comment #1

D.Z. says ...

I was equally disappointed when they took down their International/Criterion section.

comment #2

Craptastic says ...

I've been to two different ones lately and the Criterion section is still there. In fact, it was right next to the 'new releases' section in both stores. I found that heartening.

It boggles my mind how the generation below me has little to no knowledge of history or pop culture pre- 1990 but, in the Citizen Kane senario, what we all need to remember here is that not everyone is as into film as we are.

comment #3

Dan Revill says ...

She works at Best Buy. I have yet to run across anyone in a Best Buy who knows what they are talking about. I have known people who have only been exposed to Welles via the animated Transformers movie...Remember B&W is kryptonite to most. So why is this surprising?

comment #4

actionman says ...

Sadly, this doesn't surprise me. The people working in the movie section of Best Buy are typically the most clueless people ever.

comment #5

BurmaShave says ...

He deserves to win just for his handle.

comment #6

JoeGreenia says ...

Best Buy stores in Chicago give anime titles more shelf space than westerns by a ratio of about five to one. I'm just saying.

comment #7

Aris P says ...

I would guess that 95% of people under the age of 25 in this country know nothing about anything, other than how their cell phones work and what hip-hop song is hot.

comment #8

MathewM says ...

Hmm, so "Buck Swope" is 39 years old and he's just now buying Citizen Kane? If he's such an elitist film snob then why has he waited seven years to buy arguably the greatest American made film on DVD? And then he has the nerve to pick on some Best Buy gal because she doesn't know about the film. Who cares? Lame.

comment #9

raygo says ...

I went to see a Harry Potter movie with a date. When I noticed what looked like Julie Christie in the film, I mentioned it. She said "who's Julie Christie?" ... date's age 38.

comment #10

arturobandini2 says ...

Ain't it a shame, raygo? Christie's iconic status should be legendary, but to the post-Breakfast Club demo, she might as well be Joyce DeWitt. Here's my favorite web anecdote about Christie -- testimony from "professional fan" Gary Boas:

http://www.dilettantepress.com/juliechristiestory.html

comment #11

calraigh says ...

You all live in L.A right/wrong?

comment #12

Hallick says ...

I had the same experience at a Bed, Bath & Beyond AND T.G.I.Friday's. What is wrong with this country?

comment #13

Chapman Carruthers says ...

I'm pretty sure the answer includes Bed, Bath & Beyond and T.G.I.Fridays.

comment #14

MilkMan says ...

I think it's kind of strange to expect someone making close to minimum wage to give a shit about anything, let alone cinema history.

comment #15

Eboue Knows says ...

Honestly, is this a big deal?

I remember in my freshman year of film school, when asked how many students had seen Citizen Kane, only half of the class raised their hands.

That's a much bigger problem.

comment #16

MickTravis says ...

I recently met a 23-year-old woman who, when I referred to "the original Star Wars trilogy," literally did not know what I was talking about.

I thought she was fucking with me for a while but then it got boring and I was like, "There were three Star Wars movies in the 70s and 80s," and she said, "Oh, right, and then they remade them. With computers."

Hey, not everybody can be a geek but I had to wonder how many contemporary pop culture references were completely lost on her.

comment #17

BJ Summers says ...

At the specialty video store I help manage, a rule we have when someone drops off a resume we ask, who directed Citizen Kane? I tear up the ones that don't know the answer. Next time I'll think of you Buck.

comment #18

RDP says ...

"Hey, not everybody can be a geek but I had to wonder how many contemporary pop culture references were completely lost on her."

Which, if this person was representative of a large portion of the people her age, leads one to wonder what such people are getting out of shows like "Family Guy".

Of course, my wife is roughly my age, and I don't think she could tell me who directed Citizen Kane (I doubt she could name any director of any film), and I don't think she's ever seen it. But there are a lot of other movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood that she adores.

comment #19

LexG says ...

Best Buy isn't like Borders or something; Aren't most of their employees just teenage kids trying to make a buck? I doubt pop culture knowledge is a requirement of the job -- it's not like a mom and pop shop where movies are their niche.

Most BB employees in my LA-biased experienced are just rowdy Filipino kids trying to be left alone by the customers.

comment #20

joncro says ...

