BlockBUSTED!

What is amusing about this picture? Well, technically, it isn’t. We laugh upon seeing it because of the irony that Blockbuster, once the favourite haunt of all film geeks everywhere (including myself) throughout their teenage years right into adulthood, has disappeared from Portswood and other locations around the country.

The tagging of ‘Pirate Bay’ is a good joke, for Pirate Bay now owns film territory and has claimed it from Blockbuster in Portswood, kind of like a gang territory joke. The white van parked in front of it just adds to the hilarity. Obviously, the gang members have hopped in at the back dressed in their pirate costumes and smoking their powdered gold (for pirates are already pretty gangster. They are the reason men have no belts and their trousers are around their knees; they cut them off).

But it’s a pretty bad joke too. Not to mention a significant majority of the residents of Portswood are students, who are largely enamoured of Netflix and YouTube, having graduated from Pirate Bay years ago, and everyone else seems to only appear when the students aren’t around. There can also be no doubt that the pirates are stopping them with threats of the plank (okay, so that’s probably enough now).

Why did Blockbuster Portswood close down? What was wrong with it? I’ll be honest; I went in with my boyfriend a few weeks back to purchase some films from their sale. We were feeling crazy; we bought four films at two or three pounds each. We took our films to the cashier, who after ten or fifteen minutes of searching, couldn’t find two of the films. Apparently, they had sold out. So we chose two new films, and bought those instead. I didn’t mind. We ended up watching Defiance. Ah, Daniel Craig…

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Anyway, the point is, Blockbuster’s system simply did not suit the clientele of Portswood anymore. It used to be that Blockbuster was cheap and speedy for the local students, probably as recently as five years ago. For just 99p, the film was yours for the night. Combine with pizza and beer to make for an all-but perfect evening. But today, we expect INSTANT. Not SPEEDY. INSTANT. Goodness me how we curse when the video is buffering.

So how can one expect Blockbuster to survive? I don’t blame the cashier for not looking harder for the films. He was facing unemployment and the dole queue. The internet had beaten him. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he simply stuck all the films on Pirate Bay and directed customers to it.

The thing is, the workers’ unemployment is not only the reason why the graffiti isn’t actually funny. It’s also the implication that an illegal site can take away the business of a legitimate company. A film is an expensive endeavour. The actors are overpaid, it’s true, but the worker bees to these queen bees receive peanuts for their hard work being behind camera. They might see a little bonus from cinema, DVD and rental sales if they’re lucky, but mostly unlikely. Upon their film being watched illegally, who will buy it legitimately? Who will pay the worker bees? They are the set designers, the runners, the sound people, the camera team…they are frequently forgotten, especially in the debates of illegal downloading.

Besides, Pirate Bay really is like a street gang. They coerce you to sign up in a slightly aggressive manner. You have a share in the goods, but you feel obliged to steal some goods too, and if you get caught they magically disappear. Oh, and let’s not forget they leave a few viruses…!