Cinema's Core

What is Cinema? What really is Cinema? What is the Purpose of Cinema? Why do we go to the movies?
Do we only go to the movies to escape? Escape our dreadful, boring lives? Escape our stressful lives? Why?
Why cinema? People go to the museums, the aquariums, zoos, but not as much as the movies...It has been said that there is a difference between Movies and Films. Movies are for the audience, Films are for the audience and the filmmakers that made it. But any case Cinema provokes many people to leave their homes, pay, sit for two hours + in the dark with strangers and something happens...
That something is UNITY. Everyone (those that are really paying attention) begins to laugh, smirk, nod, and some even cry. The engagement, the attention people give to a movie is incredible and in the end there's a elevation that can occur, like no other art form can produce, not even a broadway play. That elevation heightens our emotions, our thoughts, our hearts can fill like it's going to explode, it all depends on the movie, but basically our emotions are tugged at all kinds of ways.
Cinema. Why? Do we really want to escape? Escape...there is no escape when we relate to the characters on the screen, there is no escape when the characters find themselves in situations that are so realistic and relative to nowadays events. Where is the escape in that?  Sure movies should be entertaining, but who's too say an entertaining movie can't have some kind of humanity attached to it. Cinema. It's been around for over hundred years, birthed in the 1800's, technology has advanced greatly, and not that film is slowly dieing, digital is on the rise even more...but hasn't changed? Reaching the audience's emotions. What people remember is how the movie affected them. That is what they will remember. And because they have been affected they will remember the lessons the movie has taught and this can help them make certain decisions in life.
For me watching 'On the Waterfront' was the movie that encouraged me to stand alone if need be when all odds are against you. Don't be afraid of your enemy. Brando expressed this heroism that I hadn't seen before on screen. 'Schindler's List' taught me the importance of an individual human being. How important a single soul is. Evey one's name Schindler had on his list was offered to live much longer than if their name wasn't on there. Unless of course God intervined another way for them. 'Passion of the Christ', shows me the power of forgiveness, and the deep love of a mother and a Savior, like no other film. Why Cinema? What would the world be like if the Lumiere Brothers didn't go through with their idea of cinema? Or if Cecil B. Demille didn't follow his passion for films, the same for Hitchcock, Chaplin, Keaton, Selznick, Fritz Lang, Zefferelli, Stroheim, John Ford, Speilberg, Scorsese, Lucas, Welles, Coppola, Foster, Streisand, etc...where would we be artistically if these wonderful storytellers decided to ditch cinema and let it die out like a vapor. Why even go to the movies if it's more than escapism? Shouldn't it be more than escapism? Let's be honest people deep down inside want one thing when they go to the movies....Truth. They want to find the emotional, spirtual, physical truth in life. Is this too extreme? Cinema can be extreme, it can be powerful, uplifting, encouraging, frustrating...think of another art form that can provoke such emotions...
Why is this? How can it do this? Cinema is where our dreams are produced, whether its' nightmarish, happy, heartbreaking, violent, pretty, ugly, dangerous...this is what we dream and storytellers are talented enough to bring these fantasies, dreams to life. And what we dream is what is in deep inside of us-and what is deep inside of us defines who we are and what we want and desire and long for. The cinema shows this, and that is why we are so moved by what we see on the screen. That is why we go back to the cinema, because we want to be reminded that we are not alone, we have to be reminded that there is hope, that life can still be beautiful and romantic. But Cinema shows the ugly side of things as well, but that is only to make us appreciate the good.

So what does Cinema mean to you? What does it really mean to you?