A 38 yr old went to a Harry Potter film?

I work with a 22 yr old and he was shocked to see film footage of WWI.

"They had cameras then?!"

comment #21

Wiggumx says ...

At Fry's recently, I was looking for a particular release (Dazed & Confused) that was available on Criterion. They didn't have it on Criterion, just the crappy regular release.. Then I thought that they might not carry Criterion releases, so I looked for several others... they didn't have them. Or, at least, if they did, they didn't have the Criterion version. Seems odd, yes? But this is a generation that can't even buy the definitive release of certain films. At least not at the chain in my town.

So sad.

comment #22

frankbooth says ...

You're a big softy, BJ.

I'd make them name three films by Wells, ask who the most prominent Swedish director was, ask who starred in Some Like it Hot, what two actors played Vito Corleone, and make them name three silent films. ANY three.

Pretty easy stuff, but I wonder how many would fail.

Oh, and then I'd ask who shot and scored Blue Velvet, what car Frank drove, the name of Sandy's boyfriend, one movie starring Sandy's real-life father, and what town BV was set in. If they didn't know, I'd smear them with lipstick, beat them senseless and dump them at Meadow Lane. But that's just me.

comment #23

frankbooth says ...

Was the Best Buy girl Mirajeff's girlfriend?

comment #24

Luke Y. Thompson says ...

I told my brother, age ten, that there was no Internet when I was a kid.

His response: "Really? Did they have TV?"

But anyway, I really hate when clerks in DVD stores say "Can I help you find something?" and if you say yes, all they do is take you to the exact alphabetical slot you already looked in.

comment #25

Craptastic says ...

Wiggumx,

Are you talking about the Fry's in Burbank? If so, I've actually seen that version there many times. In my opinion, Fry's is the best place to buy DVD's in the L.A. area.... if it's not out of print, they've got it. Was just there today and picked up "Vampyr" and "Pandora's Box".

comment #26

Dan Revill says ...

BJ, do you rip the resumes right in front of the people? If you do, then that may be the best thing ever for store morale.

comment #27

LexG says ...

That Fry's has a fairly extensive selection but I always get super depressed in there.

Like they need to turn up the lights or something; And there's usually all those unshowered Burbank middle-aged men in flip-flops skulking around. Last time I was in there, some old fuck just blatantly, shamelessly farted aloud right there in the middle of the store as he was pushing his cart.

Great selection but some real sadsacks in that piece.

comment #28

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

Interesting, I was in a Manhattan Beach Target store 2 nights ago and this nice looking middle aged woman in a Lexus SUV farted loudly.

I waited until I was inside the car before I started to laugh hysterically....

comment #29

Craptastic says ...

Lex,

I hear ya, pal. That place is both a blessing and a curse. Going through the hike and smelly vapor that leads to the DVD section is a complete chore... but once you're there, that section, for the times I've been there, has been relatively empty. I've spent over an hour going through their selection (trust me, that says a lot-- I'm not one for brousing in stores. I know what I want going in and get the fuck out of there.)

If you get depressed in there... just remember that there is a giant ant inside, a 'saucer' smashed into the front of the building and Gort holding a woman in an actual store. Gets me through it every time. Where the fuck else are you going to see something like that?

comment #30

lazarus says ...

Deathtongue, how did you know the car the Fart Woman was driving was a Lexus? Were you parked next to her and she farted before getting into her car? Or did she fart inside the Target and you followed her out to the parking lot to see what kind of car a public farter would drive. Cuz that's kind of pervy.

And yet, I could totally see myself doing that, I just wouldn't publicly admit to it.

comment #31

Rich S. says ...

Hands up, how many here know who Buck O'Neil was? How about John Mackey? No fair using Google.

comment #32

T. S. Idiot says ...

Anyone care to share anecdotes about Ben Turpin?

comment #33

tjfar67 says ...

His second choice was the latest Kate hudson crapfest...

"Excuse me you lady, do you have 'Citizen Kane'? No? OK I'll take 'Fool's Gold' instead." he said as he walked away with tears in his eyes.

comment #34

renorambler says ...

