Terry Gilliam on Entertainment and Art

This will probably get people up in arms but it’s true that there are two kinds of movies.  Last year’s battle for Best Picture showed the dividing line quite clearly.  Our need for comfort and answers often overrides our need to think.  We seek comfort from movies, someone to tell us it’s all going to okay.  Life is suffering, as the buddhists would say, so there isn’t anything wrong with seeking comfort.  But I like how Gilliam lays it out here, courtesy of Open Culture – and when Schindler’s List first came out back in 1993, I remember thinking that I loved every part of it except for the ending because he didn’t need to go overboard there. But over time, that film has cemented itself fully as one of the greatest films ever made. It is perhaps more about healing that it is about the horrors of war. Or maybe it’s both.