Review of Colin McGinn's Book The Power of Movies: How Screen and Mind Interact

There are beautiful coffee table books available on the market about movies which are heavy on photographs and there are serious studies available about the movies as craft which are heavy on ideas. The Power of Movies by Colin McGinn perhaps belongs in a third category addressing the movies as a philosophy.

It is slightly easier to describe this book by explaining what it is not. It is not about specific movies. (The number of actual film titles mentioned in it can be counted on one hand.) It is not an analysis of film technique. It is not a discussion of filmmakers. Rather, The Power of Movies is about philosophy and cognitive psychology and metaphysics with movies as the catalyst. Wittgenstein, Freud and Descartes are discussed in more depth than Welles, Hitchcock and Spielberg. This is lofty stuff.

Colin McGinn, a professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, flexes his intellectual muscle demonstrating how the mind is "commandeered" by movies. His thesis is that we look "at" most art forms, such as television, theatre, painting, sculpture, photography and architecture, but we look "into" or perhaps "through" movies. His narrative is esoteric and even the theories he dismisses out of hand are difficult to grasp, as when he writes, "I won't bore my readers with an elaborate refutation of the sense-datum theory of perception." Oh, thank you.

But McGinn hits his stride and, frankly, gets interesting when he draws parallels between movies and our basic natural trait of dreaming. According to McGinn, the ideal movie is overtly like our physical state of dreams in source, materials, production and delivery. He says "the brain contains its own miniature Hollywood, complete with producers, directors, actors, technicians, designers, wardrobe people, and hair stylists - and maybe even agents and publicists. And what counts as a box office hit? The recurrent dream, of course, with its many sequels, and the blockbuster dream that lodges forever in the memory." This whimsical yet useful analogy is an excellent explanation of how certain movies have the ability to stay with us long after the final credits and perhaps even effect mood, attitude and outlook.

We seem to be hardwired for movie reception, McGinn believes. "The child has to learn to read before a literary narrative can be processed, but watching a film requires nothing much beyond the capacity to dream. The 'grammar' of films recapitulates the 'grammar' of dreams, which is written into the genes."

This philosophy professor has tidbits of advice for filmmakers to reconcile. Here it is interesting to see the academic put on the hat of film critic. No simplistic thumbs up or thumbs down for the masses. This critique has less to do with acting, directing or plot and more to do with the delivery system of movies. "Film enters the brain through its sensory centers and radiates outwards to the emotional sub-regions," he writes, emphasizing that film lives in the senses, not the intellect. He asserts that a film must be rooted in reality, but it must also depart from reality and enter the realm of imagination. Over all, McGinn says filmmakers should remember that their ultimate subject is the human soul, no matter what visual gimmickry adorns the screen.

According to The Power of Movies, "It is said that Ludwig Wittgenstein used to like to go to the flicks after a particularly grueling philosophy seminar. Sitting in the front row, he would revel in the latest American gangster film or cheesy western." What's good enough for Wittgenstein is good enough for us.

The Power of Movies: How Screen and Mind Interact
By Colin McGinn
Pantheon Books, 210 pages, $24.00
ISBN 0-375-42317-6