Dan Horvath's Running Blog: TM Speech: The Art and the Joy of Movies (As the Name Implies, No Running Content)

Monday, September 05, 2016

TM Speech: The Art and the Joy of Movies (As the Name Implies, No Running Content)

Dearest Readers,

I have recently given some speeches in connection with my Toastmasters International membership. Some are related to running, and some are not. When possible, I will publish the speeches. This is one of them.

The Art and the Joy of Movies

Our Art Form

For some cultures, like 19th century Germany and Austria classical music was the predominant art form.

The ancient Greeks invented theater.

Sculpture was extremely important to the Greeks and also ancient Italy.

England and Ireland, and China can lay claim great literature.

Painting is most famously attributed to France and other parts of Western Europe

For other cultures, architecture, modern music and dance have.

What is our culture’s art form?

Western Civilization’s and specifically the United States’ art certainly include all the forms I’ve mentioned. But what will we be known for, in perpetuity? I think the answer is film.

What is a movie, and how or why can it be considered art?

A great movie can transport you to another time or place. It may be a time or place you could never get to yourself, Or it may be something as mundane as everyday life.

It can inspire or depress you. It can make you laugh or cry. It can do all or none of these things.

Movies enable us to forget about of the day-to-day drudgery of our lives for a period of time.

You can get lost in a great movie.

Most films begin as a business idea; it’s often all about profit.

Producers pull together writers, directors and actors, and they also arrange for funding.

Directors take the work of the writers, and work with the actors to create the magic we call a movie. At its best, this is the art of film.

Dan’s Ten Best

Do you have an all-time top ten movies list? When you love great movies as much as I do, it’s fun to think about your favorites.

A couple caveats:

Genre doesn’t matter much to me – I like movies of all sorts. The main question is this: is it a good story?

Does the picture do what was intended? Some have modest goals, but exceed them. Some have difficult goals, and fall short. A few are both ambitious AND also succeed in accomplishing what they set out to do.

Here’s my list, in no particular order:

Gone with the Wind