THE POWER OF MOVIES: HOW SCREEN AND MIND INTERACT, by Colin McGinn, Pantheon, 210 pages, $24.
Colin McGinn, a Rutgers University philosophy professor, is known most for his academic books. But this popular one, designed to explain how movies act in a powerful way on our minds, is geared to the average reader. Not only does a movie "pack in" the people like no other artistic medium — but it happens all over the world. McGinn argues that watching a movie causes us to "enter an altered state of consciousness."
Movies allow the viewer to look at events realistically, as if they are actually occurring. But, according to McGinn, most people are not "fooled" into believing it is 'reality.' The movie's power must lie in what distinguishes it from seeing real events . . . Watching someone light a cigarette in real life can be pretty dull, but in the context of a story projected onto the movie screen our eyes and mind will be drawn in. The movie adds something to reality, and this is part of its power.
McGinn also suggests that "movies engage our mind, not by simulating reality, but by offering us fiction. . . . What moves us at the movie theatre is the power of the imagination." In other words, most people enjoy a good story — but in the movie form, the story can be "enthralling."
This is done by flashing images of light on a screen — and then we "look right through them" to see the depiction or a representation of the story. The author asserts that the movie screen inside a theatre is also unique in that it is more effective than a television screen. In other words, it is difficult to have a similar movie experience outside of a theatre.
McGinn makes a direct comparison of movies to the dreams we have when we sleep — or even the day dreams many of us have. If dreams are visual representations keyed to our imaginations, then they are a little like looking into our own minds, asserts McGinn.
The feel-good dream also has its movie counterpart. Many dreams involve the realization of our wishes. The romantic comedy or simple love story, in which all's well that ends well, clearly echoes the dream of romantic fulfillment, chaste or otherwise. . . . Leonardo da Vinci reportedly asked, 'Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than when awake?' and the same thing can be said about movie watching. In both states the varnish comes off reality; there is the feeling of truths being revealed. Just as people's dreams are keys to their real selves, their deepest longings and anxieties, so their taste in movies tells you a lot about them.
Some people enjoy analyzing movies when they get home, while others believe such analysis ruins the experience. Whether the reader agrees with all of McGinn's conclusions is probably not crucial — rather it is provocative for the mind. For those who do enjoy trying to understand the movie experience more deeply, this book provides abundant material.
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