To be or not to be.
That is the question.
Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune,
or to take arms against a sea of troubles
and by opposing end them.
This modern telling of Hamlet depicts the character
as a sullen Gen Xer
who spends his time making abstract video art.
He delivers the to be or not to be soliloquy
while wandering the aisles of a Blockbuster video store.
The store is nearly deserted,
and Hamlet does not look closely at any of the films.
He has infinite choices in life
and here at the video store of movies to rent,
but he cannot make a decision.
The video store is a place of hope,
and anxiety about the future.
It is a place where people pass from one condition
into another, where their minds wander at the same pace
as their bodies, browsing.
By the time "Hamlet" was released in May of 2000,
there were over 20,000 video stores in the United States,
5,000 of which were Blockbusters.
The year 2000 is a midpoint in the lifespan
of the video store, roughly halfway between its beginnings
in the late 1970's and its near extinction
by the late 2010's.
This 40 year cycle saw a rise and fall
where video stores became as synonymous with films
as movie theaters had been for the previous seven decades.
Every image from inside a store is from,
or about the past.
As a physical space,
the video store exists only in the past.
The only way to visit these stores now
is through their depictions on screen,
commonplace in American films and TV shows
from the mid 1980's to the early 2010's.
There's no obvious reason why video stores
are less frequently seen in foreign films,
perhaps because video stores tend to traffic in the idea
of capital M movies.
And the idea of capital M movies typically means Hollywood.
And enterprises of great pitch and moment in this regard.
Their currents turn awry.
The to be or not to be speech also ponders
the possibility of the afterlife.
This is the condition of the video rental store today.
It has been nearly erased from the landscape.
Looking at this scene now from the future,
we feel how it is haunted by the eventual death
of the video store.
Video stores made distribution of media a face-to-face,
hand-to-hand process, physically tangible,
concretely special and intimately social.
Moreover, these interactions distributed ideas
and values about movies.
The taste values of individual clerks become enmeshed
with the socially oriented tastes of browsers and customers,
which would vary wildly from store to store.
Depending on whether it was corporate,
or independently owned.
Not to mention the personal taste
and spending power of the owners.
You always bring 'em back like this.
I mean, I can usually figure people out.
I try to build up a character profile,
watching what customers take out.
The thing about you is, there's no consistency.
I mean, look at these titles.
You got horror, drama, comedy, even a bit of porn,
and you've taken most of these out at least 20 times.
I'm in deep trouble folks.
They've started the video revolution without me,
now I gotta play catch up.
Here I am, 750 hard earned bucks,
clutched firmly in my tight little paw.
I'm at a neighborhood video store,
typical of the ones
that are cropping up all over the country,
and in three minutes, you and I are gonna get an education.
The first video rental stores appeared in 1977.
Shortly after Hollywood films were first licensed
for release on magnetic tape.
Whereas there were only 1.9 million American households
with a VCR in 1980.
10 years later, they were 64.5 million,
a shift from about 2% of the population to over 70.
They've become one of the hottest items
of the 80's, and forecasters say that by the end
of the year, one out of every four homes
in the U.S. will have a VCR.
Is it a fad or for real?
It's for real.
In 1985, video stores had an average
of 2,395 videos.
People have to have a minimum of a thousand titles.
This number increased to 3,600 in 1989,
by which point revenue from home video releases
had overtaken the theatrical box office.
All this competition may be great for the VCR industry,
but it is starting to scare some others.
Specifically, the paid television industry like HBO
and Cinemax are starting to feel the effects
and so are the movie theaters.
Some have been forced outta business as a result
of all the VCR viewership.
All of this represents nothing less
than a profound change in the landscape
of American movie culture over the course of the 1980's.
Because the video industry is booming,
the future of the movie theater is not known,
but there are some who are not giving it a very high rating.
By the 1990's
with video rental becoming a standard practice,
corporate retail chains like Blockbuster,
Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery standardized the space
and experience of the video store.
In contrast with the unregulated
and idiosyncratic aesthetic associated
with independent video stores,
chain stores were large, brightly lit,
had wide aisles and put videotapes,
not just the cover boxes on the shelves
throughout the store.
They did not offer adult videos,
nor did they rent VCRs,
providing instead a large uncluttered, family friendly space
for the easy perusal of movies.
You know, we have a lot of different movies
you might not have seen before.
Can I help you find anything in particular?
Oh, thanks. I'll just look around.
I'm sure I'll find something. - Okay.
Typically, each Blockbuster
would have around 10,000 tapes available for rent,
by far surpassing the holdings
of the average independently owned store.
I've never seen 10,000 tapes in one store.
There's so much kids stuff.
This number was cited frequently
in nearly every blockbuster commercial of the era.
I mean, we have over 10,000 videos.
Wow.
Associating Blockbuster
in the average customer's mind
with near limitless selection.
Wow. - Wow.
Wow!
♪ What a difference ♪
♪ Blockbuster Video ♪
Blockbuster commercials at this time
also leaned heavily into their family friendly image.
♪ We're the blockbuster kids ♪
♪ And we're always up for fun ♪
This served to further set the growing market
of corporate video rental stores apart
from whatever notions were previously held
of intimate mom and pop stores of the 1980's.
Why is West Coast Video number one?
Today, we'll talk
to another famous West Coast Video customer
to find out why he rents movies from West Coast Video.
Video snatchers have invaded your area.
They're coming to Queens of Long Island,
Royal Video Superstores grand opening.
By the end of the 1990's,
there were roughly 18,000 video stores,
a decline of over 30% from a decade earlier.
Now you can rent all new releases
or anything else
for five days. - Really?
Of these, Blockbuster had 5,000,
Hollywood Video had 1800 and Movie Gallery had 1300.
Additionally, well over 8,000 grocery stores
provided cheaply priced video rentals.
He's got a phone there anyway.
Somebody came in here,
and blew a good chunk of Farrell Hovis’s brains
all over the video tape,
that's what happened. - Come on.
We're DVD freaks. - We're DVD crazy.
Freaks. - We live our lives 1 DVD
at a time.
The arrival of DVD at the end
of the 90's shifted video consumption
and shopping habits away from the video store,
diffusing movies throughout the general retail landscape
into stores such as Best Buy and Walmart.
Greatly increasing the geographic convenience
of movie shopping.
"Dental School."
Me and Veggie Dick rented that shit in 1994,
but we never watched it 'cause we didn't have a VCR.
But now you could put it on the shelf in the video store.
Oh yeah!
The video store closed 10 years ago.
It did?
This was the video store.
Unable to overhaul their stock
by repurchasing titles they already held on VHS,
many independently owned video stores began to close
during the late 1990's and early 2000's.
Subject to a financial dilemma
that larger chains did not face.
The video store has been an onscreen mainstay of movies
and television for decades.
From the early 1980's to today,
when it's more a counterculture emblem in period pieces.
We've seen all these comedies.
The horse which is the main expert.
We have to get a new one.
The video store went from being mysterious
and dangerous, to representing a broad, unremarkable part
of daily life.
"Cannibal Man."
Um.
Do you have the "Texas Chainsaw Mascara?"
We watched them transform
from rarefied museums of knowledge lorded over
by protective clerks,
to a commonly understood cinematic space.
"Free Willy" back yet? - Still out.
People are pigs!
Sit on movies like they own them!
Freak.
As time passed, we watched them get erased
from our lives and from our screens.
Depictions of video stores became dull,
mundane, and unremarkable.
Jack. Oh, Jack.
Can I help you? - Get your loser ass away
from me!
I cannot believe I almost sucked my dad's dick.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, kid.
Just as VHS once gave way to DVD,
a new format emerged to once again lose customers unwilling
to adapt and penalize stores unable to upgrade.
See you, Joanna.
Just cover myself and sleep.
Slowly, video stores scenes shrank,
both in duration and importance.
They became transitional spaces,
briefly occupied by the characters, but unremarked upon.
♪ When he's out betrayin ♪
♪ You'll hear people sayin ♪
♪ Look out for the cheater ♪
And then they were gone.
Video stores have become unfamiliar,
as antiquated as a family gathered around the radio,
or the sound of a dial up modem.
But unlike broadcast signals in the internet,
the video store's brief existence
as a physical space has evolved into nothing.
Every image from inside a video store
is from or about the past.
These spaces became extinct.
Current and future depictions
are set entirely in the past.
A small number of video stores still do
and always will exist, but for many of us,
our only opportunity to visit a video store now
is to see one on screen.
In the mid 1970's,
the VCR appeared and like radio and TV
The price was extremely high
when they first came out.
Very unaffordable and only you know the ones that really,
you know, wanted them as the toy
and to be the first one on the block to get them,
but they were in the neighborhood of 13 to $1,600.
♪ And on that night ♪
♪ I'm all alone ♪
♪ Watching the TV screen ♪
♪ And all at once, she appears to me ♪
♪ Girl of my dreams ♪
♪ I'm watching my video ♪
♪ Watching my video ♪
♪ It sure looks good to me ♪
♪ Video ♪
Videotape had existed as a means
for recording filmed entertainment since 1956.
And by 1957 would be used
to present West Coast broadcasts of live events.
Sony's Beta Max would appear in 1975,
bringing the promise of transforming production
or viewing habits.
Now, some of the best movies on television
aren't on television, they're on Selectavision.
The four hour video cassette recorder from RCA.
Because now you can buy full length uncut movies
on cassettes, movies like "Pat" and "Hello Dolly."
And lots more.
Hello. - With Selectavision,
you can go to the movies at your house.
In 1978, 20th Century Fox
was the first major studio to release its product
on video cassette.
Starting with such popular titles as Patton, Mash,
and the French Connection.
In 1979, Paramount Pictures formed a partnership
with the film developing chain, Fotomat to rent
and sell their films on videotape,
thus solidifying the relationship between home video
and the booming electronics retail market.
When can I pick up
the pictures? - Thursday.
Thursday, okay, lemme make a note of that.
By aligning itself with the familiar routine
of dropping off film, which necessitated a second visit
to pick up the prints,
the relationship between renting movies and social routines
is already taking shape around existing habits.
Before it became ubiquitous
in the American consumer consciousness,
the videotape was a locus of suspicion
and violence in movies.
With films in the early 80's exploiting its ability
to penetrate the minds and even bodies of viewers.
Video as a recognizable consumer medium
was only about five years old when the image of a tape
as sinister and evil was imprinted on viewers' imaginations
in David Cronenberg's 1983 film, "Videodrome."
Running with a concept that consumer electronics were coming
to occupy overly parasitic and dangerous roles
in our lives and homes.
This was first seen in 1977's, "Demon Seed."
Is this an experiment, something?
I have extended my consciousness to this house
by activating my terminal in the basement.
All electrical and mechanical systems here
are now under my control.
Okay, here we go.
At this point,
videotape was still regarded largely as a professional tool.
However, Cronenberg was able to create the notion
of tape as entity,
despite these tapes not containing commercial films.
What is that wall behind her?
What is that clay? - Yeah. Wet clay.
I think it's electrified.
Instead, they capture elicit broadcasts,
transmitting images of such extreme sex and violence
that they drive the viewer to the brink of lust and madness.
Got any porno?
You serious? - Yeah. Gets me in the mood.
What's this "Videodrome?"
Torture, murder. - Sounds great.
For viewers in 1983,
the process of identifying videotape with danger,
sexuality and violence had already begun well before
the concept of easily accessible video stores had become
a part of the retail landscape.
In the words of Eros Magazine,
"The Gone With the Wind of Adult Films."
"Holly Does Hollywood" in a Hedonist Heaven."
The first onscreen depiction of a video store
in a Hollywood film came one year later in 1984
in Brian De Palma's "Body Double."
It is easy to imagine the fervently cinephilic De Palma
being an early proponent of video technology and ownership,
which seemed in 1984 as the natural evolution
of consuming and possessing the films you loved.
"Holly Does Hollywood,"
now playing at the X Cinema.
And for you home viewers, you can pick it up right now
at Tower Records all night video sale.
Jake Scully enters the Sunset Boulevard location
of Tower Video, searching for a specific pornographic film
starring Holly Body with whom he's growing obsessed.
Excuse me, do you have "Holly Does Hollywood?"
Yeah, we do. It's in our adult section.
Follow me.
On VHS? - Yeah, VHS.
Whatever you want, half inch, three quarter, beta.
The public space
of the video store had not yet been familiarized
to the average viewer.
De Palma introduced audiences to the very idea of them.
He created the template that two subsequent decades
of video store interactions on screen will follow.
First, the store is seen as an archive
of unfathomable death,
as evidenced by the knowledgeable clerk offering
that they have the film in several,
albeit historically improbable and unlikely formats.
Second, "Body Double" presented the very notion
of video acquisition as elicit, sexual and dangerous,
years away from the sanitized safety of blockbuster video.
Here in the early 1980's, the format is still the domain
of sex and violence.
The colorful moody lighting
of the Tower Video location augments this feeling.
The store is atmospheric and alluring,
suggesting mystery and excitement
rather than bland consumerism.
"Videodrome" and "Body Double" built upon videos beginnings
in the late 70's as a technological advancement
for capturing images, connecting consumption,
and production of movies or images on videotape.
Hello, I was wondering if you could help me.
Are you the company
that distributes "Holly Does Hollywood"?
Yes.
Both films connected this production
to pornography rather than say, family home movies,
or aspirations of mainstream film production.
Pleasure to meet you. - Stand over there.
I'm sorry. Mr. Chris...
You ready? - Yeah.
Go ahead.
I like to watch.
"Disconnected" also from 1984 features
the video store as an intrinsic part of the social landscape
with a remarkable ease in casualness,
considering how relatively new they were.
What are you doing here?
Well, I was gonna call but I decided to stop by instead
and well, frankly, I thought the store opened up earlier
than it did.
The film presents a video store as a place
of ordinary romantic fixation,
the same year "Body Double" treats it
as an entrance into the underworld of pornography.
God, all these movies. Hmm.
You don't seem to have too many porn films though.
Well, you got a lot of horror and a lot of new stuff.
In "Disconnected" when the character
of Franklin first visits the video store,
he makes casual observations about the selection
while admitting that he himself does not own a VCR.
He's there only to flirt with Alicia,
seemingly the store's lone employee.
However, his banter reveals several key aspects
of video retail at this time.
You know, this is the third store I was in today.
You weren't in the other two.
This tossed off comment contextualizes
the abundance of video rental stores in this town.
In 1985, more than half of video store owners stated
that their nearest competition was less
than a quarter mile away and this level
of saturation held steady throughout the rest of the decade.
His preference for foreign films, and description
of the size of the subtitles on videotape
and seeming distaste for horror are also in opposition
to nearly all other depictions of video stores
in films of this era.
Hi.
Rather than the intended function
of a video rental store, bringing a movie to the privacy
of one's own home, we see here the first instance
of a trend that will remain ubiquitous
for the next two decades.
