I spend a lot of time chained to sitting at my desk writing about movies. At times, my eyes and mind wander, idly looking around my office searching for some sort of distraction. Today, my attention settled on my DVD shelf, proudly organized in alphabetical order yet rarely touched anymore.
And that’s when the thought struck me: I’ll never buy another DVD again.
There are plenty of folks out there who are fervent DVD collectors, especially those Criterion Collection nuts who drop a paycheck every six months whenever the venerated film distribution company holds their much-ballyhooed 50% off sale.
Not me. I haven’t purchased physical media in years, and don’t expect to ever again. Why would I? In the age of streaming, any movie ever made can be screened as part of a subscription, or digitally rented for a few bucks. Even if a particular flick isn’t on Netflix or available via Amazon Prime, at the very least I’ve been able to find it on some shady corner of the internet somewhere.
Therefore, the only real value to purchasing physical media these days is for self-aggrandizing display purposes, like those folks who surround themselves with shelves and shelves of books they’ve probably never read.
This probably makes you question why I’d be sad for not having to buy something that is now typically available for cheap, or even free. Because it’s not the act of purchasing DVDs that this post is actually about. It’s the end of an era that this phenomenon represents.
The digital age of cinema is here to stay. The physical age of cinema is either dead or dying. From celluloid to Blockbuster to going to your local movie theater, the tangible acts pertaining to film are mostly extinct, and that simply makes me sad.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to dust off my DVDs. And my DVD player. Then soon after turning on my television I’ll probably browse Netflix for something to watch.