In my Psychology in Literature class yesterday we were discussing an article on the "Problem of Evil" as explained by various religions of the world. The article referenced Timothy McVeigh twice and none of my Juniors or Seniors knew who that was. That doesn't trouble me as much as the fact that none of them bothered to ASK who it was before I mentioned the reference. I had to ask myself, what happened to intellectual curiosity? Did the Bush administration represent the final nail in the coffin?

comment #35

Howlingman says ...

"I had to ask myself, what happened to intellectual curiosity? Did the Bush administration represent the final nail in the coffin?"

No, but the death of intellectual curiosity certainly enabled it.

comment #36

p.Vice says ...

Again, this "best" line is nothing shocking. I worked at Blockbuster when I was 16 and none of my coworkers (all of whom were a good 10 years older than I was at the time) knew who Orson Welles was. I fondly recall having to repeatedly argue my boss's claim that Murder In the First was the greatest film of all time.

Cut to 15 years later. You expected progress?

comment #37

Bocephus says ...

I worked at blockbuster when I was 17. We had a copy of Desperate Living in the comedy section that had somehow missed their objectionable content cleansing. I recommended it as a joke to all the employees who liked Hairspray and Cry Baby.

Best Buys in San Antonio have never sold Criterion, to my knowledge. Barnes and Noble has a section for it, luckily.

comment #38

T. S. Idiot says ...

I was punished for all past, ongoing, and future sins by having to teach freshman composition at five large universities for fifteen years. I didn't expect the students to know anything about history, literature, or science but was shocked they knew so little about popular culture beyond the current pop music and TV shows. What had they spent eighteen years doing?

If intellectual curiosity ever existed in this country, it has long since died. The cell-phone-culture only makes a dire situation even worse.

comment #39

buck.swope says ...

well, i was buying a 2nd copy of a citizen kane for a friend. i'm far from a film snob. and i certainly didn't buy a kate hudson movie, but i figured she would know where THAT was. i just thought it was strange that a movie that is consistently named the #1 movie of all time didn't even register on her face. and she worked in the movie section. forget the fact that movie knowledge isn't a requirement or that she is minimum wage. it wasn't like i asked her where the fassbinder was. it was in their weekly ad for god's sake. and it's in chicago, and i can verify that there is 3x as much room for anime as there is westerns as joegreenia says.

comment #40

Pelham123 says ...

To Rich S. --
Buck O'Neil was the great Negro Leagues baseball player & John Mackey the legendary receiver for the, equally, legendary Baltimore Colts. No Google needed for that.

comment #41

roman says ...

That's nothing. I've been in film school classrooms and heard people say the same.

comment #42

Rich S. says ...

Well done, Pelham. Someone actually got the answer to that question more quickly than I thought.

comment #43

ketut says ...

To start, I am 48.

In High school, I took a Fil Lit class and the teacher made us watch such classics as Citizen Kane and Dr Zhivago (for the set pieces) and I remember I just hated Citizen Kane. I have come to appreciate it over the years.

I did get my love of Hitchcock from him though.

comment #44

duck dodgers says ...

We interrupt this orgy of self-regard to point out that the previous Citizen Kane-mentioning best line was a ripoff of Peter Travers' famous comment on Shakes the Clown (that it was "the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies").

comment #45

erikwithak says ...

the other night at work (Rare on Bleeker St), when Paul Newman's death was reported on the news, a young (lets say 24) woman turned to her friend and went "was he a game show host?"

i could not fucking make this shit up.

comment #46

TVMCCA says ...

ketut wrote:
In High school, I took a Fil Lit class and the teacher made us watch such classics as Citizen Kane and Dr Zhivago (for the set pieces) and I remember I just hated Citizen Kane. I have come to appreciate it over the years.

I did get my love of Hitchcock from him though.

In my small town Texas high school, no such thing as Film Lit, but occasionally got to see commercial films as varied as THE WAR LORD (wish Universal would release on DVD), THE PIRATES OF TORTUGA, MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, the Bing Crosby musical version of CONNECTICUT YANKEE and Disney's WESTWARD HO, THE WAGONS! when they had at least a tenuous connection to what we were learning.

comment #47

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