Bringing one's private life and romantic entanglements
into the public space of the video store.
I thought... I was gonna get something to eat and drink,
I thought maybe on my way I could get some food for you.
How would that be? - That's good.
Because I fear, you know,
you're in the store all by yourself that, you know,
you probably have to lock up the whole place
just to get something to eat.
What do you got new in porn?
Well, I have two binders at the end
of the counter. - Fuck that list, honey,
just tell me what's new and hot.
You know what I mean.
Well, I can't tell you how they are.
I don't watch them. - Yeah, sure, sure.
The way you look, I bet you could be in 'em.
Excuse me?
Do you really think that's appropriate behavior?
Who is this asshole?
Look, why don't you just go, okay, just please.
Fuck this shit!
Psst! Psst!
The 1987 sketch comedy omnibus film,
"Amazon Women on the Moon" played the growing cultural
obsession with videotape for laughs.
Yeah.
Saturday night.
Yeah.
Ain't got a date?
In the segment video date directed by John Landis,
a young man finds himself inside a Tower Video
as brightly lit and accessible as the one
in "Body Double" is atmospheric.
The presence of a poster for Russ Meyer's 1975 film,
"Super Vixens" nestled between contemporary hits,
"Beverly Hills Cop" and "Ghostbusters"
would seem to be a sly joke
about the store's vast selection,
but for the fact that Meyer himself appears moments later
as the sole clerk and proprietor.
The Lovelorn character is bestowed a tape,
ominously bearing his own name from a wall full of them.
We are then shown that the video in question contains
what appears to be an inexplicably personalized
and interactive videotape.
The contents of which bestow a pornographic fantasy
much like the videos of Holly Body
that Jake Scully obsesses over in "Body Double."
You the best, Frank!
You dirty slut!
Frankie! What are you doing here?
I thought you were out of town.
That's what I wanted you to think,
and I expected a little more from you, Ray.
Numerous arrests for pimping,
child pornography, drug dealing, murder, no convictions.
Witnesses against Max have a habit of disappearing.
He is a resident of Vegas, but when in LA,
he operates out of a video rental store on the west side.
The video store's identification with violence
is once again on display in 1987's,
"Death Wish 4: The Crackdown."
Charles Bronson's vigilante, Paul Kiersey discovers
a drug racket operation in the back of a video store,
perhaps chosen as a front due to the consistent
and inconspicuous volume of foot traffic it would see
on any given day.
The back of the video store is wallpapered with posters,
and ephemera for other titles
from this film studio, Canon films
such as "Forced Testimony," "The Naked Face,"
the "Story of O Part 2,"
and "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2."
Their prominence on screen is an early example
of synergy between a studio producing a film,
and the video shown in the movie itself.
What do you want? - You.
Hey, I didn't do nothing.
No, you just sell drugs to children.
Now, come on. It's a business man.
I'm only a supplier, you know what I'm saying?
I mean, I don't make the kids use drugs,
it's their choice.
Additionally, Cannon's association
with precisely these types of low budget genre films
further classifies the video store as a space trafficking
in cheap thrills, sexuality and horror.
How many children have you killed with this shit?
This relationship with horror
and the identity of the video store as a captivating
and dangerous space continued with "The Lost Boys."
Mom! - But I know this is...
Sam, what are you doing with the bike...
Mom, listen, I gotta tell you something.
It's real important. Shhh!
Santa Carlas's crawling with vampires, mom.
Excuse me. - Mom, I'm serious.
As the 80's saw precipitous increase of video
as a consumer format,
it evolved from complex technology reserved for
and understood only by the savvy,
and became synonymous with accessible entertainment.
Stop it right now, just stop it!
And whereas "Body Double"
with its Hitchcock homages and pornographic imagery
was targeted at adults, the sexualized teenage thrills
of "The Lost Boys" would more sufficiently indoctrinate
the notion of video store spaces into the imaginations
of younger viewers.
In "The Lost Boys," we see the introduction
of video rentals into stores
whose primary focus was electronics.
Max's video store would certainly
have been one of the thousands of electronic stores
to make space for videotapes.
As the medium gained traction,
and music scales began to dip.
A brightly lit store resembling as much a club
as a retail space, with vampires lurking about
makes this space alluring and dangerous.
Well, second thought.
I told you not to come in here anymore.
Wild kids.
Asparagus, basil.
In stark contrast is another prominent trend
that began in the mid 1980's,
placing video rental displays within grocery stores
and other established routine-based locations.
Hey, Pete. - Buster.
Answer me a couple of things.
If I can.
Do you have any new Paul Sheldon books?
To maximize convenience,
these displays would offer only limited options,
typically focusing on new releases and children's titles.
By the late 1980's, the video store was no longer a novelty
in the retail landscape.
Beginning here and lasting
well into the 1990's,
video stores start to appear
in the background of films
without distinction or commentary.
As much a part of the neighborhood routine
as the supermarket or laundromat.
In 1992, "Lethal Weapon 3" shows that at least
in the Valley, independent store, Odyssey video
can exist directly across the street from a blockbuster.
However, the video store,
no matter how commonplace it became continued to be seen
as a site of danger and transgression.
I'm going to the movie.
Two films produced in 1989,
but not released until 1991 extended this representation
into a new decade.
Are your kids renting a movie this weekend?
Horror films like these are the most popular choice.
Graphic orgies of blood and violence.
And they watch 15 murders in an hour and a half.
Children mesmerized.
I like the gore.
Concurrent with the Satanic panic crusade
against heavy metal music,
the American media took to familiar fear mongering tactics
regarding the rising popularity of horror films.
VCR Horrors.
Half of American households
now have video cassette recorders, and for many children,
they're a ticket to R-rated gore
that the kids are too young to see at the movies.
So do you know what your children are watching?
Well, parents and psychologists are very concerned,
and tonight Bob Brown will show us why.
Two films seem to have provided the impetus
for productions to become more and more explicit.
The first was "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968,
and the second was the 1974 release
of "Texas Chain Saw Massacre."
Each was made for less than $200,000
and they reportedly have grossed more than $50 million
a piece.
"Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and its sequel,
"Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2"
are still two of the biggest hits
in the video rental market.
It is the explosion of that video rental market that fuels
the modern horror films.
Kids get the movies from the horror section
of the video store.
Most of the violent movies are rated R,
and aren't supposed to be seen unless you're 17 years old.
Others are made directly on videotape
and bypass the rating system altogether.
One such film centralizes
the relationship between renting horror movies
and customer's relationships to them,
1987's "Video Violence."
"Video Violence" is a low budget shot on video horror film
that takes up a dialogue with similar movies.
The film was directed by Gary Cohen,
who owned a video store in the 1980's.
Cohen has said he made the movie because he was intrigued
by the odd logic of his renters
for whom violence was acceptable,
but nudity and sexuality unacceptable,
particularly for children.
What's the rating on this?
Huh? - The rating, what is it?
Oh, it's probably written on there. R.
Oh, is that for nudity?
I really don't know,
but I doubt it's for nudity.
It's probably for all the violence.
Oh, good.
Okay, then I'll take it.
The kids can watch it.
Additionally, he noticed
that some very low budget shot on video horror films
were popular among his clientele.
"Video Violence" depicts a man
who has moved from New York City to Frenchtown, New Jersey
to open a video store.
I'm Joanna Barker, I am visiting my aunt and uncle
for a short vacation and I thought I'd like to rent a movie.
They're club members and I have their card.
The narrative is striking for several reasons.
As a time capsule of video store logistics in the 1980's,
for its examination of media infrastructures of the era,
and for its duplicitous positioning of video
as a dangerous technology,
functioning as exactly what it sets out to satirize.
What's the matter? - Nothing. Nothing.
You just threw us. That's all.
I mean, you're the first person in ages to ask
for a comedy rather than a slasher film.
The film implicitly remarks upon the explosion
of new video stores in the late 1980's,
as well as the wild proliferation
of low budget horror videos the market help facilitate.
How are you today?
Get something for you?
You got that chain saw movie?
I'll get it.
Directed by a video store owner,
"Video Violence" serves as an insider's record
of the uneven dispersal of media technology during the era.
Everyone who comes in here has had a VCR
for at least a year or so, and the nearest rental store
is about 15 miles away.
I guess they were just happy
to tape off a cable.
What cable?
Ain't no cable in Frenchtown
and the reception's for shit too,
and they don't allow any of those satellite dishes.
This expresses that the filmmakers were conscious
of the limited use of VCRs at the time,
particularly in more remote locations.
This moment dramatizes how video rental was tangled up
in a much wider media infrastructure,
comprising many different technologies
and modes of distribution.
Here, these are on time.
One of the reasons the video store
within the diegesis of "Video Violence" is successful
is that movies on tape did not have to compete with TV,
cable, or satellite in the region.
This is weird.
I don't think
that's one of your tapes. - Let me see.
Yeah, you're right. This isn't a rental.
They must have left my tape in the machine
and returned one of their their blank cassettes instead.
It happens. Put it aside.
They'll realize their mistake and be back in later.
You wanna watch it?
Shit, Howard, it ain't gonna be easy to cut
with his hands tied up like this.
Holy shit.
This looks very, very real,
Look, man, that is real.
That guy getting cut up is Reggie Hobbs.
He's a frigging postmaster.
As the movie continues, it becomes clear
that some local townspeople are making snuff videos
and the owner and his wife get embroiled in solving
the mystery of who is committing the murders.
The movie reveals that in fact, the entire town
is engaged in the production and consumption of the snuff.
Released one year after "Video Violence,"
1988's "Remote Control" is the culmination
of the decades trend that video stores
and obsessive video consumption will result in experiences
that mirror, for better or worse
the tapes consumers are watching.
Instead of adult fantasy or slasher inspired violence,
the film tells a story in which videotapes
of a 1950's science fiction film are distributed by aliens
as a means of brainwashing humans.
The video store in "Remote Control" is located
inside the lobby of a closed movie theater,
signaling that as early as 1988 video was becoming
the dominant means of movie consumption.
Cosmo, stop stackin’
and help me set this display up, will you?
The store boasts a massive advertisement
for the brainwashing tape known as "Remote Control."
Though exaggerated, the display reflects
the increasing marketing techniques of distributors
and video stores.
All right.
Yeah. - "Remote Control."
This sales guy comes in here the other day,
he's handing out sample cassettes free
if you run this display.
So I took two and we get a mirror out of the deal.
"In Remote Control,"
the promotional display becomes nefarious,
turning a common site that you might see in any video store
into something sinister.
Come on, Cosmo.
Don't crack up on me now, huh?
Come on.
The young man discovers an evil alien plot and
must race against time to save mankind
from self-destruction.
Aliens. That's what was controlling the woman in the movie.
Like "Disconnected," the film accurately depicts
that at this time, not far from most video stores
is another video store.
That guy handing out sample cassettes must have given 'em
to other stores.
Where's the nearest video store?
Satellite Video on Arsley Road.
Having vanquished the threat from their own store,
the characters have to visit all the other video stores
in town to make sure no other copies
of "Remote Control" are circulating.
Cosmo, Cosmo, Cosmo, come on.
Get down!
You too!
What's that display doing there?
Why did you aim it at my eyes?
I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to get away
from the counter.
Oh, don't worry. It's not a holdup.
I'm the manager, eat shit and die!
The spectacle and cinematic reality
of the videotapes themselves upend
the previously mundane existence
of the characters,
suggesting that the tape you decide to rent,
be it pornography, horror, or science fiction
will have an immediate and overt influence on your life.
Meta textual commentary that plays
with a relationship between tapes rented
and violence befalling the characters also features
in the shot on super eight millimeter film,
"The Dead Next Door."
Ultimately, no film better represents
the shifting video retail landscape
at the close of the 1980's and the dawn of the 1990's
than Troma Entertainment's,
"The Toxic Avenger Part III:
The Last Temptation of Toxie."
Drop those video cassettes,
or I'll blow your brains out!
Released in November, 1989,
the film is both a summation of the independent ethos
that defined Troma throughout the 80's
and a stunningly accurate forecast
of the corporate takeover of the video store industry
that will define the 90's.
There's too much variety in this store.
Now that this is a company town,
you're all gonna rent company tapes, right?
No! - That's right.
From now on, only the top 20 video tapes will be available
in this store.
The top five, "The Apocalypse" self improvement tapes
from Apocalypse Inc.
But we like variety.
We like having a lot of choices.
We don't want just top 20.
We like those movies from Troma!
Screw Troma movies!
When a New York City based chemical company
called Apocalypse Inc moves
to take over Tromaville New Jersey,
there outlandish goons enact plans to strip
the town of its individuality,
forcing the corporate agenda on the townspeople
and specifically their video store.
Tear it up!
Many of the posters hanging above
the store's tapes advertise other Troma releases
such as "Combat Shock," "Troma's War,"
"Class of Newcomb High," "Redneck Zombies,"
and the first "Toxic Avenger" film.
But if this seems like a bit of sly self-referential winking
on behalf of Troma's founder
and this film's co-director, Lloyd Kaufman,
the next decade will see Troma posters decorating
the walls of video stores and mainstream films,
and television to almost an astonishing degree.
Whether it's "Femme Fontaine: Killer Babe for the CIA"
being subconsciously
introduced to teenage viewers
of a broadcast television drama.
A shelf with many Troma films categorized as classics
in a subversive comedy.
"The Toxic Avenger" himself being used as shorthand
for a budding psychopath's desensitization to violence
in a European art film.
Troma release "Evil Clutch" being used as window dressing
to represent disreputable Times Square style exploitation
in an early 90's Hollywood action comedy.
Or "Tromeo and Juliet" being featured in a mainstream
as mainstream gets summer blockbuster.
It's all stopped up,
so you're gonna have to pee in the si-
You still think I'm paranoid?
Yeah.
As time progressed,
Troma Entertainment was consistently front and center,
wherever movies used video stores and film exhibition
to talk about themselves.
However, here at the end of the 1980's, these heavies
from Apocalypse Inc literally destroy
the store's eclectic selection in favor
of homogenous offerings from the major studios,
anticipating how Troma films will be seen
as esoteric rather than mainstream adjacent
as they would've been throughout
the less regulated video store era
that is now coming to a close.
Yeah!
The gleeful destruction
of this store was in 1989 a comedic set piece with little
or no broader meaning.
However, looking back on it now,
what was once farce has become tragedy.
Toxie, the character thus represents an independent company.
He is literally Troma's mascot
and an independent video store,
such as the one in which this scene takes place,
fighting what is soon to be a losing battle
against the Blockbusters of the world.
Whose total dominance of the video rental landscape
will reach its apex in the 1990's.
People of "Tromaville,"
"The Toxic Avenger's" back better than ever.
Toxic Avenger's back.
He's a real man. - Yeah, he is.
