Streaming vs DVDs

These days, there's a lot of debate on the merits of streaming a movie versus buying a DVD. It's the age-old conflict of the convenient against the familiar, and one that will always find new battlegrounds as technology marches on, yesterday's new ages into tomorrow's old, and unforeseen inconveniences sneak in with modern comforts. It's not a debate that I concern myself with too much. I have a pretty large collection of DVDs and Blu-rays, but I don't see any reason to shun digital.

My favourite streaming service is The Criterion Channel. I recently used it to watch Robert Altman's 3 Women (staring Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, & Janice Rule), a movie I had always meant to watch, and which will be leaving the Criterion Channel at the end of this month.

The Criterion Channel reminds me of watching movies on traditional television in that respect. When I was a kid, if you didn't have a spare VHS tape to record a movie or TV show, you watched it when it was on. If you had a spare VHS tape, you watched it before you needed that tape for something else. Otherwise, you'd have to shell out extra for a rental.

One of the arguments for physical media and against streaming is that streaming is temporary. If you buy, say, Casablanca on Blu-ray, then you can watch it whenever you want. If you stream it, then you can watch it as long as it's available on your streaming services.

But there are a lot of movies. Some might say that there are more bad films than great, but there's still quite a few great ones, and a lifetime's worth of good ones, too. Books have been written on which ones you "should" watch, and you may have your own list of the one's you'd actually like to watch someday--either because you want to learn more about cinema, or you just think it looks like a good time. 

But when will you get around to them?

You'd like to watch Au Hasard Balthazar sometime, but you're really in the mood to rewatch Shrek now.

And guess what? The ones you'd like to see someday? Your streaming services might taken them down. Maybe soon. 

So, at the start of every month, I'll go through the Criterion Channel's list of movies that are leaving soon, and make a mental note of which one's I'd like to see sometime. I'll usually see one or two or three movies like that. For the next month, these movies compete against the movies that I'd like to see soon, but will still be available at the end of the month. They don't always win, but it's always a good fight.

Most people might think that this is a disadvantage of streaming services. A lot of you are probably rolling your eyes at me right now. "Oh, just watch the movie you want to see NOW, you idiot."

And, eventually, I do. And sometimes I love it, and sometimes it's a disappointment.

And sometimes the movie I want to see sometime turns out to be a disappointment, and sometimes it doesn't.

This post isn't about the importance of following the cinematic canon, and I'm sorry if I give that impression. The movies that you or I want to see sometime don't need to be great, they don't need to be classics, I'm not even sure they need to be good. They can be complete schlock and my point remains. It just has to be something that you wouldn't watch without some prodding.

Seeing the films that the streaming services are taking down shakes things up. They don't force me to watch a "great" movie that I have no interest in, but they do nudge me towards something that I might not otherwise turn to.

If you have a time limit--if the movie you'd like to watch sometime won't be available next month--then you might find yourself putting off the familiar to try something new.