Note to mods skulking about: Could be in IMHO because it’s a poll, put it here because it’s about movies.
I had a brief discussion with a colleague the other day which provoked a question from me whose answer I took to be a complete no-brainer, but he answered the opposite from what I expected. So I’m going to put it to the ultimate test - Dopers.
You’re at home one quiet evening. You are going to watch a movie. Do you
a) watch a good movie with bad picture and sound quality, or
b) watch a bad movie with good picture and sound quality?
“Bad” quality doesn’t mean horrible. You see and hear everything just fine, but it’s not a pretty picture nor good sound. No missed lines or details. “Good” quality basically means what you’d expect from a decent home system these days.
I’d always watch the good movie. It would be no different than watching an old movie without the awesome picture and surround sound. Some indie movies tend to have questionable film qualities, but the movies can be great.
It depends. Usually, the only real “excuse” for bad picture & sound is that the film is rare, old, or obscure enough that no major restoration or recovery effort has been done (and usually the transfer was only so-so or originated from a less than stellar print). That being the case, I’d rather see a hard-to-find movie in those conditions rather than not see it at all.
Any other circumstance, though, I’d rather read a book. Crisp image and stellar surround sound isn’t going to turn a bad movie into a good one.
I love to get top notch DVDs of movies I enjoy, with good specs and lots of special features.
However, a lot of the movies I consider “good” (at least *I * like them), are Hong Kong films, and many are put out on pretty cheap DVDs with average quality specs and no special features to speak of. For example, Comrades, Almost a Love Story. This is one of my all-time favorite films, but the DVD sucks. I keep on watching it, though.
Good movie in bad quality, of course. I watched Goblet of Fire with a visible white scratch for the second half of the movie, forewarned when we bought the ticket. It turned out fine and I enjoyed the movie nonetheless. On the other hand, seating is the thing that really bothers me. I hate that dizzy feeling that I get when I’m forced to take front row center.
Every time I’ve seen it, the sound has been terrible. But it’s not like I speak much Italian anyway, and even with a scratchy sound track it’s going to be better than Terminator Three (and I speak more German than Italian).
In my opinion, one of the greatest of directors (Bresson) limited sound, so much that the quality of the sound was almost irrelevant. And, of course, for a long time films only had pianists accompanying, which really wasn’t “sound” at all.
The real issue here is that MUSIC is used so much to manipulate bad film-making, and convince people that there is actually some drama–when the script, acting, and the camera work are actually mediocre.
Music can add to a film, or it can be a commercial crutch: take your pick.