Thank you. Thank you, Toxic.
You saved us.
Yeah, but it was a rough day,
even for a hideously deformed creature
of superhuman size and strength.
What a mensch.
From the late 1980's through the 1990's
due to the increased prominence of chain stores,
video stores caught up with theaters as a primary location
of movie culture in America,
whereas there were only 94 blockbuster locations in 1987.
By 1991, there were over 1600 stores operating in 44 states.
Volume eight of "Police Woman"
is missing 11 seconds off its end credits.
Anybody else complained about it?
No one else has ever rented it.
It's American history.
Throughout the 90's,
blockbuster status as the industry leader allowed it
to explore further non-video based business endeavors.
Each year, thousands of children are reported missing
and there's something you can do now
to help safeguard your child
just in case the unthinkable happens.
It's called Kidprint, and here's how it works.
Throughout the month of June,
bring your child in a blank video tape
into your local blockbuster video store.
Blockbuster will tape your child free of charge,
and you'll have the tape for safekeeping.
Police say, this can be a vital tool in the search
for missing children.
Contact your local blockbuster video
to learn more about Kidprint.
Its growth and expansion
were of constant interest.
Suddenly, a new retail empire existed
where there had been nothing.
It took video stores just over a decade to achieve
what took cinemas more than half a century.
Proliferation of identical impersonal chains
that replaced unique local and one of a kind establishments.
I need this fucking stupid bullshit job,
like I need to get my fucking head torn off.
Video Update
is continuing its unbelievable deal for you every Tuesday
throughout the holiday season.
The 1990's witnessed the standardization
of the video store space in terms of architecture,
the large clean store design of corporate chains.
Geography as corporate chains became the norm in many parts
of the country and taste, with a large number
of Hollywood movies and lack of imagination and marketing.
♪ Come see the difference ♪
♪ At Nature Video ♪
Its here. They got it.
They have lots and lots of kids stuff for us.
One of the largest selections,
32 different categories.
See it.
This alteration in video store culture occurred
in the context of an explosion and standardization
of retail spaces more broadly in the 1990's.
The book world was overtaken at this time
by superstores such as Borders,
and Barnes and Noble.
Like Blockbuster, these enormous well organized stores
appealed to customer's desire for options.
As depicted on screen during these years,
the video stores shifted from a place of forbidden knowledge
into a space as normalized as bookstores.
Now, to depict a video store on screen
was to portray familiar and even mundane behavior in spaces.
This is a great movie.
Ah, this is a bad, bad movie.
They're all bad movies.
Every movie in this store is a bad movie.
Throughout the 1990's and beyond,
representations of video stores became intrinsically linked
to socially awkward interactions, either romantic courtship
or undesirable encounters.
These encounters took on various forms,
many featuring rude, irritating, or unhelpful employees.
This frustration was now commonplace,
creating and solidifying stereotypes
of video store employees that have outlasted
the stores themselves.
You put your mom down
as a reference. - Yeah. Why not?
She's like super well respected.
You're such a dingus.
Just to be clear, we weren't fired, you know,
The mall burned down and like killed a bunch of people.
Thanks for sharing. Didn't know.
Nearly as common,
especially in the medium of television
are encounters tied to romantic failure.
Look, you're gonna have to help me out here
because I only have three.
I can help with that. - Oh my God.
Richard?
Video stores were used
to suggest the excitement, romance,
and drama of the cinema as opposed
to the mundane experience of browsing.
Oh yes. "Wuthering Heights."
Kathy, Kathy, my wild sweet.
Okay. No, Kathy.
How about, how about...
Oh, excuse me.
How about Katie?
Katie? - "The Way We Were."
Oh, "See ya, Hubbell,". -Right.
And then what does he say?
What does he say?
"See you, Katie." - Right.
Because video stores were defined primarily
by renting, the tapes must be returned to the store.
They circulate home into the viewer's private lives
before getting pulled back,
but this circulation creates potential conflict.
Being in public at the video store it seems
was a cause for concern.
You're welcome.
In this way, the video rental experience
took on a significance that extended beyond
the video stores themselves.
Don't you hate that.
Come all the way down here yourself to the store,
wait patiently, and then somebody
who calls in from home gets preferential treatment.
I can help the next person in line.
It accords with an uneasiness people might feel
while shopping in public.
We may run into someone we don't wanna see.
We may be judged or ridiculed for our tastes.
We seek satisfaction,
but worry that our desires will not be met.
Don't even think about it!
I'm looking for "How Green Was My Valley."
Huh?
It is a beautifully acted depiction of life
in a small town in Wales.
It won five Academy awards.
It's a classic. - Oh.
Well, this is a shot in the dark,
but you might try looking in the classics section.
This problem is repeatedly dramatized
through scenes where characters have unexpected
or unpleasant interactions,
which are in part driven by an eruption of private issues
into public space.
How about this one, Amelia?
Bugs that latch onto people's flesh
and make their insides explode, sure.
You don't like those kind of movies?
I love 'em if they're well done.
In "Walking and Talking",
the character, Amelia, rents a movie while chatting amiably
with a scruffy clerk name Bill.
After several interactions,
some of which involve movies, he asks her on a date.
They clearly have different tastes,
and although she feels awkward about it,
she agrees to go out with him,
which leads to him spending the night at her apartment.
Hi, it's me.
Oh, I guess you're still out with the...
What is his name, anyway?
You always just call him the ugly guy.
God, I can't believe you're still out with him.
Does this mean he'll give you free video rentals?
After he avoids her,
the only place she can reliably find him
is behind the counter.
Hi, Bill. - Hi. How you doing?
Fine. I was wondering, do you have "Jaws" in stock?
Yeah, I think so.
I haven't seen you around.
Where you been?
You haven't rented lately.
The moment is awkward,
in part because the many other customers are caught up
in an unwelcome emotional scene.
Rented lately. Are you crazy?
I had sex with you two weeks ago
and now you're asking me why I haven't rented lately!
I don't know.
I didn't know what to say.
How about, how about why haven't you called me?
How about that?
I was busy, okay. - Fine.
In these exchanges,
the video store facilitates a movement
from a casual transaction of cash for entertainment
to a romantic encounter to something more serious
than either party had intended.
Suggesting that the video store
is a place mandating casualness and nothing more.
What is it that you want, buddy?
Your company. The pleasure of your company.
I want your input on video rentals.
I stand there for hours,
I can't pick anything out.
Yes, I was standing over there by that desk.
No, you were sitting in the chair,
but suddenly you started walking toward me very slowly,
very slowly.
The interplay between film literate characters
espousing knowledge as a means of flirting
quickly became a staple of video store interaction.
Oh. - Oh, I'm so sorry.
Oh, I'm sorry. You take it. - No, no, no, that's okay.
You take it.
Are you sure? - You know what?
You're not gonna like it.
It's got a twist
and you'll see it coming from a mile away.
And how would you know what I like?
I know movies and women.
Really? - Mhm-hmm.
Okay. Well then why don't you tell me
what I want.
"The Lady Vanishes." - Mhm-hmm.
Why is that?
Well, firstly, you can never go wrong with Hitchcock ever.
It's got comedy, drama, romance.
It's a thriller.
It's classy, but not stuffy,
and it's a little obscure.
So if you haven't seen it,
you’ll thank me for introducing you to it.
If you have, you'll know what a good choice it was.
Well, I have seen it
and it is a really
good choice. - Mhm-hmm.
However, not as good as "Rebecca"
and "Notorious," "Vertigo"
or pretty much any of his films from 1960 to 1972.
In fact, it's sort of a second tier title.
The possibilities of creating romance
by bonding over cinema, specifically acclaimed
and classic films move video store's image on screen
toward bastions of film history
and away from seeming like esoteric specialty stores.
This image remained an onscreen cliche right up to the point
at which these spaces were no longer a relevant part
of the retail landscape.
The script for "This Means War" was nearly a decade old
when it went into production,
which explains the incongruous appearance
of a massive sprawling video store as late as 2012.
An HMV Megastore location doubles
for the mom and pop sounding Vick’s Video,
suggesting the type of scene more common in films
from an earlier era.
Are you gonna rent that?
Yeah. Yeah. - Definitely.
Two seemingly charming singles might wanna rent
the same tape, in this case, "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
Just holding it in your hands.
No, no, I'm definitely...
I mean, I'm definitely gonna rent this one.
I'll give you it.
You want this one?
No, I came for that one.
It's a great movie.
Excuse me.
Hey, how you doing? - Hi.
Look, you know what, I was thinking,
I was thinking if you want the video that badly,
why don't you give me your phone number
and then when I finish watching it tonight,
no, I can give you a call and then maybe bring it over.
These characters later engage
in a romance, then separate and near the end of the film,
come together again in the same video store.
Wow, hi.
How you been?
How have you been?
You know, I've been better.
You know, I called you,
I called you a couple times. - Yeah I know.
I never heard back from you.
I've been meaning to call you back.
Yeah, but you just, what?
Never got around to it.
Although a romance originates in a video store,
it ends without classical Hollywood closure.
While the video store makes a chance encounter possible,
it nevertheless leads to frustrated desires.
Why do you have to come from that place?
You know what I mean?
You think I wanna go home and snuggle,
and read subtitles and watching black and white?
The guy sucks blood. - Can we ever go
to a goddamn video store without getting
into an argument? - Not as long
as you have such shitty taste in movies.
I don't have shitty taste in movies.
How can you not appreciate German expressionism?
I love German expressionism.
Right. - What I don't like
is what you turn into when you watch that damn movie.
You start getting all fixated on death,
like, I'm gonna die. You're gonna die.
The cat's gonna die.
Everybody's gonna die. - Fine. Fine.
You watch your stupid titty movie.
I'll watch my death movie.
You return yours. I'll return mine.
I'd like to rent "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
This is out.
Someone has it. - Out, oh no,
I've been to four other places.
You're the only ones that have had it.
Well, I can put her on reserve for you if you'd like.
Maybe we could call them
and ask them to return it.
Seinfeld made use of the location
in several episodes.
Reveling as always in social awkwardness and humiliation.
Hey, what do you know?
Look at that. A lesbian sighting.
My lucky day.
They're so fascinating. Why is that?
'Cause they don't want us.
You gotta respect that.
Oh my god, it's Susan.
But what do we do?
George. - Susan.
Hi. - Hi.
Watching characters engage in the very behavior
that we ourselves may frequently experience
while renting a videotape became ingrained
into our way of watching movies and television.
"Seinfeld" acknowledges the world of choice,
possibility, and consumption.
While as a network sitcom acting as an antithesis
to the physical experience of journeying to a video store
and selecting a film.
These films and shows from the past
are forever reaching out to the future.
The real one they were moving toward in the time
of their production and now to the one
that we know no longer exists.
Starting in the early 1990's,
video stores on screen became spaces for film
and television to talk about itself.
I need to rent "The English Patient."
May I suggest to you a movie
that does not completely blow?
No, because it was on cable last night
and put the baby to sleep.
In fact, it's the only thing that's put the baby to sleep
because the baby never sleeps.
And if the baby doesn't sleep, then I don't sleep.
And if I don't sleep, I get angry, I get irritable
and I no longer maintain my sunny disposition.
So Pacey, if you have even the slightest bit of human decency
you will rent this movie to me immediately,
and bring 181 minutes of peace
in my otherwise wretched life.
The esoteric representations
of the video store in the 1980's have faded away,
replaced by an acknowledgement of video stores
as a regular part of our lives.
"The Holiday" connects the video store to media production,
in this case with official movie production culture
in Hollywood.
In the film, a British woman named Iris goes to Los Angeles
for a vacation.
Renting the house of a movie trailer editor,
Iris ecstatically discovers the house's owner
has a veritable archive of DVDs.
Iris later develops a friendship
with a film composer named Miles,
a development which promotes the fantasy
that everybody proximal to Hollywood works
or has worked in the movie business.
At Blockbuster, they pick out a movie to watch together,
indicating that despite the library of options
she has at home, the experience of browsing in public
is always more appealing as it leaves open a variety
of dramatic possibilities.
Have you seen this?
Oh, "Chariots of Fire," loved it.
Such a great score by Vangelis.
He took electronic scores to a new level.
It was groundbreaking. I'm gonna test you on this later.
Okay. "Driving Miss Daisy," Hans.
Very unexpected.
Do you remember how great it was?
It's sassy.
Miles thus enters the video store with an abundance
of previous viewing experiences.
He is a former spectator whose knowledge of movies guides
the couple through the aisles and from shelf to shelf.
The film also offers a range of possibilities to the viewers
of "The Holiday" itself.
We might be as steeped in film experience as Miles,
in which case we can recognize the humor
in his rendition of the songs.
If we are a novice as Iris,
then we might read this performance
as a series of advertisements
for future viewing experiences we could have.
♪ Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio ♪
I bet you didn't know that was all written for the movie.
It was a score, technically.
I did know that one. - Can't go anywhere.
The humor of this scene requires
that viewers at least know that Dustin Hoffman starred
in the earlier film.
And that in a place like Los Angeles,
video culture exists side by side with production culture.
Perhaps just as the video store serves
as a commercial archive for film texts from different eras,
Los Angeles houses many of these figures
who are not frozen in time, but continue to consume
and love films.
The scene closes
with typical video store frustration however,
when Miles sees his girlfriend passing the store outside
with another man.
What?
Once again, the video store leads
to surprising, negative social interactions.
Quick, where are the Schwarzenegger films?
Foreign films are in the back.
Hoffman's appearance alongside a DVD
of "The Graduate" is one in a long line
of video stores appearing on screen
to provide meta textual commentary on the intersection
of home videos and cinema.
Specifically, the movies are talking about themselves.
It isn't possible.
What's not possible.
He's fantastic, this is his best performance ever.
But that was you.
You were in that movie!
You are in a movie?
Yes. It was called, "The Girl of My Dreams."
It starred you.
As a matter of fact,
we had this very romantic scene together.
To fully understand
how video stores were depicted on screen,
increasingly required that the viewer had knowledge
of other movies.
The store we see in "Last Action Hero" is called Acme Video,
but it is in every way a Blockbuster,
from the blue and yellow color scheme to the font.
The elegant alluring camera movement down the aisles,
which are absurdly festooned
with an improbable amount of lights,
declare the video store as glitzy,
and exciting as a cinema, and every bit its equal.
Posters for "Boys in The Hood,"
"Bram Stoker's Dracula,"
and a "League of Their Own"
all come courtesy of "Last Action Hero's" studio,
Columbia Pictures pulling a move
from the Canon Films playbook.
The protagonist, Danny is shocked to come upon a standee
for "Terminator 2: Judgment Day,"
starring Sylvester Stallone.
