Lament for the Movie Credit

Poor Movie Credit. Nobody loves you anymore. You are the first thing to get cut when a movie is shown on tv, or smooshed to the bottom of the screen while the channel runs promos for shows they were busy showing promos for on the bottom of the screen while the movie was actually being played. I learned that these bottom-of-screen promos that play during a show are called "snipes". No, really, do a search on 'tv ad snipes'.

Note to TV channels advertising departments: I actually find the stuff you run on the bottom of the screen during tv shows and movies REALLY ANNOYING. I'm trying to watch a show, and 1/3 of the screen is obliterated by people jumping around or trucks driving or whatever as you try to squeeze ever more self-promotion time out of every minute of every day.

If anything, I think we're all pretty hyper-aware of all the crap happening on tv. You don't need to remind me to watch a show while I'm already watching one of your shows. Some smart channel out there will stop doing all that and advertise the fact that the viewer can watch shows in peace.

And back to the movie credit...

I guess I am the only person out there that enjoys watching these? I kind of like seeing where the movie was filmed, what songs were used, who the minor players were. Am I it? Am I the last one standing who cares about this? And if it was an especially good movie, I enjoy hearing what kinds of song or songs they play over the credits, and some movies even throw in a little extra quick scene at the end, or amusing credits (a la AIRPLANE!).

Last night I went to see Inglourious Basterds. Yes, I liked it. I like Tarantino movies generally. Sometimes I think he goes a little long with his dialog, but hey, that's him, and it's his movie and he always makes up for it by presenting you with some awesome scene following all that dialog. Basterds was long, but I really enjoyed everyone in this movie, I wanted to see more of the characters. The guy who played the main bad guy (actor Christoph Waltz) was AWESOME and he should definitely win oscars or emmys or moviemen or whatever, just some sort of prize. He made the movie. I'd definitely watch it again.

So there I was, I had invested hours into watching this movie, and the credits started. I was enjoying the interesting song Quentin had chosen for the credits and was looking at all the actors (there were a LOT of people in the movie, some briefly), and they turned the lights on!

Sadness. Bummer. Poo.

I would have thought the one place left where I could actually sit and watch movie credits in peace would have been the movie theater where a ticket was PAID for, but no, I guess this is gone now too.

So tell me, am I the only one? Should I get over this? Why do they even bother to create credits anymore then, there should just be a link to a website for the dorks like me that want to find out something about the movie?