“Netflix and chill” might have become the favorite pastime for many, but veteran actor Tim Robbins is skeptical about the streaming service for reasons we all need to take seriously.
If the name Tim Robbins doesn’t ring a bell for you, maybe Andy Dufresne does—the dashing and intelligent banker who leads the 1994 Oscar-winning prison drama The Shawshank Redemption alongside Morgan Freeman. Now 66 years old donning a full head of white hair and thick beard, Robbins is worried about the wider future of the film industry and it’s all because of Netflix.
Currently seen as Bernard in the Apple TV Plus series Silo, Robbins spoke to The Guardian promoting the newly-released second season of the series and instinctively, also incorporated some serious talk in his casual conversation. “You go on Netflix right now and you tell me that’s the future of cinema? We’re in big trouble,” the actor remarked fearing that the rise of streaming services might cause good films to be swept under the rug of glamorous scripts that only serve to entertain viewers for a few hours.
Robbins asserted that the type of films that reach the wider audience is now “increasingly governed by algorithms that prioritize more of the same over anything sui generis.” Being someone who appreciates the potential of cinema to provoke thought, drive social movements, and elicit new ideas, the gradual disappearance of such movies is a cause of great concern for him—and it should be for all of us. When was the last time you saw something like The Pursuit of Happyness, Good Will Hunting, or The Shawshank Redemption for that matter?
However, Robbins soon squared off saying “I know that a quality movie, a quality television show, will last,” taking the example of how The Shawshank Redemption still retains its popularity after 30 years. “When it came out it got good reviews, it got nominated for Academy Awards, but nobody saw it. It was VHS and [Ted] Turner playing it on his television channel [Turner Classic Movies] that changed that,” Robbins recalled.
But despite a slow start, the movie remains on top of IMDb. So Robbins asserts that as long as a film is good, “whether it’s a hit or not is irrelevant compared to what people are going to think about it in 10, 15, 20 years.” But even though Robbins is firm in his belief that good work comes to light if it’s being put out there, the responsibility lies also on the shoulders of moviegoers. After all, how many of us can claim to have watched Robbins’ brilliant 2019 environmental legal thriller Dark Waters?
As viewers, we hold almost complete power over what trends, and what goes into trend is what reaches a wider audience. So, Robbins is doing his job picking roles that capture the social moment, “at this stage of my life, I don’t want to waste my time on a set doing something frivolous,” and now it becomes our job picking which narratives to fuel with our hard-earned money and responsible social presence.