If you're a lover of movies then at some point you will have met someone who thinks it's silly to be that invested in something fictional, "how can you cry at a film? It didn't happen" "why are you so passionate about something that doesn't exist?" "oh come on, you can't have a life changing experience at a piece of fiction". But what these people don't understand is almost anything can effect a human, for some it's listening to a great album, for others it's reading about a great historical figure, or it could be someone in our lives, a friend, a family member, a mentor, a deity. The importance isn't to question where they get their influence, but how they use it to shape themselves as people. For a lot of people, movies can do that, so can books, and shows and games and songs. If a person watches a film and they connect to it, if they relate to a character or a scenario, it can have a major effect. When you watch a comedy and you laugh, you're connected to that film, when you watch a horror movie and you're scared, you're connected, that film has given you an emotional connection and if it can do that then why can't it go further? Films make us cry, just the same way they make us laugh, they make us angry, they make us love one character and hate another.
And for some that is the extent, a movie makes them cry and as soon as it's done, they move on with their day, but for others it's different. Sometimes when someone watches a movie they see something in themselves in that movie, and it goes a step further, it shows them something they haven't seen before. They teach us a lesson, they can make us think differently, they can show us a different viewpoint, teach us a new fact, comfort us, help us through our own problems or maybe just help us forget about them for 2 hours. They can inspire us and change who we are as people. They make us nostalgic for our childhood, they make us hopeful for our future, make us want to change the world we live in. The question isn't "Why are you being affected by something that doesn't exist?" the question should be "How is this going to make you a better person if you let it affect you?".
No not every film is going to be a life changing experience, very few films are, and we've all lived different lives, every film is going to affect us differently, but every so often, we get one of those movies, the ones that shock us, scare us, teach us, connect to us, we see ourselves in the people on screen or they show us someone we want to be and we use that. We see the honesty of Atticus Finch and we want to be like that, we see Will Hunting forgive himself for the years of self-loathing and feel like we can do the same. We see Spider-Man risk his life to save others and fantasize about being like him. We see tragedy in Grave of the Fireflies and are stricken with grief. We see Luke Skywalker rise up against the oppression of evil and we cheer with excitement.
Remember, movies don't just show up out of thin air, they're made by people, they're based on real experiences, ideas, dreams and nightmares, they show us every aspect of humanity, from what we fear we may become to what we hope we'll one day achieve. They teach us morals as children, they empathise with us in our teens, they show us the highs and lows of adulthood, they can let us escape into a fantasy world or show us humanity at it's worst. These aren't foreign concepts to us, this is what people choose to express to us, they want us to have an experience, they want us to think, they want us to celebrate. If a movie is done right then it can be a great piece of art, but sometimes it can be more than that, it can be an experience. It can suck us in for 2 hours, it can show us something incredibly personal that you know isn't going to effect anyone else in the same way and you can let that movie change you, make you a better person or give you a new outlook on things.
A movie lover isn't someone getting attached to something that doesn't matter, it's someone who has had that experience and has changed them for the better and can't wait for the next film to come along and give them a similar experience. That is a movie lover, that is someone with passion for the art and is open to a new ideology, see things from a different point of view, a different race, a different gender, a different age, a different belief system and to hopefully make them a better person. And that is the importance of cinema.
-Danny
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