Connecting this moment to the comparable standee glimpse
briefly in "The Lost World: Jurassic Park,"
which advertises a fictitious Schwarzenegger
starring King Lear film, which itself connects
to "Last Action Heroes" nearly identical joke
of an adaptation of "Hamlet" starring Schwarzenegger proxy,
Jack Slater.
To be or not to be.
Not to be.
A gag that itself anticipates
our Blockbuster browsing Hamlet.
All of which circles back,
not to a desolate moody Blockbuster,
but to the preposterously glamorized store
in "Last Action Hero."
To be or not to be, to rent or not to rent.
Highbrow, lowbrow and on and on.
On the way out, Danny observes that the clerk is
Way too attractive to be working at a video store.
Coming as the character does from the real world,
that is to say our own,
he expects to find a no less cliche clerk
so frequently depicted on screen, a cinephile nerd,
such as the one scene in Kirk Wong's, "The Big Hit."
Here's your fucking tape back!
Ah! Let's see here.
Ooh, late charges.
Oh mama, what's this!
Tape's not rewound.
Oh, that's gonna cost you!
You know I'm taking a lot of shit from you!
I put up with your high prices, your lousy selection,
and your rude phone calls. - Sorry about that.
I just want to tell you
one thing. - What?
I will never, ever rent tapes
from this store again, you snotty little...
I'ma finish what I started, mother fucker.
Like "Last Action Hero,"
"The Big Hit" presents a video store
of immaculately production designed opulence,
the likes of which could only exist in a Hollywood film.
The film was produced by Columbia subsidiary TriStar,
which explains the prominent poster
for that same studio's "Godzilla" remake,
which in an unusual bit of anticipatory marketing
was released in theaters one month after "The Big Hit."
In much the same way that video stores on screen used
the characters longing for romantic films
to actualize romance in their lives,
"The Big Hit" places the hapless clerk
in the middle of the melee, suggesting the possibility
that as with "Last Action Hero," cinephiles are likely
to be thrown out of their own humdrum existence
and into what resembles or is a scene in a movie.
The sequence features a display,
declaring one of the other characters
as the number one customer of the month adult section.
Thus carrying on the tradition of the private being made,
in this case, comedically and absurdly public.
Not to mention the tradition of posters
for Troma films being staples of video store decor.
"The Big Hit" brings things full circle back
to the late 80's with larger than life advertisements
for "Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD," "Tromeo and Juliet",
and of course "The Toxic Avenger Part II."
Why this store has a massive display of posters
for Troma films from roughly a decade ago
alongside contemporary films is never addressed.
By 1998, it didn't need to be.
Video stores simply made sense.
Their categories, their aesthetic,
and the unpredictable but generally undesirable interactions
that took place within needed no further explanation.
Well, ain't that a bitch?
They were everywhere.
They were a part of our lives,
and it seemed as though they always would be.
Can you rent this? - Absolutely not.
Go pick out something from the children's section.
Those movies suck. - Watch your language.
A report from 1989 found that nearly 70%
of all video stores carried adult titles
with the exception of family video and movie gallery.
Corporate stores refused to carry them.
These movies are almost always held in a section,
proverbially known as the back room.
No, I guess that's it.
Ah. Yep, that's it.
I'll just take this.
Whatever the kid's getting.
This area might be separated by a curtain or a door
and a sign reading, "Adults Only,"
or forbidding those under the age of 18 from entering.
"Bi Bi Guys", featuring Curious Geordie.
Interesting choice.
Does the wife know you're looking into your options?
I got the...
Had the wrong box by accident.
Oh, right. - Would you mind exchanging
that for me for something?
You know, whatever.
Anything you get your hands on, you know.
So then you want something..? - That's non-bi.
It'll be like you work here.
What am I qualified to do?
Within the heavily categorized world
of the video store, the back room is a space of private
and guarded knowledge.
There are at least three characteristics of the back room
that make it remarkable.
I am being totally serious. - Are you joking around?
No, I am not joking around.
First, as it is located in a special,
semi hidden space, the back room attempts to provide privacy
in public and thereby indicates ambivalence toward the genre
of videos located there.
Ooh, this looks good.
Gets really good reviews.
Time and again, the back room on screen
is depicted to both normalize adult films and acknowledge
the semi elicit feelings that browsers may have
in this section.
This video store, your video store boasts
the largest collection of adult videos
in all of northern Louisiana.
Leave it to humans to make sex this depressing.
You're welcome to put your own stamp on it, of course,
but I wouldn't change it too much.
Humans love their porn.
Second, pornographic materials
are commonly organized
into their own highly specific categories.
Although there will also be a comparably sized new releases
wall within the section.
I can't tell the difference.
Well, what do you want? - Anything.
But you have a preference in terms of content.
Like women and women or men and men.
The fuck are you insinuating?
I don't know your preferences,
I'm only trying to help you here, Oscar.
26 unrelated categories except for X,
which has its own room.
Finally, back rooms are remarkable
in terms of the revenue they generate.
How about adult movies?
Because corporate chains
would not carry such material,
independent stores relied on this section
as a mark of distinction.
Accordingly, we are left with the notion
that any depiction of a backroom or adult video section
is taking place within a non-corporate, independent
and autonomously run video store.
And you will not find a back room
in our video store.
No. - No.
No, no, that filth is better left to the Sin Cities.
I'd like to rent this tape.
Sofia Ludens, huh?
You know it?
You get arrested for watching this stuff.
Yeah. - No.
Pornos, man, what do you expect?
What rents here more than anything else. The adult stuff, right?
Mhm-hmm.
Right. I think you'd be a little more discerning
about the type of stuff you carry.
China.
Well, I guess I like to watch videos.
Well, you see right there.
Have you ever thought about working in a video store
or even owning one?
No. Hm.
Yeah. Hmm.
Hmm.
Oh yeah, that's the stuff.
Bride's head's going to get revisited tonight, baby.
No.
Where would "Cuffs and Collars" be?
Action Adventure. Action Comedy, Action Action?
Make a left. - Okay.
Today I am here more for someone.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Did you wanna rent a porno movie?
No. I mean, yes.
With Blockbuster and other corporate chains
not offering adult titles,
the ubiquity of their depiction on screens,
specifically in mainstream entertainment
is all the more striking.
Porn is a $12 billion industry in annual sales.
In all likelihood,
the average viewer would have only a passing familiarity
with the backroom, perhaps limited only to gazing
at its mysterious barrier.
And yet over and over pornography became one of the central
characteristics of the video store on screen.
The emergence of this as a common dramatic beat
throughout the 1990's and into the 2000's would extend
the ways the video store had already been used as a site
of different forms of public humiliation.
I thought it was you.
Mom. - I was just dropping
by with the wedding snaps.
I tell you that photographer should be sacked.
He made me look like a thug.
A thug in lilac.
Anything good? - No, no.
There's a lady who needs your copy
of "Georgie's Bush."
"Georgie's Bush."
Do you have any?
Do you have any Cookie Tushala movies?
I'll check. We're probably all out.
Is that Katie Collins?
Hi. - Hi, Katie.
As the video store became commonplace, the curation
of private viewing experiences would increasingly take place
in the presence of pornography,
or at least peripheral to it.
Does Ryan know you're here?
Wait till he hears who we saw renting, "Vagina Town."
Thanks. - It's a classic.
Jack. - Yeah.
I was noticing a lot of these tapes
look like they've been used.
What's the deal?
Are you moving from another location?
No. Bought 500 tapes from a guy in New York.
Said his store was going out of business,
wanted to unload his stock.
I argued him down to two grand in cash.
Five bucks a tape. That's great.
The direct to video erotic thriller,
"Double Cross" features a protagonist getting a fresh start
in a new town by opening up a video store,
which he explains in endearingly precise detail.
I hope you left him all the porno titles.
No. Kept them.
It isn't long before his curatorial choices
bring unwanted attention from local law enforcement.
Hi, can I help you?
Are you Jack Connelly?
Conealy, what can I do for you?
You can load up your crates of porno movies back
in your car and get your ass out of the valley.
You know, Melissa,
these are actually X-ray glasses.
Really?
I could see a freckle
on that girl's right breast.
Jack! Maybe you can get away with that kind of talk
in New York, but this is a small town.
Oh.
As the romantic tension
of the film builds beyond mere flirtation,
this erotically charged moment makes good on the promise
of private lives being put on public display within
and because of the video store.
Jack! Jack, have you had breakfast yet?
"Double Cross" shows that adult sexuality
can infiltrate the video store if invited in via a healthy
and often remarked upon selection of pornography.
But it is unusually for depictions of video stores
entirely unconcerned with movies themselves.
No specific films are ever cited by the characters.
Despite the frequent references to pornography,
we never see if those videos are kept in a back room,
or where they're kept at all.
I can't believe you broke a cop's nose.
I told you, you shouldn't have kept those porno titles.
Yeah, you're probably right.
I'm gonna get some ice on this.
Jack, do you like pizza? - Of course, I'm American,
aren't I?
It's our national food, pepperoni.
"Roadhouse," "Road to Hong Kong." "Road to Rio."
"RoboCop," "RoboCop," "RoboCop."
There's no "RoboCop 2." - Somebody rented it.
Anxieties of the private made public as related
to sexual activity occasionally manifest
as an amateur pornographic home movie made
by the characters, accidentally being returned
to the video store in place of the intended commercial VHS.
We're looking for "RoboCop 2."
It's out. - Could you tell us
who rented it?
Why? - Because I need to see it.
Why? - What do you mean why?
Because, because, because she...
You know what happened?
She saw the first one,
and then inadvertently she saw the third one.
So until she sees the second one,
she's hanging. - Sorry.
Okay, can I just ask you... - What are you doing?
Nothing. - I'll have to ask you
not to do that.
As the language of video stores
on screen became mostly a tool for films talking
to themselves about cinema,
then the incorporation of the back room extends
that dialogue to the one form of theatrical cinema
that was fully eradicated by the invention
of home video, pornography and adult features.
Excuse me. What movie is this?
What movie is this?
Have you been living in a cardboard box, lady?
No, I'm from Utah. - Oh, I'm sorry.
So let's talk about the future.
Let's talk about what video means to this industry,
and let's talk about how all of us, not one of us,
how all of us are gonna profit.
Fears about videotape
destroying theatrical exhibition
were by the 1990's irrelevant.
The video industry,
specifically the video rental industry had learned
how to exist in symbiosis with theatrical exhibition,
aligning with it rather than supplanting it.
Such was not the case for pornography
where public exhibition was quickly made all but extinct
when challenged by new notions of at-home consumption.
I got the connection to the equipment
and the mail order distribution.
Not to mention those kids out there
who are hot fucking action to the max Jack.
This is the future.
Video tape tells the truth.
Fictionalized scenes showing
the efforts one had to go through to obtain pornography
in the slim window between theatrical exhibition
and the internet are now the only way of knowing
that such a thing ever existed at all.
Thus, the presence of pornography,
the brutal collision of public and private
is an exaggeration of the awkwardness and shame
that according to movies and television was unavoidable
when visiting the video store.
Do you always rent adult titles with your daughter in tow
or is this the first time?
Excuse me. - Well, when you rent porn,
do you usually do it with family around
or is this like a, you know, special occasion?
Do I have to answer this?
I'm a grad student.
I'm writing a thesis paper, A Bird in the Hand,
the family man and the pornographic fixation.
Movies and TV shows would have you believe
that the video store was the domain
of humiliation and mishaps.
So there is no greater shame than summoning up the courage
to rent a pornographic movie, only to face
the final gauntlet of an invasive clerk
or an accidental encounter with someone you know.
♪ No one can fill me up the way you do ♪
♪ I'm hooked on ♪
♪ Come on now ♪
♪ I need a hit ♪
♪ I need a fix of you ♪
♪ I need to breathe you in ♪
♪ Come on ♪
♪ Be my oxygen ♪
Perhaps the most confounding idea
to be gleaned in retrospect
is the way in which mainstream primetime television dealt
with the notion of video stores stocking pornography.
Broadcast at family friendly times,
these shows made the curious decision
to both depict pornography as common and accessible
while never failing to also portray the idea
of actually renting it as shameful or humiliating.
Excuse me. We're gonna be here for a while,
so why don't you just go back there.
Yep. We're not judging.
An extremely 1990's paradox wherein adults
are interested in sexuality but unwilling to admit it.
In fact, it's preferable to make a mockery of yourself
rather than simply admit that you rent
and enjoy pornography.
Oh my God. - That's Phoebe.
Where did you get that?
Well, down at the adult video place on Bleeker.
And I saw Joey was about to go in,
so I ran in ahead of him to surprise him
and then I pretended that I didn't know he was in there.
I don't believe you've seen this.
Oh, lovely. - Yeah.
What do you think their parents think?
So what's your son doing now, Dr. Stevens?
Oh, he's a public fornicator.
Pornography at this time was packaged
in oversized boxes, and the appearance of one as an object
of fascination and mockery on "Seinfeld"
is both anomalous for the show,
but typical for the culture of the time.
This video store keeps its adult titles out in the open,
directly behind foreign and adventure.
Something seldom done and virtually never shown on screen.
Jerry holding up a big box porno tape on Must See TV
is in retrospect, fascinating.
His dismissal and lambasting
of it however was much more common.
What these films and TV shows watched by millions of people
are saying is that adult videos and adult sexuality
are the domain of the undesirable and perverted.
If you visit a video store to rent pornography,
you will most likely run
into the last person you want to see
and regret your decision.
Over and over again the viewer is being told, don't do it.
Taking a walk on the wild side.
Oh.
Hey, little boy,
are you lost?
Donna? - Having fun.
Why? You wanna have fun with me?
I don't think so. - Are you sure?
Ew, this is disgusting. Come on.
Donna.
Donna Martin, is that you?
Hi, Father Chris, - Look at this.
You're all grown up now.
Yep. 18.
We see on primetime television a contradiction
that is central to attempting to understand the morality
of the 1990's.
Video stores are everywhere.
You visit them frequently, they're full of pornography,
but it's not there for you,
it's there for someone else.
Time and time again throughout the 1990's
and into the 2000's, interactions at video stores were shown
as unpleasant, embarrassing, and pointless.
If by some miracle you were able
to find the movie you wanted,
avoid unwanted encounters with former paramours
and not be seen demonstrating a healthy interest
in adult sexuality, there was still one more hurdle
to clear.
The self-appointed enforcer of the rules,
the arbiter of taste, the final frustration one must endure
before completing this humiliating, awkward,
disappointing trip to the video store,
the rude, unhelpful clerk.
Hey, close your eyes when you pass
the adult section!
Cosmo, let's shut this stuff off
and go home.
Throughout the 1990's,
the video store became a common, normalized
and unremarkable location within the retail landscape.
The bastion of the store's archival depths,
its frustrations, its humiliations and its human touch
was the video clerk.
Hey, did your girlfriend like the movie?
Liked it? Dude, she loved it.
It was the best fucking love story she's ever seen.
