Film as against technology
Star War's Revenge of the Sith, the final episode, will shatter box office records. Thats definite.
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Fans braced for Star Wars finale
Fans had lined up outside LA's Grumman Chinese theatre months before the release (yes, camping out there).
The craze behind the movie is immense.
Sometimes, it feels that movies is what people want. If you want to do anything, which will affect a lot of people, or which most people would want to see/listen/hear/use, then making a popular movie it is.
Movies is a universal concept -- starting with story-telling from the very early days. People like to experience fictional stories, since they are more interesting than their own lives. Millions will watch this Star Wars movie in the first few days of its release. Then billions will watch it in the coming time, in theatre or on DVD. Thousands of people will watch this movie dozens of times.
Technology is also, of course universal. But the amount of impact maybe a little less. Of course, ipod sold millions, but thats only millions, not billions. And of course, the ipod does not come out every quarter, like blockbuster films come out. If IBM made the computer, ofcourse it was even more blockbuster than a film, but you have to realize that its not just one company that plays a part in such a product. There were lot of companies involved with lot of precursor of products involved, ultimately that will include thousands and thousands of people behind the development of the computer.
Whereas movies are made by just a small bunch of people. A small bunch of people make such a big impact.
Ofcourse, as with everything, the line is not solid here as well.
For example, the entertainment behind a movie will last for 3 hours and then cease. So if you count number of hours multiplied by each person that watched that movie, then the number of man hours impacted by that movie will be much less than the number of man hours that have been impacted by a computer.
Hmm. Actually, computer has been able to start new economies as well. Millions or more people depend on the computer for livelihood. Nobody depends on watching movies as means of livelihood, and if they do, they are very few.
Technology is an enabler of action - Movies (or other art) are an emotional experience.
Probably it is difficult to compare these two.
So I take my sentence back, and conclude that, as always, there is no single truth.