Storytelling (part 2)

I’ve always been a big fan of movies, and my wife can tell you that I’ve certainly seen far too many. Over the years, though, I’ve found myself gravitating to movies less and less, not only because I think the quality may have dipped, I also think that the average movie length of 2 hours really compresses a story and limits character development. We’ve all seen movies based on books we’ve read, and to this day, I have never heard anyone say that the movie was better than the book—movies always have to leave out material and nuances in order to fit the book content into about 2 hours. It is quite possible that I’ve been somewhat spoiled by watching various TV series, with stories and characters developed over an entire season of 12+ hours. However, sometimes I absolutely prefer watching a movie instead, because I enjoy having everything resolved by the end of the experience, rather than have to devote more hours to find out what happens. Movies don’t necessarily lack in substance, either—sometimes a short movie can convey powerful character development and deliver a story that you will never forget. The recent film, “Parasite,” is a fantastic movie that impacted me deeply, and was a great reminder to me that films will always remain a powerful way to tell a story.