What Makes a Great Movie?
Filmmaking is an extremely difficult thing. Being able to create something that catches peoples' attention for a couple of hours is no easy task.
With that in mind, I do feel that there are things that almost all good movies have in common. I think one of if not the most important element is empathy. If your audience is able to empathize with your characters then they can invest themselves in the story. One they're invested in the story, you've hooked them.
Look at most great movies. Let's say Fight Club for example. The unnamed narrator lives a completely monotonous life with a dead end job. Now... I don't think most of us would react to the situation like he does but we've all been in that place, yearning for more excitement and passion in our lives. Or let's look at The Shawshank Redemption. I doubt many people reading this have gone to jail, wrongly accused of murdering their spouse. However, we've all dealt with or seen injustices in our lives and because of that, Andy's journey is relatable. We don't try to define ourselves by dwelling on them but instead picking ourselves back up, out of the fire. Andy is able to do that and that's what makes him so memorable.
The same thing goes for the villains of the story. Look at Roy Batty in Blade Runner for instance. He's a guy looking to find his creator. He doesn't understand what his place in the world is or why he exists. He's essentially looking for the unanswered questions to life. A lot of us deal with that.
I think that's why certain films stick with us more or less at certain points of our lives. Maybe you're struggling getting through high school and you see a movie like The Perks of Being a Wallflower and it really hits you. Or... maybe you're a parent now and you see Manchester By the Sea and it completely crushes you unlike the times you saw it before.
So... next time you watch a movie you really like, think about it. It's kind of fun to sometimes dissect a film and figure out what it was that resonated with you so much.
