The Last Blockbuster

I was really hoping for more substance to this. The nostalgia trips from the various talking heads became super repetitive and a little annoying by around the halfway Mark. I wanted to see a LOT more company history, financials, screwups, etc., but those topics were very brief and glossed-over. For the amount of content, this could've been a 30 minute documentary. I love the story of the Bend location, but I wanted more than that.

The first half of the documentary is really strong, telling a story around video stores and the history, Then it gets a bit muddy with a much too long part about the last store. Just making the first act longer would have made it perfect.

Much like the documentary "All Things Must Pass"-which showcased the rise and fall of the Towers Records franchise, this is a heartwarming look at the home-video era that predated streaming.

I'd suspect most who watch this, are of a certain age, where they recall how iconic and seemingly too big to fail, these businesses seemed.

I thought it did a fairly good job of explaining why Blockbuster stores were the Goliaths of the era, and how the downfall invariably occurred.

I also enjoyed the personal anecdotes surrounding the town of Bend, and the store's long-time manager Sandi.

It's a lighthearted sentimental journey, that was told in an engaging manner-save for a few annoying talking heads.

Historical documentaries often chronicle lifestyles of many decades ago, often centuries: the Roaring 20's, the Fabulous 50's, the Civil War. Because the world is changing so rapidly, particularly in the area of media, what seemed cultural mainstays only one or two decades ago are now referred to as by-gone eras. By-gone eras are no longer a half-century ago or longer. In this case, the documentary is focusing on Blockbuster Video, a cultural phenomenon mainly experienced by Gen X'ers from circa 1990 to 2010.

The interviewees discuss Blockbuster Video in ways that remind me of my grandparents talking about malt shops, horse-racing tracks or Coney Island. Blockbuster Video, began with a single store in 1985 and by 2004 was at its height with about 7500 stores US nationwide. However, by 2019, there was only one store left. What happened? The most interesting part of the documentary is the history of Blockbuster which is only about a third of the film at best. Most of the film is the interviewees talking about Blockbuster culture and the last Blockbuster Video still standing in Bend, Oregon. A lot of focus is on the general manager of the last store, Sandi Harding.

When I was at university in the 1990's, everyone I knew had a Blockbuster Video card. It was the culture for Gen-X'er film entertainment in lieu of going to see a new release in the theater. But even young mom's and dad's could rent movies for the whole family. New video releases were astronomically expensive, often costing $80 to $100 on VHS. But you could rent them for $3 to $5 for one to two nights at Blockbuster. You could gather a group, order pizza and watch the original "Halloween", "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", or maybe a new release on video like "Silence of the Lambs". Or something nostalgic like "Plan Nine from Outer Space".

According to the documentary, Blockbuster wasn't exactly put out of business by Netflix as the conventional wisdom goes. But if you listen carefully, BB was in a way. But bad business decisions contributed.

BB was bought by Viacom which intended the video rental franchise as a cash cow to buy other media corporations such as the QVC Network. By then BB's stock price was slipping. BB was also offered a lucrative deal with Warner Bros for the upcoming explosion of DVD's which would replace VHS. The offer was tremendous: exclusive rights to distribute new release DVD's for rental before general sale. BB turned it down. Subsequently, Warner Bros lowered its new releases' prices from $80/$100 to $20 to $30. Now instead of renting for $4, consumers could just buy DVD's and own them forever.

In the early 2000's, BB had the opportunity to buy Netflix. That was turned down. And now they're down to one last store in Bend, Oregon. An interesting doc which chronicles a by-gone era... of only like 10 years ago? We live in interesting time...

They called this a documentary, so I would have liked to see an informative movie about the rise and fall of an iconic American company. Instead, it's more like a long version of that old show 'I love the 90's.' Talking heads cracking bad jokes and an over enthusiastic narrator who sometimes pretends to be in the room asking people questions (though I doubt that is the fault of Lauren Lapkus.) The stuff with the family who runs the last store is good though. The whole thing just came across as a little cheesy and not very serious, which would be fine, just label it as such. It's worth watching, even though you might find yourself doing something else while it plays in the background.