I mean, she liked it so much,
she got on her knees and proposed to me.
Congratulations. When's the big day?
Dude, I wanted to get some, not get married.
Anyway, I told her I wasn't ready for that yet,
so she broke up with me.
Sorry to hear that.
Hey, you know Forrest Hump just came in.
What about "Riding Miss Daisy?"
As time went on,
the video store became a launching pad
for more acceptable passions,
namely film production.
It's pretty clear, Vinny's not here for his love
for retail, Vinny's actually here
because he wants to be the next Quentin Tarantino.
You know what? I have a feeling I'm on my way.
Oh, I see you, film fans.
This is Quentin Tarantino.
Why are you here today
in this particular video store?
Well, because I used to work at this video store
for five years.
I was behind the counter charging people late fees,
recommending movies and stuff.
And now as everything's kind of come full circle,
because my movies come out on video,
and this is the opening day,
and so I'm here to send it off.
Two former video clerks emerged in the 90's
as acclaimed independent filmmakers,
forever defining the stereotype,
but only one of these directors rendered the experiences
of video clerk life on screen.
Are either one of these any good?
Sir? - What?
Are either one of these any good?
I don't watch movies.
Clerks appeared as easy stereotypes.
Clerks became a consistent and recognizable part
of the video store routine.
Behind the counter or walking through the aisles,
we all knew this person and what they did.
In many cases, clerks were assholes.
Well, what about these two? - Oh, they suck.
These are the same two movies!
You weren't paying any attention.
No, I wasn't.
I don't think your manager would appreciate!
I don't appreciate your ruse, ma'am.
I beg your pardon. - Your ruse.
Your cunning attempt to trick me.
Sometimes this was because they simply didn't know
what they were doing or didn't care at all.
At other times though, clerks were unhelpful
because they knew too much.
Clerks were crucial aspect of the video store
because they helped change movie culture,
and they did this because of the way they interacted
with movies and other people.
Like any retail worker, the video clerk engaged
in social interactions.
But video clerks were different
because movies are different.
Hey, you're not allowed
to rent here anymore! - Yeah.
Shopping for videos required taste,
and the clerk was expected to have some knowledge of movies
and tastes of their own.
You know who I can do without?
I can do without the people in the video store.
Which ones? - All of them.
What would you get for a 6-year-old boy
who chronically wets his bed?
So do you have any new movies in?
Do you have that one with that guy who was in that movie
that was out last year?
They never rent quality flicks.
They always pick the most intellectually devoid movie
on the racks.
Ooh, "Navy Seals."
It's like in order to join,
they have to have an IQ less than their shoe size.
These were spaces of interaction.
At the video store, movie tastes were declared
and defined through an overtly social process.
In so many movies, this appeared as a conflict.
Do you sell videotapes? - Yeah.
What are you looking for?
"Happy Scrappy: Hero Pup." - One second.
I'm on the phone with the distribution house now.
Lemme make sure they got it.
Okay. What's it called again?
"Happy Scrappy: Hero Pup."
Happy scrappy. - She loves it.
Obviously.
Yeah. Hi, this is RST Video calling.
Customer number 4352.
I'd like to place an order.
Okay, I need one each of the following tapes,
"Whispers in The Wind,"
"To Each His Own," "Put It Where It Doesn't Belong."
"My Pipes Need Cleaning."
"All Tit Fucking Volume Eight."
I Need Your Cock."
"Ass Worshiping Rimjobbers."
"My Cunt and Eight Shafts." "Come Clean."
"Cum Gargling Naked Sluts."
"Cum Buns 3."
"Cuming in Socks."
"Come On Eileen."
"Huge Black Cocks with Pearly White Cum."
"Girls who Crave Cock."
"Girls who Crave Cunt."
"Men Alone II: The K-Y Connection."
"Pink Pussy Lips."
Oh yeah, and "All Holes Filled with Hard Cock".
Yep. Oh, wait a minute.
What was that called again?
The video clerk stood between you
and the movie you wanted to watch,
and they could cause trouble if they didn't wanna help.
Haven't you had enough violence, Chip Sutton,
turn that filth off.
Sorry, ma'am.
Do you have the musical, "Annie?"
Sure do.
Did you bring back "Ghost Dad?"
There you go.
I just love Bill Cosby pictures.
Ms. Jensen, I've told you,
you have to rewind the tapes before returning 'em.
Oh!
Clerks could be shown as unhelpful
and disinterested in cultivating
a pleasant transactional experience,
but they were seldom depicted as dumb.
What's that Werewolf movie with ET's mom in it?
"The Howling", Horror, straight ahead.
Okay, thanks.
They appear frustrated, resentful,
and arrogant, which is all the more ironic
because they are working in such a humble setting.
I got just what you need right here, boys.
Best tape in the whole damn store.
"Smokey and the Bandit." Huh.
Who's in that?
Burton Leon Reynolds Jr's in that boys.
Burton Leon Reynolds Jr.
Get out.
You can't have this...
Go home!
Get your raggedy little Steven Seagal loving asses out here.
Who's in this? Burt Reynolds.
These snob clerks were everywhere,
making humor and creating discomfort out
of unnecessarily frustrating shopping experiences.
Clerks seem like silly know-it-alls.
Whatever knowledge and taste they have becomes a handicap.
Hey, do you have "The Verdict?"
I hear it's very good.
Mm. "Verdict."
Who's in that? - You know Paul Newman?
Yes. It's right above your right hand.
"The Verdict."
There you go. - Great.
I don't know if you're gonna like it.
It's too predictable.
You realize halfway through he is gonna win the case.
No surprises.
Well, now I know how it ends,
so I guess I don't have to rent it.
All right, all right. - That one.
Thank you very much. - I'm sorry.
I rented this movie on your recommendation.
It's nothing but a lame story
with a lot of lesbian sex scenes.
And you didn't like it.
I watched it with my parents!
It was very uncomfortable.
Come on, it's kind of hot. - No, it's not.
All right, I'm sorry.
Gonna tell you what I'm gonna recommend this,
"Haunted Slumber Party."
It's actually a pretty decent film.
No lesbian sex scenes? - I think there's two.
You're a pig.
♪ Never guessed got this good ♪
♪ Really didn't think it could ♪
♪ Do it again ♪
Excuse me. Hello?
Excuse me.
What's up? - Hi.
Okay. Of these two,
which would be good for me
and you know, if I was watching alone with a girl?
Yeah, there you go.
"When Harry Met Sally."
Could you maintain a rod
and watch Billy Crystal at the same time?
Nah. Don't feel bad. No one can.
Clerks had to recommend movies,
which was a complex process.
The clerk had to assess the person before them
to grasp their tastes and desires.
The clerk had to make a judgment based on his
or her own tastes and knowledge about this customer's needs.
I can tell you're under a lot of change
and stress right now.
Really? - You're having trouble
sleeping. - Yeah. How'd you know?
Your hair. - My hair?
I mean, it's beautiful.
Maybe a little brittle,
but that's probably from your diet
or maybe it's from, forgive me for saying what's happening
in your heart.
And what's happening
in my heart? - Not enough.
I'm sorry.
I say what's on my mind too much. I'm stupid.
I'm Callum. Bye. - I'm Lorna.
Bye Callum.
Hey, you wanna go out with me sometime?
Okay.
You take out a lot of videos. - Do I?
You should join our video addicts club.
It's for people who take out too many videos.
Too many. - Oh, you know a lot.
Get a dollar off every new release.
Do you wanna go out with me?
You know, on a date?
You're Green, right?
You do the special effects makeup?
Yeah. How'd you know that?
Well, I was going over the register
and I asked Miss Kenny, who this Green guy was
who rented "Mutation Mountain" six times with exact change,
and then she told me your story.
What's your story? - I don't know.
I'm Angevin. Angevin Duvet.
Tastes connect people,
and can even make them fall in love.
In the video store,
taste could become an erotic force.
Excuse me, I'm looking for "Solaris"
or "Solaris", I think it's Tarkovsky.
Yeah, I think you're right.
You know your movie's playing
at the Mercer tomorrow night? - Yeah.
I'm renting it for after,
just, you know, in case I miss something.
Don't worry, you're gonna do fine.
Excuse me.
Just remember, a celebration of human values
and the power of love in a hostile
or indifferent universe, he'll eat it up.
Who? - This guy's
in film school, right?
Your date. He's undergrad.
He has some Elmore Leonard thing on 16.
he did summer after high school
that he's very touchy about.
How am I doing?
You're freaking me out.
And then Vicki laughed,
and it wasn't like a cheap fake laugh either.
it was like...
It was a real genuine laugh.
Of course she laughed, Robin.
It's my muppet joke. It's hilarious.
My point is that Vicki laughed,
and everything was just like it was perfect.
Taste represents where we come from
and where we want to go.
Taste is a marker of our class, our gender,
our age, and our education.
Going into the video store meant declaring yourself
by declaring your taste in movies,
your appreciation for classical films
and your intellectual ability
to cultivate your own understanding of them,
and the video clerk was the one who judged everything.
Oh, I think I found our morning movie.
"Dr. Zhivago."
Ah, you know, I don't do double VHS.
But it's about doomed love.
Oh, that's relatable. - Precisely.
Also, Julie Christie is bonkers hot in this,
like, seriously, the most beautiful creature
I have ever seen in my life.
To this day, the stereotype
of the video clerk remains understandable and vivid
to modern audiences.
They are the most lasting representational artifact
of video stores.
In order to fully understand the impact video stores had,
we must understand who populated them,
and created the experiences that brought customers
to a bountiful world of choices and later pushed them away
due to excessive fees and personal humiliation.
What are you returning? - "Rochelle, Rochelle."
Oh, "Rochelle, Rochelle."
A young girl’s strange, erotic journey
from Milan to Minsk. - Yeah.
That'll be 3.49.
3.49. It says 1.49.
Well, you didn't rewind it.
There's a $2 charge for not rewinding.
There's no signs here.
This is an outrage.
What? - George, don't give him
any money for that.
It'll cost you less to keep it another day,
rewind it and bring it back tomorrow.
Don't give them the satisfaction.
I'm not giving you the satisfaction.
I'm gonna watch it again.
How could that hurt.
On screen and in reality,
the video store is a safe haven for the nerd
of the 80's and 90's where possessing an excess
of useless knowledge becomes an asset.
Excuse me. I was wondering,
do you have any Baby Jane Hudson films here.
Blanche Hudson. I'm sorry. I wish we did.
You remember them?
Sure I do. Northern Outpost.
There was a whole series of outpost films.
Trail Through the Pine,
no Trail Through the Trees.
Okay, that's "Friday the 13th."
"Friday the 13th Part 2."
"Friday the 13th Part 3,"
"Friday the 13th Part 4"
and "Friday the 13th Part 5."
These guardians of movie culture are permitted
to lord over their hard one domains,
being pains in the ass to their hearts content.
The modern equivalent
of the eternally shushing fuddy duddy librarian.
Hello there, Quentin.
I'm wondering how long to order a copy
of "The Shakiest Gun in The West."
That'd be about six to eight weeks, man.
Oh. Oh, that's bad.
Well, maybe we can order a copy
from the guy who ordered it from you.
Yes, yes. May we have his name,
address and telephone number?
Dude, what I got like federal felony written
across my forehead or something?
What's that?
The complications of clerk interaction
were often shown as a given.
Without them, there's no drama or conflict to the part
of the video store visit after you've made your selection,
and therefore, no reason to show a character checking out.
Scenes could end after the movie is selected from the shelf,
but winnowing down thousands of options
to a single selection is only half the battle.
Movie watching is a pleasure,
but the clerk is there to thwart the customer by judgment,
rudeness or utter indifference.
I forgot my card at home,
but I think my number is 6247.
You forgot your card? - I might have lost it.
You lost your card? - I might have.
Was it temporary
or laminated? - Laminated.
That's a permanent card.
You lost a permanent card.
You can just get me a new card, Kirk.
Fine. But I hope you understand the gravity
of the situation here. - I'm trying to grasp it.
I mean, these cards are agreements.
It's an agreement between you
and the Stars Hollow Video Store stating
that you will take care of your card,
that you'll honor your card,
that you'll be very, very nice to your card.
No, no, no, no, no.
Chip, our mother is Charles Manson.
By the 90's, the established archetype
of the nerd was given new lifeblood with a rise
of alternative culture, slackerdom
and emerging forms of clerks being romantic, aloof, and cool
rather than strictly hostile nerds,
angry at the society that shuns them.
As time moves on, a second mode of clerk emerges.
One who cannot even be bothered to judge
or care about the customer at all.
This one gets taken out a lot.
Is it any good?
I wouldn't be able
to tell you. - Why not?
I never watch these things.
Then how do you know what to recommend?
Well, I don't.
People check out the covers and take what they want.
Unspoken in the relationship between clerk
and customer is the knowledge that the patron has access
to movies in other ways.
Likely they possess videotapes of their own,
could catch a movie on cable
or go see a film in the theater.
Their choice to rent a movie
that they presumably have not seen yet is bold.
It is the clerk's role in this sacred transaction to protect
and defend the sanctity of the movies themselves.
The clerk is not only free to pass judgment or attempt
to steer the customer to a superior option,
it is their right to do so.
That one, that will do.
That will be funny. And then the scary one.
Scary one, and funny one.
Oh.
Excuse me.
Can you help me?
I'm in an absolute loss.
I've been looking for over an hour and I'm losing my mind.
What I'm in the mood for
is sort of a Katharine Hepburny Cary Granty kind of thing.
Nothing heavy. I couldn't take heavy.
No. Something zany.
I'm looking for something zany.
With all these fraught interactions,
the movies would seem to be saying that video stores
are unpleasant to visit.
An incongruous notion if you presume that the screenwriters
and filmmakers were cinephiles and video store regulars.
On the radio, you know the guy, he says, hey, forgive me.
You have willingly entered a space
beyond your control,
a privilege you are quite literally paying for
and willingly subjecting yourself to.
"Ordinary Peoples."
It's kind of a big titty, spread cheeky kind of thing.
Video stores required a membership
in order to rent movies.
This equated the exclusivity of your store of choice
with other businesses such as gyms or libraries,
which would render its clientele card carrying members.
Alright. All right.
Took me a little while, right?
But I went to the whole joint. Here it is.
First, when you get to the entrance,
you gotta show a membership card to this runner, right?
Yeah. It's like a video club.
So how do we do this though?
Well, first we'll have you sign out
an official membership card there.
Sign that if you would.
We'll have that laminated for you right here.
Perry, would you like to laminate Ms. Sinclair's card?
Oh yeah.
This will last you for a year,
after which you have the option to renew if you wish
at a membership discount.
Yeah, but not for free, right?
Yeah.
Yeah. You get 10 videos.
Free. - Free.
Yeah. Only the first 10.
