What Film Is Good For: On the Value of Spectatorship, edited by Julian Hanich and Martin P. Rossouw

Abstract

Roger Ebert famously referred to movies as “machines that generate empathy”, arguing that cinema had the power to transport viewers into the lived realities and emotional experiences of people all across the world who are “sharing this journey with us”. This is not an uncommon way of tackling the question of what film is good for. Yes, it offers up popcorn-chomping entertainment, high-octane action, heart-rending romance, and spine-tingling fear, but seeing movies as conduits for empathy implies something deeper than mere entertainment—in theory at least.

Keywords

• film-philosophy
• film ethics