There's emotional enjoyment but also important is aesthetic enjoyment.
Some films can have irony or witty dialogue or pleasing cinematography or
any number of other aesthetic values but lack a "meanful" political/social
import.
 
Of course, some "bad" values in films overcome all aesthetic values--nazi
films, hate films, etc.
 
On Tue, 19 Jul 1994, Kurt R Gegenhuber wrote:
 
> On Tue, 19 Jul 1994, Guy Rosefelt wrote:
>
> > Denise,>
> > I heartily agree with you.  Movies are foremost entertainment.  Any effort
 to
> > educate or extract a response beyond enjoyment is secondary.  I posted a
> > similar opinion on CINEMA-L and got shot down for it too.
> >
> > Guy
>
> Look, this is ridiculous. Does our analysis of what's going on have to
> come to a grinding halt if we see that somebody is being entertained or is
> receiving pleasure? That ought to be the starting point.
>
> We ought to be able to ask "Where does this pleasure come from?" The
> answer, as I see it, is that people are entertained by representation that
> confirms their worldview, that tells them that their sense of what's true
> and just and sensible is JUST FINE. People watch to have their values
> stroked. When America saw Fatal Attraction in the 80's, it said, "Yep, I
> told you so." That's entertainment.
>
> To say that entertainment ought to be exempt from analysis, or necessarily
> excludes politics, is to utterly miss what entertainment is. Isn't that a
> bit of a problem if you're studying TV and film?
>
> Kurt Gegenhuber
> [log in to unmask]
>