Free or discounted rentals offered as a bonus
for signing up were common.
In pledging yourself to the store,
you became more than an anonymous customer.
As it was cost prohibitive to join multiple stores,
this aligned customers with one store,
even if there were others nearby to choose from.
The Fisher King, a Tristar production visualizes
this club mentality by having Video Stop exclusively stocked
with the company's own popular
red trimmed, identically typefaced, RCA Columbia videotapes.
However, the Lydia character offers a familiar refrain
to denizens of video stores.
I don't like horror movies.
Once again, suggesting that the genre
is inextricable from the video store.
And oh. - Have you got
any Ethel Merman? - Ethel Merman.
Oh, she's...
We're all out of Ethel Merman.
What a gyp. - That sucks.
Another familiar setback,
this scene with its back room visible behind the characters,
but never mentioned collapses
various stereotypical video store tropes,
both internal and external.
The store's categorization is idiosyncratic and precise,
yet the vagaries of corporate product placement suggest
that it is possible to offer new releases,
foreign films, horror and musicals,
all from within the RCA Columbia TriStar video library,
encouraging the viewer to seek these videos,
and create a library of their own
in order to avoid experiencing Lydia's disappointment.
This is a scene as much about the particularities,
and selection of the store as it is the personal lives
of the characters.
In a world where nothing is what it seems,
in a time of uncertainty,
the future is about to be placed.
Hello. Welcome to Masterpiece Video.
How may I help you this afternoon, sir.
I'm looking for a copy of "8 1/2"
Is that a new release, sir?
No, it's the classic Italian film.
Glimpses of activity inside the video store
became colored as negative and unfulfilling
with failures arising for a variety of reasons.
Hello, how are you young ladies this afternoon?
May I help you find a particular masterpiece movie?
No. - Yes. Here it is.
"Nine and a Half Weeks" with Mickey Rourke.
That would be in the erotic drama section.
No, not "Nine and a Half,"
"8 1/2"
The Fellini film.
If the use of video stores
as a primary location in films and television
for nearly two decades had acclimated viewers
to seeing relatable and familiar experiences.
Instead, they now projected outwardly heightened
and fictional narratives about antagonism,
stress and disappointment.
Look, I'll explain this to you again.
You bring the tape back late,
you have to pay a late fee.
One thing's got nothing to do with the other.
That is such bullshit!
It broke halfway through!
The frequency with which such problems occurred
on screen was without question an exaggerated
and false narrative, designed to create story conflict
where it was needed.
Though essentially good natured,
these scenes enacted a subconscious attack
on the joys of video renting.
The litany of humiliations awaiting you
at the video store knew no end.
Zach, do you have "Dr. Giggles" letterbox.
Insane doctors right next
to "Interesting Failures." - Yes.
Aha. This bastard wasn't kind, didn't rewind
and now, Mr, you’ll get fined.
The increasing negativity with which the task
of simply obtaining a movie to watch at home was depicted
began to beg the question, is it even worth it?
The protector of culture and art is permitted
to be an outsized figure.
They are the obstructor or the possessor of needed wisdom,
not the hero.
Clerks are eccentric and don't dress well,
or take good care of themselves.
By showing what's wrong with them,
we can reinforce what is normal.
You've got a delinquent
“Mystic Pizza”. - Whatever.
See, you're shocked.
They'd have to invent a section for my movie.
That'll be cool, huh?
When I make my movie and it comes out on video,
you and I can see who rents it.
We could probably sit here and watch it on the TV.
So you plan on still working here
even after you make a motion picture?
True. I may not be here then.
Oh, can you believe "The Departed" was nominated
for best picture?
It doesn't even make sense.
I'm so glad to hear somebody else say that.
I was beginning to feel like the only person in the world
who thought it sucked.
You are the only person in the world
who thought it sucked!
But you're right. It didn't make sense,
it made dollars.
As in $120 million domestic box office,
making it Martin Scorsese's biggest hit ever.
So yeah, I guess a couple people liked it.
Idiots!
Fortunately, these interactions tended to be brief,
with escape to the safety of one's couch mere minutes away.
Excuse me. Do you work here?
Yeah. - Have you ever seen
this film, "The Country Doctor"
with Andy Griffith and Sandy Duncan?
"The Country Doctor,"
that's my favorite.
Excuse me, can I rent this?
NO!
What do you want to rent that for?
That’s, that’s, that’s garbage.
We got, we got so many, we got so many
scary, violent, awful movies.
What do you want to get that for?
That’s ridiculous.
Just calm down.
I’m not gonna calm down.
I’m not!
I saw “Memento” not too long ago.
God, talk about confusing.
The movie didn't make any sense.
It was all in the wrong order.
I know that movie is totally weird.
Huh, yeah. It's like Godard said,
a movie should have a beginning, middle, and end,
but not necessarily in that order.
Who? - Godard.
Jean-Luc Godard, one of the founding fathers
of the French New Wave movement.
Who do you think inspired Tarantino and Hal Hartley?
How can you not know about Godard?
Weekend, Contempt,
A Bout de Souffle, Les Carabiniers, Bande a part.
You're a fucking loser.
When an independently produced film
depicted video clerks,
they tended to go in one of two directions.
The first is more overtly horrible.
Taking the sanitized versions you'd see on a sitcom,
and perverting it to an extreme that was illogical,
but based in reality.
Alternatively, the independent movies portrayal
of the video clerk could be much more sympathetic
toward this supposed outsider,
even positioning their narrative in the center of the frame
rather than on the margin.
Thank you.
So if your dad is Mr. Manmeet,
does that make you Mr. Manmeet Junior
or Mr. Manmeet the second.
They’re gonna have to drain the creek
to find your body, Pace.
Does Forest Gump go in the comedy or drama section?
How many times are you gonna ask that?
It goes in the drama section.
Thank you, Dawson.
The teen soap opera, "Dawson's Creek"
may be the only example of mainstream populist entertainment
that has its amiable main character working
as a video clerk.
Dawson is far from the stereotype
of a video store employee in the late 90's,
and yet he is the focal point, an aspiring filmmaker
who naturally opts to surround himself with cinema.
This stands in opposition
to the one dimensional mainstream video clerk,
who crosses the line of obsessive fandom.
Typically, depictions exist to let the customer know
that they can keep coming back for more,
so long as they know when to stop.
But Dawson is nothing, if not a safe and comforting avatar
for sensitive, cinematically curious souls.
That'll be 37.24.
Look, I'm sure you hate this,
but I just want to tell you that your work,
it really means a lot to me.
It's had an impact
on my life. - Thank you.
It is hard not to see the filmmakers themselves
in the more nuanced, independent versions of these clerks.
If mainstream examples show films made by film lovers,
castigating themselves for participating in a humiliating
and stressful business practice,
then independent films see the video store
and its employees more accurately.
Yeah, I've never done anything like that before,
but I'm a filmmaker, well, a grad student for right now.
But truly, you are one of the few guys
whose work actually inspires me.
Well, thank you.
That means a lot to me. Thank you.
Yeah, you were
in film school, right? - What?
You used to be in film school, right?
Yeah. Yeah. I went to a film school
and then I became an actor. Yeah.
You know, my girlfriend actually saw an exhibition
of your photography.
She said it was really wonderful stuff.
She really dug it. - Oh, she did? Oh cool.
The stores become enviable and inviting.
Rather than rush out the door,
you wanna stay inside all day or even get a job there,
simply to be surrounded by so much knowledge.
This raises key questions.
If clerks are rude and unhelpful,
loving or hating their job,
taking it away too seriously or not seriously enough,
causing the customers to have unpleasant
or humiliating experiences, who gets to be happy
in the video store? Does anybody?
Okay, well, look, stop by any time.
I'll give you a discount
on the movies you're in.
You'd have to pay me to buy those.
Throughout the 80's and 90's,
it would not have been in anybody's best interest
to suggest that video stores are space best avoided.
Something must reinforce the idea that it is okay to return,
and rent another tape,
to continue consuming and enjoying the product.
I just graduated, but I hated it.
You know, it was all like theory and machines,
and I was on this one way highway and I was like, you know,
rest stop please.
So this is a rest stop. - Oh yeah,
but this is totally temporary.
Nearly two decades of constant mockery
for the mere concept of valuing movie knowledge
above all else resulted in the notion
of the clerk as ridiculous.
Why would anybody waste their life being an expert
in something as trivial as movies?
But what is shameful about possessing a surplus
of taste and knowledge?
♪ In touch with the ground ♪
♪ I'm on the hunt I'm after you ♪
♪ Smell like a sound, I'm lost and I'm found ♪
♪ And I'm hungry like the wolf ♪
♪ Straddle the line, it's discord and rhyme ♪
♪ I’m on the hunt, I'm after you ♪
♪ Mouth is alive, with juices like wine ♪
♪ And I'm hungry like the wolf ♪
Checking out the staff picks Miss Benes?
Oh, hey. Yeah, yeah.
This Vincent guy, he is the best.
He and I have the exact same taste in movies.
Oh, Vincent is an art house goon.
I stick to the Gene rack.
Gene? Oh, he's so stupid and mainstream.
On "Seinfeld," Elaine develops a strong bond
with a video clerk she's never met, Vincent.
Elaine, it's Vincent.
Vincent, where are you?
I have to meet you.
No, I can't bear to have anyone see me.
Vincent, listen, I won't judge you
the way everyone else does.
You're strange, and beautiful and sensitive.
Now let's have a look at you.
No, no, Vincent, I...
Don't shut me out.
I just... I know you feel what I feel.
Excuse me. Can I help you?
Oh, dammit. - I'm here to see Vincent.
Well, I'm his mother.
Vincent, what's going
on here? - My acne.
Elaine's frustration derives
from a dashed expectation of emotional connection
with another person.
Importantly, this expectation came from her sharing
the same taste in movies as the video clerk.
In this respect, this episode of "Seinfeld"
is fairly anomalous as the frustration found
in the video store frequently comes from a disparity
of taste among shoppers and clerks.
And this frustration is commonly linked
to the difference between their tastes and the customers.
These aren't letterboxed.
What does that mean?
It means your picture will be cut off.
It won't be presented in the Panavision 235
to 1 widescreen aspect ratio.
We have letterbox versions of both these films.
You need them letterboxed.
To preserve the director's vision.
Customers tastes are typically ridiculed
for being substandard.
The lowly clerk, a retail wage laborer sets himself
as the authority on taste.
Video store power dynamics reflect how economic capital,
and cultural capital are not always neatly aligned.
This made video stores the final bastion of accountability
for your taste.
Are these the videos you wish
to rent today, sir? - Yes.
Then these are the videos we will rent him.
Before you could go home
and consume your preferences in private,
you must endure one final public moment.
As with any retail position, there is no acceptable future
to this dead end job.
Depictions of video clerks increasingly shift
from being about that very dead end to using this job
as a jumping off point to a more acceptable career,
most commonly filmmaking,
with acclaim and success to follow.
Scotty, I just want you to know what a great honor it is
to have you back in our store.
I always knew personally that you were gonna make good
with your incredible movie knowledge.
He's a nude model, Lena, not a porn star.
Hey, Tibby, the return box is so jammed,
nothing will fit through the slot. Do you mind?
Yes, I absolutely mind.
It's inconsiderate of the customers and interferes
with a timely collection of late fees.
I'm gonna call you back.
But Tibby. - Just send the sketch.
"Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" depicts
the character, Tibby,
working part-time at a video store
while she attends NYU as a film major.
The store she works in is Two Boots,
a combination video store and pizza parlor
that also operated the Pioneer Theater which closed in 2008,
the same year of the film's release.
Do you know if this movie's any good?
Well, that depends.
I mean, yes, if you like nauseatingly, smarmy love stories
that have absolutely no basis in reality.
Oh. Well what if you're in the mood
for, you know something romantic?
I would go with "Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Remake."
It works for me. - Thank you. Tibby.
As viewers, we are expected momentarily
to share in this hostile act
because we are assumed to be as sophisticated
in our movie knowledge as Tibby,
which calls into question how this joke goes over
with the film's target audience
whose tastes may align more closely with the couples
than with Tibby.
Tibby later gets fired for being so aloof,
and mean hearted.
Once again, nothing is gained or achieved in these spaces.
They drive people away, empty handed and unhappy.
In getting fired from her video store job, Tibby will go
onto her real passion, making movies.
The video store functions here not as a destination
or endpoint, but rather as a passageway,
in this case toward cultural production.
And the films these former employees make
are often intricately linked to their access to movies
at the video store.
Hi, I'm Cheryl and I'm a filmmaker.
No, I'm not really a filmmaker,
but I have a videotaping business with my friend Tamara
and I work at a video store.
So I'm working on being a filmmaker.
"The Watermelon Woman" presents a different
but similarly conflicted view of video stores,
and reproduction culture.
Hey. Hey Tam. Is Bob here?
Directed by and starring Cheryl Dunye,
the film is pointedly interested in the history
and contemporary practices of minority representation
in the media, specifically of lesbian African-Americans.
The character of Cheryl becomes fascinated
with a Black actress from the early years
of Hollywood, Faye Richards,
also known as "The Watermelon Woman."
Oh my God, look what's here.
A film with "The Watermelon Woman" in it.
Like I said, boring stuff.
All you do since you don't have a girlfriend
is watch this boring old film.
"The Watermelon Woman" depicts
the video rental store as a media archive
that may be accessed according
to the desires of the workers there.
I think I've figured out what my project's gonna be on.
I'm gonna make a movie about her.
Cheryl is not so much a spectator of these images,
but instead acts as the producer of its meaning
in the present.
Cheryl uses videotape as a means
to reformulate a historical image.
You know how hard it was to find these films?
It's like one of the few race films
that she ever starred in. - Really?
Do you mind if I smoke? - No, go ahead.
"The Watermelon Woman" ends with Cheryl
completing a video project about Faye Richards,
a biographical sketch with images
from Faye's films and photographs.
This project is inserted
into "The Watermelon Woman" itself,
intercut with the films and credits and narrated by Cheryl.
There is no Watermelon Woman after all.
Not in reality.
The character is a fiction created within the diegesis
of the film, presented to viewers as historically true,
but then erased.
Similar to how the once ubiquitous, now vanished space
of the video rental store functions for modern audiences.
They were there and now they're not.
This renders the video store as a passage into the past,
a past that is made irretrievable
at the moment we apprehend it.
The video store is not a site just of consumption,
but rather of a desire to go elsewhere,
even if that space is not real.
Hi, good morning. - It's blank.
I'm sorry. - Rewound this tape all over
and it's blank.
Really?
Did you check the? - Sure did.
Check that.
You know, sometimes you gotta use head cleaner.
Okay, I did that actually.
It'll eat the tapes.
Just pop it and see what's going on.
Excuse me. This video don't work.
I'm sorry? - It don't work.
