An approach to film..

There's this concept in the art of movie-watching I think of as "putting yourself in the shoes". If you're watching Psycho and you put yourself in the shoes of the 1950's moviegoer, or the Hitchcock shoes, or the shoes of any character, you have the capacity to be scared. If you're watching Pacific Rim and you put yourself in the shoes of a consciousless being sitting before a screen with a vat of chemicals for a brain, you have the capacity to be entertained, and more meaningfully, fulfilled. Mad Max is a better example, or I like Man of Steel here. By putting yourself in the shoes, you virtually grow in your capacity to be fulfilled and to experience. I consider this a noble endeavor.

Coming to understand this concept was essential to my recent dive into Bergman-- had I not been able to inhabit the personhood or subjectivity of a 1960's intellectual, or one of the characters, or Bergman himself, I would not have been able to appreciate Bergman for what he is. And again, I am calling this a meaningful and respectable pursuit, rather than a critical "stepping down". To be able to put oneself in the shoes to appreciate a foreign art is a valuable capability, and does not involve sacrificing one's critical eye. It is not blissful ignorance, even. My experience of Man of Steel was not blissful ignorance, I firmly disbelieve, because I came out of that movie fulfilled, and I am extremely in-touch with the fact that ignorance tears my soul apart, every time. Thus it was not ignorance, and was rather a new approach to entertainment that allowed my soul to wholesomely accept a new kind of art.

Man of Steel fulfilled me, Pacific Rim fulfilled me, I know Mad Max would fulfill me, all of Bergman fulfilled me, all three-and-a-half hours of Seven Samurai fulfilled me..... this is a unique and valuable skill I have developed, and I am grateful for it.