies that aren't impressing me instantly. So despite what happens in future classes, I'm very thankful for what this one did, and the effect it had on how I see movies.

Also, there's a scene in one of my favorite movies, Pitch Perfect, where a character hates watching movies in general, but is convinced by a friend to watch The Breakfast Club. Although, she still only watches the movie if her friend is there to watch it with her. Fast forward to later in Pitch perfect, and this character who hated watching movies now loves The breakfast Club. She cries when watching it, and uses the soundtrack in a musical performance of hers. So I figured this was a nice film example of how watching movies together can be better.

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