This past summer, I read some articles on the importance of buying physical media. Music on CDs, movies on DVDs and books in hard copies. There are several reasons for this, the most pointed one being that we live in an age where various people of influence have started to decree that some of things of the past should be kept away from people of the present. If you don't agree with them and still want to watch 'Gone With the Wind', you cannot depend on it being made available to you. Buy your own copy and the decision is completely in your own hands.
Another good reason to actually own the goods, especially with movies and TV is that we don't know when things will drop off the face of the earth and become completely unavailable. Check out this article about one person's attempt to watch the movie 'Cocoon' earlier this year. It's unavailable to stream and long out of print. (The writer eventually buys a used DVD copy for $25.) 'Cocoon' was a popular movie when it came out. It was the 6th highest grossing film of 1985. There is no reason for it to disappear.
After reading about 'Cocoon', which isn't a big movie for me, I decided that it was time to grab some movies that do hold special value for me. Older ones, sure, but more recent classics too. Just because something is a staple of cable TV for now, doesn't mean that I won't be hard pressed to find it 20 years from now. As a bonus, this is a good time to find cheap copies of DVDs and CDs, as other people have decided to leave physical media behind.
This is a long winded way of saying that my family got me some DVDs for my birthday, yesterday. Thanks to them, I can add to my home collection:
- Time Bandits
- Good Morning Vietnam
- The Birdcage
- The Social Network
- Interstellar
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