Has technology ruined the quest for the Holy Grail?

[The Burgomaster]

When I was a kid, it was sort of a big deal to go to the movies, especially if you wanted to see a crappy horror movie or something that would probably have a very short original theatrical run.  Once it was gone from the theater, it was gone for a long time (but would often show up again a year or two later as a re-release or as the 2nd or 3rd feature at the drive-in).  Often, it required great planning and timing to see certain movies on the big screen.  I didn't see DAWN OF THE DEAD until 2 or 3 years after its initial release.  I didn't see LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT until the early 1980s (a great night at the drive-in!)  Now it seems like just about any movie you want to get your hands on is right at your fingertips (or can be located in a bootleg version after about 15 minutes of Internet research).  The days of searching the newspaper movie listings hoping that your "Holy Grail" movie would show up at a local drive-in or discount cinema are over.  I'm glad that I can see all of these movies now.  But I'm sad that most of the adventure associated with finding them is over.

[Javakoala]

I agree to a point. I never got to go to the theater or drive-in much, so it was always a case of playing movie roulette on Saturday nights as the local station NEVER showed what was listed in the TV Guide. It seemed like there was always some weird, messed up movie that I had only read about or some movie I had no clue about (Blood Mania was one of these) that would pop up during those all-night triple features. It kept me glued to my seat, giddy with excitement and suspense.

So I see what you are saying. Still, the randomness of catching movies when they happened to pop up was also very frustrating. And many nights I sat through utterly boring low-grade dramas, hoping the next movie would be a horror movie or just plain odd, and was disappointed.

I will admit that having such a variety of sources and titles available these days can make me lazy. "Oh, it'll be on Youtube any time." And then I never get back to the movie again.

Now I have a deeper quest for rare releases or decent skanky copies of long out of print titles. Those have become my new Holy Grails.

[The Burgomaster]

Now I have a deeper quest for rare releases or decent skanky copies of long out of print titles. Those have become my new Holy Grails.

Even those aren't hard to find anymore.  You can usually get DVD-Rs that were copied from old VHS tapes or imported DVDs if you search enough websites.  I love cinema-de-bizarre and super strange video because they have great libraries of obscure older titles.

[Mofo Rising]

I can't imagine a life without VHS. I'm old enough to remember when that technology became popular, but I was very young. Only being able to see movies if they play on some "movie hour" or getting a theatrical re-release? Crazy.

I found I had a very idiosyncratic taste in pretty much everything very early in my teens. Especially music. But I had very few outlets for discovering new stuff. I used to watch MTV's 120 Minutes religiously, in the hopes that there would be one good song in between two hours of Brit-pop garbage. And then if I found that one song I liked, the chances the local music store had the CD was slim to nil.

I spent hours of my youth on vacation hoping this new record store would have a CD I'm looking for.

I also spent most of my teenage years trying to track down Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol in every comic store I ever visited. I eventually got them all, but it was a year's long process.

While I can admire the search, I would have loved the accessibility of pretty much everything these days. I've got strange tastes. Instead of spending time hoping that the local store would have what I want, I would have loved the option of just having everything I wanted to hear/read. Then I could have found the other weird stuff that stuff pointed to.

[DrSpunkwater]

It hasn't ruined the quest for the Holy Grail. It's just made the quest a lot easier.

[The Burgomaster]

I can't imagine a life without VHS. I'm old enough to remember when that technology became popular, but I was very young.

My first VCR was a Beta format!  It was a huge, heavy, clunky machine.  But I was the envy of my junior high friends because I was the first kid to get one.  After school, I'd end up with 3 or 4 friends in my living room watching ALIEN or A CLOCKWORK ORANGE or something.  Sometimes, they would come over several days in a row and we would watch the same movie over and over.  Full frame picture, mono sound, analog technology . . . but we loved it anyway.

[JaseSF]

I get what you're saying but at the same time, it has also made many things more accessible that otherwise would not be. There's still stuff out there even now that's a bit harder to find though. I know of wrestling video releases and other obscure oddities that one can't find pretty much anywhere nowadays unless you're into trading. There's always stuff that will become hard to find, just perhaps not as much so as was once common. In some ways though, it's good because it allows one to experience and find more easily the types of things that interests someone.

[Jim H]

It's damaged things for me a bit.  I find myself having constant analysis paralysis when I try to pick a movie to watch, and often end up watching nothing.  This despite having around 1000 films on DVD/Blu, Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Prime.  Just too much.

I also greatly miss the fun of hunting at video stores. 

[Archivist]

My video store days were in the 80's and early 90's, and in those times I would peer tentatively at the suggestively horrific titles of some movies.  Bloodsucking Freaks was one, XTRO was another.  My own imagination scared me in those cases as I never saw anything of them until many years later.  But being able to see B-grade kickboxing and other action movies was always a thrill; going to the video store and picking out the latest Don Wilson or Mathias Hues movie was great.  And when a movie was gone, it was just gone.  Some I have not been able to see again, despite repeated efforts to find them.

Then came pay television in Australia.  Suddenly we had access to channels that played movies I'd never heard of, movies starring actors who probably did them between much bigger productions.  I saw Lance Henriksen in hitherto unseen movies, and lower budget movies that were made for cable and so obviously never had mainstream Australian release.  Foxtel became my new video store.

The internet hasn't ruined the quest; in fact, it has heightened my enjoyment of it.  Instead of looking at xeroxed catalogues with grossly overpriced VHS tapes from America, I can see many of these movies on YouTube with a few minutes of searching.  I can read about them, thanks to many of you fine folk.  I don't have to go for years without seeing a movie again, I can quite easily find it and enjoy it almost right away.

If anything, it has escalated the quest for the Grails.  Now I know they are far more likely within reach.

[Lyedecker]

It's damaged things for me a bit.  I find myself having constant analysis paralysis when I try to pick a movie to watch, and often end up watching nothing.

THIS.^^^

[Josso]

Even in my lifetime moving from 28k to fiber broadband music and films have become infinitely more available and it's definitely increased my creative input and output. I even hear about cases of directors emailing piracy sites thanking them that their obscure b-movie on limited festival & dvd releases got to be seen by millions.