Like it or not, Netflix is Hollywood’s top studio, and this very same Netflix is “actively hostile to the idea of physical media.”
So says filmmaker Mike Flanagan, who spent the better part of a decade producing movies for the world’s top streamer.
Flanagan just broke away from Netflix and took over the flailing Exorcist franchise, but Netflix distributed and/or produced three of his films (Hush, Gerald’s Game, and Before I Wake) and several hit shows (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and Fall of the House of Usher), and he was not able to convince them to offer up a physical media release in any format:
I tried very hard to get them to release my work on Blu-Ray & DVD. Netflix refused at every turn. It became clear very fast that their only priority was subs, and that they were actively hostile to the idea of physical media.
This is a very dangerous point of view. While companies like Netflix pride themselves on being disruptors and have proven that they can affect great change in the industry, they sometimes fail to see the difference between disruption and damage. So much that they can find themselves, intentionally or not, doing enormous harm to the very concept of film preservation.
We all know why Netflix would refuse such a thing. Netflix wants subscribers. If you want to watch a Mike Flanagan movie, there is only one way: you must subscribe to Netflix. I get that, but it’s still fascist.
Let’s start with addressing the arguments defending Netflix. Some people might say, So what? For more than a half-century, consumers weren’t able to buy their own copies of movies. This is just a return to normal.
No, it’s not, and for two reasons…
The first is that we now live in an entertainment environment governed by left-wing McCarthyites. The simplest way for me to put this is that if they will censor the French Connection, they will censor anything. And by “they,” I mean the studios and artists, not some outside group. The very same entities that should be fighting the hardest against his censorship are now rolling over and agreeing to it.
Second, in those years before home video, movies were physically distributed to movie theaters and then TV stations and revival theaters. There were PHYSICAL copies of thousands of movies shipped all over the civilized world. This practice has saved countless movies from extinction—not due to censorship (like today), but from neglect. Copies of lost movies have been found in South American vaults and in the homes of private collectors.
Let me tell you a story….
F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent masterpiece Nosferatu should not exist. Without obtaining the approval of Dracula creator Bram Stoker’s estate, Murnau stupidly produced and then attempted to distribute Nosferatu. The estate sued for copyright infringement, and a judge ordered all copies of Nosferatu destroyed. And they were. But, according to one story, it was only decades later that a print was discovered, and one of the most influential movies ever created was saved.
If a fascist streaming service (and the big ones are all fascist) decides one of its offerings should be disappeared, it will be disappeared forever—except on the black market in pirated versions. This reality has altered Flanagan’s view of pirated movies:
“Working in streaming for the past few years has made me reconsider my position on piracy,” Flanagan said in answer to a question on Tumblr. “You could say my feelings on the matter have ‘evolved.’”
“The danger,” he explained, “comes when a title is only [emphasis original] available on one platform, and then — for whatever reason — is removed.”
“So… today, I am very grateful that my Netflix originals are available through — uh — other means [emphasis original],” he added.
Netflix isn’t the only studio hoarding its titles. Apple refuses to release Ridley Scott’s Napoleon and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon in any physical format. This means you have to subscribe to watch. This also means that the Sensitivity Nazis can forever erase two films from two major directors.
There is one workaround, and that’s overseas releases. Last month, I purchased a Blu-ray of Killers of the Flower Moon from Asia. Great packaging, great transfer (not a great movie), all for $13. Was it pirated? Don’t know. Don’t care. I used to care, but like Mike Flanagan, I do not care anymore.
The left’s mantra: “You will own nothing and be happy.”
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
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