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] >