The picture above is of one of my VHS shelves – yes, just one of them. I own several hundred VHS and I still collect. Does it seem incongruous to you that a girl who is known for being a true film fan collects an “inferior” form of media? It shouldn’t. Film snobbery comes in many forms. I would far far rather watch a film on 35mm than on digital, but at home I prefer VHS to DVD. Why? I’m glad you asked.
First we have the nostalgia factor. VHS was the first medium I started watching film on, so it just feels natural to me to pop in a tape to my VCR. I like the heft of them, the box art, the fact that unlike DVD’s which can become scratched very easily, VHS is pretty sturdy stuff. Almost every tape I own runs perfectly, even after 20 years of use.
I love that I have bootlegs. My copies of Heavy Metal Parking Lot and The Star Wars Holiday Special are both worth their weight in gold to me. Both are bootlegs of bootlegs of bootlegs and I think that there is no better way to watch these “films”. Who would want to see either of these in crisp, clear HD? Not me. The fuzziness and bad quality actually help these films a bit. And in terms of The Star Wars Holiday Special, it needs all the help it can get.
I also love that I’m preserving a medium that is dying. All video stores are clearing their stock, and that means I can get great films for a dollar a piece or less. And while I am sad that VHS is no longer going to be able to be rented, I’m happy that they will be going home with me where they will be loved. Not to mention that I own several movies that I doubt will ever make it to DVD. Every media change several films fall through the cracks. Think of all the films on 35mm or 16mm that never made it to VHS! And the same thing is true for the switch to DVD. I can pop Rad into my VCR and watch Cru Jones ride Hell Track any time that takes my fancy – sorry Blu Ray snobs.
Recently my friend Julie generously donated her VHS collection to me. She dropped it off at the New Bev and after I rifled through and picked out what I wanted, I left the box there for fellow VHS hounds to explore. It’s been great watching people light up when they see the box and pull out some free tapes to take home with them.
So here is my call to all of you! If you have VHS you don’t want anymore, bring them to the New Beverly! Let’s make us the hub of a huge VHS exchange in LA. Instead of just dumping them in the trash or dropping them off at Goodwill, drop them off with us. Not only will we be super excited to receive them, you will get the guarantee that they will be given a loving home.
May VHS never die.
August 26, 2011
juliamarchese
4 responses to “Viva La VHS.”
Annika
August 26th, 2011 at 14:38
This is excellent. I regret the box I dropped off at Goodwill a year or two back – but I have more to give away, and will bring it by.
Dana DeRuyck (@dana_WHAT)
August 26th, 2011 at 14:43
Oh god. The Star Wars Holiday Special. So bad. So gloriously bad.
Andrew W. Jones
August 26th, 2011 at 15:27
“Think of all the films on 35mm or 16mm that never made it to VHS! And the same thing is true for the switch to DVD.” This is doubly true for blu-ray.
“The fuzziness and bad quality actually help these films a bit.”
Absolutely! The quality argument does make sense for certain film’s aesthetics. I know the recent “The House of the Devil” suffers in the light of blu-ray, as it clearly was meant to evoke the very fuzzy bootleg feeling you mention. Other films, meant to be seen with the light diffusion of being projected, also fare better at home when viewed in lower resolution.
On the flip side, the blu-ray for “Flash Gordon” captures every sumptuous detail of that film’s production design in a way that completely redefined my experience of the film. I would have surely had the same revelation seeing it on film, but feeling that the blu-ray is superior to the DVD and VHS versions hardly qualifies as snobbery in my opinion.
AllHallowSteve
August 27th, 2011 at 10:09
Reading great posts like this really tugs at my heart strings.
I, too, discovered film through VHS. I remember being in 5th grade when my best friend’s older brother returned from the Marines. He brought with him an Igloo cooler FULL of VHS tapes: most bootlegs. There they were, three to a SLP tape, films that sometimes weren’t even available as official releases. Heavy Metal. Streets of Fire. The Exterminator. Death Wish. MegaForce. Friday the 13th 1-4. Clash of the Titans.
Our eyes lit up at his gift to us and we spent the summer watching everything in that cooler.
As we got to high school, we both got jobs at the same local video store where one of the perks was being able to take home free rentals at the end of the night.
My collection over the years, swelled to a picture much like you posted and then diminished as I sold them off to make the switch to DVD. Though I still haven’t leapt to Blu-Ray, I’m down to one treasured box of VHS in storage with such endearing but common VHS tapes as: From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga, Hellraiser 2 and Back to the Future (the first tape I ever purchased at the low, low price of $39.99).
I even have my taped-off-TV copies of Halloween 2 (which just FEELS better watching with interference and clogged head hits) and Stephen King’s World of Horror.
I can’t part with them for many of the reasons you talked about: nostalgia, lack of official releases, and frankly— I don’t have high hopes my DVDs will be able to be played in 10 years, let alone 30.
If I ever decide to part with the official VHS I have, I know where to go to make sure they have a good home.
Long live the New Beverly.