[WikiEN-l] Conventions and movie vs. film

[Toby Bartels]

Stan Shebs wrote:

>Jtdirl wrote:

>>>The Cunctator wrote:

>>>>We actually did have a big discussion about this and film ended up being
>>>>nixed because of the problem of digital video replacing actual film as the
>>>>medium for "films". Thus, "movie".

>>If that is the case, then surely 'movie', a word linked with the
>>silent world of moving pictures, should be replaced on wiki by 'talkie'.

???  Talkies still move, so talkies are still movies.
*And* silent films (even silent digital videos) are still movies.
So only "movie", not "talkie" nor "film", is most general.

>>And if the Cunctator's assertion is correct, then we need to change
>>it. Non-Americans do not generally use the word 'movie'. It is a word
>>only occasionally used outside the US and usually applied to heavily
>>Americanised Hollywood-ised blockbusters; Bruce Willis saves the
>>world, gets the girl and wisecracks his way to the conclusion, with
>>the promise of 5 sequels and billions of dollars of merchandising to
>>come. In fact 'movie' is used internationally in relation to 'film'
>>the way 'fast food' is used in relation to 'cuisine'. Stuff by Quentin
>>Tarantino is often described as 'film' whereas something with Arnie,
>>Sly or that genre is invariably a 'movie'. And anyone ever heard of a
>>'movie noir'?

Apparently, "movie" is used in NZ as well as in the US.
So I don't think that we can make a general distinction like
«"movie" is used *only* in the US, but "film" is used everywhere else.».
Thus we should say that both terms are acceptable in running text,
and pick a naming convention for titles rather arbitrarily.
The arbitrary choice that was made some time ago is "movie".

>In which case a disambiguator of '(movie)' is totally appropriate
>for the works of which you're contemptuous, eh?  In fact, people
>could tell from the use of '(film)' vs '(movie)' in the article
>title whether it's one that you approve of, and thus know how
>to evaluate the worthiness of the article before reading it.

Where did this come from?  Did I miss an earlier post by jtdirl
where he said that he agreed with snobbish Eurotrash about American movies?
If that's how the terms are in fact interpreted in Ireland,
then you can't blame jtdirl for reporting it.

(And Tarantino's movies *are* better than Willis' movies. ^_^
In particular, Pulp Fiction is Tarantino's worst and Willis' best.
Both are Americans, of course.)


-- Toby