Inflation's entertainment value

(Or, rather: Entertainment's inflation value!)

Last night Hay and I watched for the very first time the 1966 version of Fahrenheit 451 (a new version will be released in 2007 if they can hurry up and pick a cast). In case you live under a rock and/or didn't know the plot, in another world firemen start fires by burning books which are all illegal. It's okay to pop pills and watch TV all your life, because those are controlled, but reading books is verboten. I won't give away the ending, but suffice it to say that in this movie you are only successful if you own more than one “wall screen” (read: wall-mounted television set) and have never read a book in your life. How anyone knows how to read is truly beyond me, but that is not important to the story line. Hay and I both thought it was fascinating.

And, speaking of your worth in wall screens, there is an interesting analysis of money and inflation in film over at CNN (from February 22, 2006) which compares the monetary value from the year the film was made to today's value, and rates if the comparison is too high or too low. Two criticisms: The article doesn't take into account the cultural aspect. Maybe in yesterday's society spending $15 on a tie was culturally considered very expensive, regardless of the monetary value of it. (Who ever heard of paying $3 US for a gallon of gas?!* But, yup, we just did it.) Also, when comparing Midnight Cowboy to today's dollar the writer states:

In "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) tells the naïve Joe Buck (Jon Voight), who has relocated to Manhattan hoping to jump start a career as a male hustler, that, with the right connections, he can make "fifty, maybe a hundred dollars a day, easy."

The equivalent in 2006 is $265 to $530.

Rating: How would we know?

Homophobic much? Or, maybe you do know and you just don't want to admit it! I can rate this with both eyes closed: That's a lotta money, pal!

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*To my Canadian readers: I feel for you, I really do. I know you pay much more than the equivalent to a gallon, since you're paying per litre, so I'm sorry this won't sock you in the stomach as much as it will those from the USA.