Great, or How I Rate Movies

Great

       This morning, I looked at the word great, as written later in this essay, and contemplated the spelling.  English is such a strange language.  I had never thought of it before, but if not for exceptional rules, the word might be pronounced gree-at.  Grate is obviously pronounced with a long a, but the pronunciation of great requires knowledge of a rule, an exception.

       The reason that I was thinking about the word great in the first place, is that it is the highest rating  in a system I have used for years to rate movies I see.   I have not chronicled the movie ratings.  Actually, I am only interested in identifying the Great ones.  The reason I was thinking about movie ratings is that my wife and I, and our best friends—and movie going partners—saw a movie last night, which we (typically) disagreed on what we thought of it, our tastes varying significantly.

       The film, Anna Karinina, was labeled Great, by me, on the spot, which is unusual because it is usually the next day before I can bring myself to award this highest acclamation.  The others, of course, disagreed.

       So, below, excerpted from an article I wrote for my church on “What Is a Great Ministry”, is a description of my personal movie rating system:

      A system for rating movies that I have used for years is:

                1.     Great

                2.     Excellent

                3.     Good

                4.     Fair

                5.     Awful

                6.     Not worth seeing for $1.00 or for Free.

       A Great movie is so good that a rating of Excellent does not describe how positive and excited you feel about it. 

       An Excellent movie is one you come out of saying, “That was Great,” but the quality or admirable characteristics don’t seem (feel) like it deserves the highest accolade, which is Great.  You know what Great feels like, and this is not it; close, but not it.

       What constitutes a Great movie is different for most individuals.  For me, it would contain some deep psychological principle, usually not disclosed until the end.  A classic example is when Scout sees Boo Radley behind the door in Jim’s room, and identifies him as the man who stabbed Bob Ewell, thus saving her and Jim’s lives (To Kill A Mockingbird, 1962).  Although Scout has never seen him and reports of his appearance are grossly distorted, she simply says, “Hey, Boo.”  As soon as the rest of us catch up with what’s going on, we begin crying “tears of joy”.  “Tears of joy,” is another characteristic that might identify, or differentiate, Great from Excellent.

       So what is a Great movie?  When we see it, when we experience it, if we are interested and agonize over the answer, we know whether it is Excellent or Great because, . . . well,

. . . because we know.