12 years later. "Be Kind Rewind" used
the video store towards somewhat similar ends,
by depicting a video store that still carries VHS tapes,
despite it being set in 2008.
What is that?
Why is it doing that when you do that?
What is wrong with you?
You're magnetized.
You, you erased these tapes. It's you!
Given that customers continue to frequent the store
and given that the store must make money
in order to remain in that location,
the clerk and his friend go about making their own versions
of Hollywood films for the customers to rent.
♪ You walking down the street ♪
♪ And you see a little ghost ♪
♪ What you going to do about ghostbusters? ♪
What, what?
What is that?
That's the Ghostbusters theme song.
The owner of the store realizes
that the homemade tapes are renting well
and decides not to switch over to DVD.
Not only do they rent them,
they request that specific titles get made
for them individually.
In this respect, the film presents amateur remaking
as a form of community consolidation,
and a feedback loop is created between cultural producers
and consumers that is more immediate and responsive
than the existing system.
Whereas the video store is a commercial failure
at the beginning of the film,
with only a few dissatisfied customers.
It becomes viable after it's the site of a more interactive,
personal and even communal mode of cultural production.
Featuring humorously low tech, amateur aesthetics,
which are meant to evoke to the 2008 viewer
the simple pleasures of the VHS days.
Dave, it's me.
I'm afraid I can't open the pod doors now.
Our ability to recognize the originality
of these remakes requires our acquaintance
with the Hollywood versions,
even if we have not seen a particular film remade
within "Be Kind Rewind."
The film nevertheless addresses our ability to recognize
the typical qualities of a variety of Hollywood genres,
from action films to highbrow dramas.
For one final moment at the end of the video store era,
movies are talking about themselves.
So the studios are coordinating to assess the damages
from, how many titles is it?
Approximately 200. - Okay, so.
Oh, what do we have here?
A record of rental.
Although "Be Kind Rewind" ends without clarifying
that the store will survive, it succeeds in presenting
the formation of a local community around media production.
Thus, video provides the means to invent a past
in order to live in the present.
Every dollar helps.
The video store that we can now access,
frozen forever on celluloid, videotape or digital storage.
Whether they were real locations or fabricated sets,
provide glimpses into the past
that while not in the least fictional may as well be.
This is exciting.
Every aspect of the video store was deconstructed,
torn apart, presented and represented over and over
until there was nothing left,
but a copy of a copy, of a copy.
A bootleg perhaps.
Okay, that's the spot.
Pull over the car.
Stop the car. - I'm gonna...
Okay. Okay. - This is not the spot.
As tempting as it is to lay the blame
for the video store's extinction at the feet
of a Hollywood system,
they presented these depositories for their work
as humiliating, difficult, stressful, and un-fun.
There were many economic realities which led
to the video store's exit from the retail landscape.
By 2008, "Be Kind Rewind"
with its retro obsessed clerks was about anachronism,
capping off a decade that saw video stores
and video culture evolve so fundamentally and so radically
as to render themselves obsolete.
From Silver Lake International
Pictures, David Hevner. - What's that rated mean?
Is it harder than an R or it's softer than G?
"Hannah Does Her Sisters." All right.
No, there were no parts before "Leonard's Part 6."
By the mid 2000's video rentals
were in drastic decline.
So people were already asking why bother putting up
with this at all?
From roughly the mid 1990's through 2005,
there was no reason to think that video rental
as an industry was vulnerable enough to collapse.
"Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill."
"Killer Workout."
By being made synonymous with unfulfillment,
disappointment, both practical and romantic
and unpleasant interactions
with impossibly unhelpful clerks.
Video stores became tarnished by those
who presumably frequented them and benefited the most
from their existence.
Writers and filmmakers.
Mr. Holt, these two return videos are a day late.
They were rented yesterday.
Yeah, but they were due by 11 o'clock today
and you returned them 55 minutes late.
So. - So.
Well, they’re overdue, you owe $5.
55 minutes. You're gonna charge me for 55 minutes.
I'm sorry.
In perfect synchronicity with the declining fortunes
of video stores themselves, depictions of them on screen
throughout the 2000's became less frequent,
and when they did occur, they were no longer
in big budget Hollywood films
or on the most popular television shows.
Video stores would instead pop up
in primarily independent films,
something of a return to their mid 1980's origins
and still prominently featuring Troma movies.
Whereas showing a video store was once a way for movies
to talk about themselves,
they now are no more remarkable on screen
than they were in life.
Guys, can somebody... - We want Media Giant.
And that's Media Giant.
Media Giant!
That's horrible. - Okay.
I know I can't compete with these big guys,
but as long as I have you guys,
my small and loyal following of geeks, and weirdos,
I know I'll be all right.
“Watching the Detectives" from 2007 features
an independent video store called Gumshoe Video
run by the cinephilic character of Neil,
realistically portrayed by Cillian Murphy.
Although made at a time where the narrative could suggest
the struggles of an independent store to remain
in business during the industry's precipitous decline.
Aside from a few references
to Blockbuster stand-in Media Giant, the plot of the film
in no way revolves around this conflict.
This communal movie viewing party suggests
that the store remains relevant by being an integral part
of the community.
Though nothing like this happens again in the film.
The video store is no longer a place
where anything remarkable, exciting,
or noteworthy happens.
Just as in the retail landscape at this time,
it's taken for granted. It simply is.
Unlike in "Be Kind Rewind," the declining fortunes
of Gumshoe video are not the movie's main focus.
Other than occasional references to business being slow,
the store's financial stability is never addressed.
Its continued existence is apparently a given
despite seeming to mostly stock VHS well into the DVD era.
Perhaps a robust Troma presence gives Gumshoe
an advantage over its corporate competitors.
Romantic encounters follow,
presented with little or no variation
to what we've been seeing for years.
Scene after scene, the movie itself is reflective
of the video store's failure to push forward,
to offer customers any variation
on the experiences they had become used to.
No, I don't mind.
I'm in the video store right now.
No, it's one of those little shitty ones.
Yeah, most people just want to get in their cars.
They want to drive to the local store,
and rent the latest disaster movie,
you know, whereas there's not that many people
that just want to come in and leisurely stroll around,
maybe talk about Kubrick, you know, shoot the...
Shit, no!
At one point, Neil and his object
of desire, Violet sneak into a media giant location,
wait for it to close and set about sabotaging
the store's inventory.
So what's on your mind?
After he leaves, we'll go out and switch the DVDs,
so that they're all in the wrong boxes.
Rather than give Gumshoe video some practical
advantage in the battle between corporate
and independent stores, this is done merely
for mischievous flirtation.
This would actually be impossible.
DVDs were secured in their cases with magnetic rings.
This lack of accuracy may seem slight,
but it speaks to the larger cultural indifference
around video stores and how they really functioned.
By the late 2000's,
their onscreen representations were actively
and irreparably diminishing their reputations.
The film does contain one substantial
and oddly prescient moment when the longevity
of video rental as a business
is being discussed among employees.
What are you gonna do when this place goes tits up?
Well, I don't think that's gonna happen for a few years.
You know, not until people can get any movie
they want beamed directly into their TV set. Then I’m dead meat.
But this is tossed aside in favor
of an impractical notion
of how the store could actually continue to be viable.
I think you need to find a way
to supplement your business.
You gotta turn this place into a singles club.
People come in here, they tell you their favorite movies,
and then you match 'em up with the perfect mate
using that information.
Furthering the disinterest of this film
to in any way accurately reflect the state
of video rental in 2007, Neil is later questioned
by goons on behalf of Media Giant who taunt him.
So it must really be tough for you.
All these big franchise video stores springing up every day,
must really tick you off these big guys driving
you outta business.
Nevermind that in 2007, it is more likely
that both franchise and independent stores
are closing every day,
which the film itself points out a few minutes later
in a highly accurate scene concerning the reality
of video rental stores in this era.
There is a letter from a place called Movie Dork Video
in San Clemente.
This guy's going under and he needs to liquidate,
so he wants 3000 bucks
and if we buy everything for 3000 bucks,
he'll give us free shipping which is great,
but obviously there's a lot of crap here that we don't need,
like eight copies of "Ernest Goes to Camp,"
but he does have some stuff that we don't have.
So we could just try to take everything
and save on the shipping, which is not a bad idea.
Or we can cherry pick...
You know, we can do this later if you want.
“Watching the Detectives" doesn't offer
a closing moment concerning the future of Gumshoe video,
nor its competition with Media Giant.
All that it cares about
are the romantic lives of Neil and Violet,
brought together by, but totally disconnected
from the much more interesting narrative
of the store itself.
Ironically, “Watching the Detectives" went straight to DVD
in 2008 after playing at film festivals.
By the time it would've been available for rental,
Neil would likely have closed Gumshoe video.
Depictions of video of stores had declined so sharply
by the late aughts that to dramatize their struggle
to stay in business would have already seemed incongruous.
People forsook them before they actually closed,
taking their business to Netflix
or Movies on Demand.
Councilwoman.
When the sitcom "Parks and Recreation"
somewhat realistically used a closing video store
as a metaphor for government bailouts in 2013,
the idea that a local business was barely hanging on
would've been familiar to anybody, not just video consumers.
I took your advice,
got rid of all those dusty old foreign films
and used the money for the part of our business.
that's always done pretty well for us.
Give the people what they want, right?
This isn't what people want!
It is definitely what that guy wants.
I like this store now.
The comedic notion
that the stores rejuvenated success comes entirely
from renting pornography,
playfully suggests perhaps the only way forward
for video stores is backward.
But rather than showing how video stores could manage
to stay in business, depictions of them
in these final days more often would simply make a joke
of the fact that they existed at all.
Hey man. - Welcome to Mondo video.
How may we help you?
Ugh, what are you guys doing here?
We own this store.
We bought this bitch.
We wanted to invest in an emerging market.
An emerging market?
Video stores are a dying market.
This is like one of the only ones left.
Then we're gonna corner that market.
Can you believe it?
Completely turnkey.
You got your sci-fi, comedies,
buddy flicks, chick flicks all on Blu-ray or DVD.
Well, what do you think?
It's awesome.
You should try to get it on that ancient civilization show
so that people can see how cultures used to live.
In this episode of "South Park,"
Blockbuster is equated to an old, abandoned, haunted house.
Go get it Filmore.
No way. I ain't going near that place.
You go get it.
Hey, you kids looking to rent some DVDs?
What's he talking about renting a Deeva D?
Even sadder than watching video stores close
is watching their depictions on screen migrate
from commercial, populist fair
to exclusively low budget independent films.
You should watch this one.
It's super tight.
Without sufficient resources to make these stores
or scenes set within them visually dynamic,
we now see them on screen not as we imagined them,
but as they actually were.
Long gone are the beautiful interiors
of "Body Double," "The Lost Boys,"
"Last Action Hero," or "The Big Hit."
Instead, stumbling upon a film such as 2009’s "Stan Helsing"
with a scene set inside a video store
would be as disappointing as finding a still open store
at this same time.
Excitement and curiosity followed by dismay
because everything you loved about video stores,
the selection, the eclectic space itself
and the colorful characters you may encounter is gone,
replaced with only a memory
of these once proud institutions.
Hardcore horror, huh?
Funny. You don't look like you can handle hardcore horror,
but you've come to the right place.
Here in this establishment,
we have one of the most coveted collections
of the morbid and macabre on digital disc.
If you're lucky, that memory allows you
to revisit a now closed physical space you once enjoyed
browsing the aisles of, images of video stores possess
the power to transport us, to remind us of spaces
that once were familiar and now are largely gone.
Other times they make us lament the sad decline of a culture
that thrived, was loved, taken for granted
and then perished ignominiously.
"Good Dick" from 2008 is notable for being the final film
to take place largely at a video store
in a contemporary non-period setting.
It also avoids any suggestion
that the video rental industry has struggled
to remain viable.
Though perhaps this is logical as it was filmed
on location at Los Angeles's still popular
and still open Cinefile Video.
In terms of location, the film could do no better.
Cinefile plays itself,
as we see not only the exterior sign,
but also videos bearing the store's actual address
and phone number.
In terms of content,
"Good Dick" features nothing remarkable whatsoever.
It deals unsurprisingly with the romantic yearning
of an unnamed protagonist, and an also unnamed customer.
By 2008, we had seen it all before.
Can I make a suggestion?
I thought this looked like it had amazing potential too,
but it is actually really, really bad.
It's like two definitely underage European girls hitchhiking
through the most unattractive shots of Germany.
Greasy fat guys like basically raping them.
I mean, it is a turnoff.
Should probably move it to a different section like bad.
Aside from references to Troma
or "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,"
"Good Dick" has everything we have come to expect
from video stores on screen,
and yet it feels strikingly unsubstantial.
Using a video store as its primary location,
it lacks the intertextuality that defined the earliest
and most memorable depictions of them
from the late 80's and early 90's.
This is not a glimpse into a world defined by cinema,
alive with the possibilities
of possessing infinite knowledge.
The film could be set in a bookstore or a clothing store,
or a laundromat. Unlike "Watching the Detectives"
or "Be Kind Rewind,"
this late entry to the canon does not feature a protagonist
whose life seems inseparable from his love of movies,
nor his desire to make them.
Nameless, he is a cipher.
He watches movies and sometimes talks about them,
but with no passion.
The film shows us scene after scene of a video store,
but never says anything other than, here we are.
"Good Dick" has the funereal tone
of revisiting the final dying days of somebody
or something you once loved.
That it is able to achieve this inside a video store
that did not close, weathered the storm and continues
to operate is all the more remarkable.
Place looks good.
Are you boys in love?
Sorry, Charlie. - Love.
Amour. Dancing. Are you in love?
There's no use wasting away alone,
and you need it.
Fall in love.
Sure. - Fall in love quick
with a girl or a boy.
Find someone. - Thank you.
That's great advice, sir.
Thank you.
You know what today is? - It's your anniversary.
Yeah. She loved this film.
Don't forget your tape there.
Oh, oh, yes, yes, yes.
I mean it, boys. Make it snappy.
You're getting old.
See you.
Ah, thank you.
Thank you, Charlie. - I see you later.
See you next time. - You bet.
The death of VHS occurred in tandem
with the demise of the video store.
While VHS continued to appear in films
as a recognizable object, it now existed only
as a representative object from the past.
Something containing images or moments that no longer exist
or never existed in the first place.
Have you heard about this video tape
that kills you when you watch it?
What kind of tape? - A tape, a regular tape.
People rent it. I don't know.
You start to play it,
and it's like somebody's nightmare.
Then suddenly this woman comes on,
smiling at you, right?
Seeing you through the screen,
and as soon as it's over, your phone rings.
Someone knows you've watched it,
and what they say is, you'll die in seven days.
The VHS tape makes its most significant post 2000
appearance in the remake of "Ringu,"
a Japanese film from 1998,
a time at which VHS was ubiquitous and standard.
