The Good, The Bad, And The Beautiful

Mi amigo Josh Hadley recently raised an issue that’s worth wasting a few pixels on:  Why are bad B-movies so often more rewatchable than “serious” films like The English Patient?

Well, I’ve got an answer -- several, in fact, and they tend to be overlapping -- but before diving in, let me say if you’re a big fan of The English Patient and you pop it in the player once a week, hey, more power to you.  I will not yuck your yum by passing judgement on the movie itself.

But we can talk about it as symptomatic of a certain time of movie, one that is presented as being worthy and serious and Of Great Import to compare and contrast that type of film with…oh, I dunno…Killers From Space, maybe?

The obvious short answer is the bad B-movie is often a gilty pleasure of sorts, something we saw in our youth or some other particular moment in our lives that triggers a nostalgic dopamine rush when it flashes past. 

Nothing wrong with that.  I, in fact, have a soft spot for Police Academy movies because a cable marathon of them helped me through a really rough day.

A related reason is that we don’t actually need to watch Killers From Space to enjoy it.

Even the first viewing holds few surprises (and none of any artistic or dramatic importance).  Killers From Space can unspool as pure background noise; we simply aren’t that heavily invested in it.  It was from the git-go a pretty mediocre by-the-numbers sci-fi film, and one can easily doze off / got to the bathroom / take a phone call / make a sandwich without losing track of what passes for its “narrative.”

It's not like Alphaville -- a movie I adore -- which you actually have to watch to gain anything from it.  No, Killers From Space can just unspool at its own languid-bordering-glacial pace and still be accessible at any point one jumps in.

An other factor is a mistaken belief by some creators that a “serious” movie needs to be drenched in Fun-Away™.  The English Patient has been called the anti-Casablanca because it takes a similar situation and has its characters make all the wrong choices.

That could still make for enthralling drama, but where Casablanca choose thrilling melodrama, The English Patient doesn’t.

And I acknowledge Casablanca is chock-a-block with historical errors and far fetched plot points.

WHO %#@&ING CARES?!?!?

It’s Bogie against the gawddam Nazis and Bogie comes out on top.  Go, Team Bogie!

This is most emphatically NOT to say only low brow / low budget movies are entertaining.  My DVD shelf holds Rio Bravo, The Dirty Dozen, Goldfinger, and Singin’ In The Rain, all quality movies I can quote by heart and have / will watch again and again and again.

And there are low budget / no budget films of astonishing high quality that also encourage repeat views (viz Sean Baker’s oeuvre such as Starlet or Tangerine or The Florida Project).

What makes a movie are the moments that reach a memorable plot point that resonates with us long after we pop the disc out of the machine.  B-movies in general -- and bad B-movies in particular -- face more difficulty reaching those moments but make up for it by being comfort junk food, something we’re always willing to snack on but not a substitute for an actual meal (and don’t watch too many or you’ll spoil your appetite).

But once again, if you like The English Patient, more power to you.

© Buzz Dixon