I think they stayed here a night or so.
Yeah, they were in cabin 12.
They didn't pay.
They had a number of complaints,
about the TV mainly, reception's never good here.
That's why we bought tape players for videos.
Quite a selection.
Mostly, they're hand-me-downs left by other guests.
Anyway, they didn't pay.
Kids like that sometimes don't. Miss?
By 2002, the very same VHS tape appears as a relic
adding to its sense of horror and menace.
The release of "The Ring" closely followed the moment
in 2001 when DVD sales first exceeded VHS.
Just five years later,
more U.S. households owned DVD players than VCRs.
In 1998, 1 million American homes owned a DVD player.
By 2001, that number had increased to 24 million.
A rate of exponential growth that outpaced the proliferation
of VCRs exactly two decades earlier.
This is DVD.
And this is what happens when you watch DVD.
It's a movie on a disc the size of a CD.
In 1996, divide of profit between renting
and purchasing was in favor of renting.
8.7 billion to 7.5 billion.
In 2001, sales accounted for 10.3 billion
while rentals began to decrease now to 8.4 billion.
These five years during which DVD eclipsed VHS saw
the transition from one technology to another,
and the opportunity to purchase DVDs
and rent videos at the same store.
Unlike Blockbuster or any video rental location,
the player and the videos were available in the same space,
often offered as a package deal.
Shop right now at Circuit City and save.
The now lucrative DVD market owed more
to Best Buy than Blockbuster,
fulfilling the decades long promise of sell through pricing,
creating a preferable and affordable option to rental.
My name's Hollis.
I work at the Walmart Home Entertainment Department.
The big news is that Walmart now has DVD players,
and DVD movies.
The aggressiveness
with which these advertisements push DVD players
equating them with necessary home appliances
such as washing machines and refrigerators.
Implied that no lifestyle is complete without a proper way
to enjoy movies in the privacy of your own home.
If I can afford 'em,
then anybody can afford 'em.
Equally curious is the bombast
proclaiming 3000 titles to choose from.
A fraction of what Blockbuster was advertising
over a decade earlier.
With over 3000 titles to choose from,
make sure you see your next movie on DVD.
Yeah.
No more late fees.
No more late fees!
Much of the advertising of DVDs boasts
of the enticing possibility of eliminating such indignities
as late fees and return trips to the video store.
Notably, no films portray characters buying videos
in these types of stores.
Proving that to depict the behavior of video acquisition
in films or television was to exclusively reflect
the practice of renting
and all the possibilities it suggested.
While films like "The Holiday"
and "This Means War" kept the video store alive
as a somewhat realistic, common
and familiar public space well into the 2000's,
there was no mistaking the declining fortunes
in the industry of video rental.
It's almost as though stores began to close
when DVDs eliminated the ability to charge additional fines
for not rewinding.
So what are you doing?
Oh, just hanging out in my apartment.
You did get my text,
right? - What? Text? What?
We're all going out tonight?
Oh, man, that sounds great.
I wish I could join you.
I'm just so jammed up.
I'm totally off the grid, you know what I mean?
No, I don't at all.
I got a bunch of stuff going on.
There's this thing I gotta do.
Any other night would've been great,
darn it to heck!
Now, in both consumer habits
and film production, the shift from old to new
was a transition of leaving the video store,
and video rental habits in the past.
Where is your VHS section? - Right over there.
That's it?
That's the only tapes you have?
One for every person who still has a VCR.
Although for a time, these films
and shows also reach out into the future,
anticipating their own consumption,
indicating that the video store holds the past on reserve
for contemplation in the present
and even opens up toward the future.
This is a general condition of the video store,
both in social practice and in media representations.
If video rental stores asked us,
what do we want to watch this evening?
Then they also allowed us to ask more basically,
what do we want?
What is that? - Oh, "La Strada."
It's a Fellini movie. - So random.
Yeah. They were all outta "Miss Congeniality 2:
Armed and Fabulous."
I went for a random.
Ew Chad!
Fuck you. - Oh, fuck you.
You love it.
Hey, does that movie come with tampons for your pussy?
You know, Chad,
I'll be upset if it doesn't.
We should get "Out of Africa."
Sarah, this isn't gonna work.
Okay, fine.
"Die Hard." - No, I can't do this anymore.
What? Rent a movie.
You and me.
I told you I didn't want a serious relationship.
Given the generally negative portrayal
of video stores, it is tempting to claim that decades
of such depictions help stage their real world elimination.
Don't pretend like I didn't tell you this a month ago.
Oh my God. Oh my God, he's shot!
Somebody call the cops!
Somebody help! - I got him.
Oh my God. Somebody please!
Somebody, do something!
No, please!
Somebody! Why isn't anyone doing anything?
Is this our shooter? - Bystander.
Sean Markham walking in, took one in the chest.
Ooh, full vest.
Should've said, don't wanna watch TV.
If no one ever gets what they want
at the video store, why bother going to one at all?
But this betrayal of the rental space is duplicitous
as Hollywood made most of its money from home video revenues
for more than 20 years.
"Along Came Polly," "The Breakup," "Hitch."
Where would you look for those movies?
Comedy.
Genius.
These were spaces of troublesome shopping
and of unpleasant public interactions.
Places where different tastes,
and cultural goods became visually and dramatically apparent
where our social differences also became areas
of contemplation and tension.
What would you do to him?
If you could do anything you wanted to.
Anything and not get caught.
Everything on the list?
Yeah, so just pick a fucking movie.
Anything?
Hey, good shit.
Hey, you know what's fucking hilarious
is that you chose to act like a fucking asshole
on your last day on earth.
It is not really a question
of whether such things ever really happened
in video rental stores,
but rather where and how these feelings
and problems will be dramatized after the video store
no longer makes cinematic sense and portrayals of them
are limited to period pieces.
Where in their presence often says little more than,
do you remember these spaces?
Back in the 80's,
you couldn't just lay on your couch
and stream a movie to your phone,
you actually had to spend an hour of venturing
to a wondrous place called a video store.
And it was awesome.
Let's just make this fast, okay?
Pick a movie and don't go behind the curtain!
Depictions of video stores
and period pieces occasionally use the setting
to make specific points about the era,
usually the 1980's regarding access to videos
and the difficulty that is no longer relatable
to modern audiences.
"Temple of Doom." Overrated.
You wanna see a good film, kid?
Watch Bergman’s "The Seventh Seal" or "Devil's Manners?"
That's my student film, it is pretty much
the quintessential- - No, thank you
and let's get going.
We're in a big rush.
Yeah, you have a movie out.
"Slap Shot." Overrated.
If you ask me,
Paul Newman should... - I did not ask you,
and I know I returned that movie.
Please check again.
I didn't realize that my computer was HAL 9,000
and it could change at will
and blast us out the pod bay doors.
How many advanced copies of "Shrek"
on DVD do you think you can sell?
Isn't "Shrek" already out on DVD?
Yeah, but this is like, it's a new special edition with...
Yeah, it's wide screen
and then there's like special footage
of how they animated
Donkey and... - Donkey.
Is there something I can help you with, sir?
Yeah, uh... you have a foreign film section?
Don’t carry nothin’ foreign,
but Jap and Mex stuff.
Three favorite movies go.
"The Apartment," "Hidden Fortress,"
"Children of Paradise."
You, go.
Favorite movies. - Did I stutter?
"Animal House" for sure.
Eyes on me, Harrington.
Yeah. "Star Wars." - "A New Hope."
A new what now? - Which "Star Wars?"
One with the teddy bears, duh. No?
Occasionally the film's production designers
go so far as to accurately situate a video store
in the background, despite it not functioning
as a location characters physically visit.
These brief resurrections of video stores are rewarding
for various reasons.
They allow viewers familiar with them
to briefly relive a time where these stores reign supreme,
while showing others who perhaps never visited
a video store what unique, colorful
and offbeat experiences used to be accessible
to all who entered, despite some unavoidable hassles.
The spaces themselves, the tapes, the employees,
all of this was unique.
It was there and now it's gone.
Like Westerns or the World War II film,
future video store narratives will be told by those
who never experienced them firsthand.
How this will change their depictions remains to be seen,
but secondhand revisionism may not be too far away.
Now younger generations are completely unaware
of the thrills associated with in-person video browsing.
Oh, hey guys. Welcome.
Logan's right. This place is sick.
These boxy things are all movies?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The boxy things are VHS tapes,
and they go into a VCR machine, which we rent also.
Okay. "Party Girl" is my new favorite movie.
Parker Posey is my new dream woman.
I would marry her today. - Oh wow. Get in line.
Oh, I have something for you actually.
Landmark queer girl cinema,
"The Watermelon Woman."
So good. Cheryl Dunye.
You gotta let me know what you think.
Don from corporate.
Oh, Donny, what's going down?
Every time...
Look, there's no easy way to say this.
Seven more Blockbusters just closed,
you're officially the last one on Earth.
I don't love the pattern that's starting to emerge.
When a streaming service danced on the grave
of an industry it eradicated,
the results were insulting to all and of interest to none.
"I Am Legend" is a futuristic dystopia
that has also accidentally become a period piece.
It is a zombie film that unknowingly captured a world
on the precipice of obsolescence.
Sometime around 2012, the world has been overrun
with a virus that has turned everyone except the protagonist
into zombie-like creatures.
After establishing that Will Smith's, Robert Neville
is alone in a depopulated Manhattan
with only his dog as a companion,
we see him drive up to a video store and enter it.
This store was Tower Video, located in Greenwich Village.
It closed in December, 2006,
less than three months after this scene was filmed.
Hey, morning Marge. Morning Fred.
What you guys doing here so early?
A nice sweatshirt there, Fred.
Don't sit it down anywhere.
By the time of "I Am Legend's" release
one year later, the apocalyptic implications
of the story were actualized in this space.
Tower Video was itself a zombie returning
from the dead.
In the five years between the film's release
and its speculative science fiction narrative,
the presence of a video store
of this size would become even more incongruous.
By 2012, such stores were nearly non-existent everywhere,
and most certainly in Manhattan.
In a cruel twist of fate, 2012 would be the year
a video store was shown on screen in a major Hollywood film
in a normalized way for the last time,
not in a period piece, and not commented on as a relic.
In fact, it's sort of a second tier title.
For one final moment
in both the reality of "I Am Legend"
and "This Means War,"
the corporate chain massive video store was alive.
Mannequins mimic the social interactions one might have
at a video store.
They are positioned as customers entering the store.
As a family browsing the aisles,
as a clerk behind the counter,
Robert addresses a number of these mannequins by name
and indicates he has seen them
and interacted with them before.
Good morning, Hank.
Midway through the G’s.
What's happening here is profound, meta textual,
historical, speculative, emotional, and nostalgic.
This scene asks audiences for immediate recognition
of a space that needs no explanation.
With the removal of all other humans,
society has been eliminated and history effectively ended.
This film takes America at a certain moment in time
and freezes it.
The film treats the planet as a time capsule,
thus dating itself by depicting this public space.
Video stores could not appear in a film made before 1977.
They did not exist.
It is unlikely that the film's video store scene
would appear at all had "I Am Legend" been made any later.
In 1971's "The Omega Man," which was adapted
from the same Richard Matheson novel
on which "I Am Legend" is based.
We see Charlton Heston threading up
a 35 millimeter projector
in his now private once public movie theater,
and mouthing along to the 1970 documentary "Woodstock,"
like "The Omega Man," a Warner Brothers picture.
Just to really realize.
What's really important, what's really important,
the fact that if we can't all live together
and be happy, you have to be afraid
to walk out in the street.
If you have to be afraid
to smile at somebody, right?
Rather than what was left in the projection booth,
"I Am Legend" offers Will Smith a video store's worth
of options and instead of reciting a three hour documentary
about a world that no longer exists.
Can I say something to you.
Listen, you was really, really something back there.
Incredible. Are you talking to me?
Both "The Omega Man,"
and "I Am Legend" treat their dead worlds as time capsules.
But whereas the 35 millimeter film exhibition practiced
by Heston isn't quite extinct.
"I am Legend" serves as a repository for ideas
about the video store.
The next time they adapt this story, there will be no way
to logically include a version of this scene.
In a world that has forsaken analog film spectatorship,
"The Last Man on Earth" will be unable to access streaming
or video on demand options.
"I Am Legend" was released just as DVD sales
and rental revenues were beginning their steep decline.
And as Netflix and Redbox, a service offering DVDs
out of an ATM like machine with no human interaction
whatsoever gained market penetration.
It is fascinating to consider
why he bothers renting movies at all.
Many post-apocalyptic films depict characters
gleefully appropriating all the world's commodities.
"I Am Legend" indulges in this capitalist fantasy,
showing the protagonist
in an expensive sports car, for instance.
Yet it depicts him renting movies for no apparent reason.
He uses the video store however as a theater
to perform sociality itself.
Although the world of the film is socially frozen,
the protagonist brings it back to life by performing
the ritual of browsing and renting.
This formerly public space is his own private archive,
the vehicle for certain behaviors and interactions.
In this dystopian world, the video store becomes the site
of a social utopia, an interactional space
where people come into contact around media commodities.
The videos are not as important
as the position he takes within it.
Living in total isolation,
the protagonist manufactures a faux public space
in order to sustain a realm of private space
and thus his sense of individuality.
Importantly for the protagonist
and thus for the film itself, society in general is imagined
as a community of shoppers and salespeople.
Initially, he appears content and energized
by his pseudo interactions with these mannequins
by trivial greetings and goodbyes.
But the fantasy comes undone as the film progresses.
He returns to the video store after his dog has died,
and approaches the female mannequin he eyed earlier.
I miss my friend.
I will say hello to you today.
Hello. Hello.
Please say hello to me?
Please say hello to me.
Perhaps convinced that this video store theater
is real, Robert seeks deeper connection,
but he's disappointed.
The video store cannot provide what he seeks.
He is merely a shopper after all.
Since "I Am Legend" was released,
Blockbuster went bankrupt.
Once the monolithic enemy of independent video stores,
it suffered the same fate and no longer exists.
Video stores are all equal now.
Dead spaces brought back to life by the films
and television shows that captured them while they lived.
Video stores were a part of the world,
but are no longer a part of ours.
"I Am Legend" dramatizes a dead world,
but it also represents a lost way of life.
The film is proof of a time
when we thought video stores would continue to exist
in the future.
Now we know they exist only in the past.
♪ At home at night ♪
♪ I'm all alone ♪
♪ Watching the TV screen ♪
♪ And all at once, she appears to me ♪
♪ Girl of my dreams ♪
♪ I'm watching my video ♪
♪ Sure looks good to me ♪
♪ Video ♪
♪ Watching my video ♪
♪ Oh, oh ♪
♪ Video ♪
♪ Sure looks good to me ♪