NEW BRUNSWICK- Mitch Burris, a Sophomore Film Student at Rutgers University Mason Gross reportedly could not watch Orson Welles' magnum opus Citizen Kane last week because of its omittence from the streaming service Netflix. "I looked everywhere," Burris said. "I typed the whole thing in on the queue. Heck, I even looked to see if Netflix offered it on DVD, whatever that means. I still couldn't find it."
This all sprang up when the 19-year old was given a pop quiz by his film professor on the film. "I got a 37 (on the quiz), and my professor asked me why I did so poorly. When I said I didn't watch it because it wasn't on Netlfix, he just looked at me weird. I told him he should assign movies that are actually on Netflix like Metropolis or The Ridiculous 6, but at that point he walked away."
Since Netflix started streaming media in 2007, millions of films have become impossible to watch by a whole generation of college students, including Freshman Jake McNamara. "It sucks when a friend recommends a movie to me but when I ask if it's on Netflix they say 'no.' It's like, why even recommend it to me in the first place?"
But some people enjoy the restrictive tendencies. "I kind of like being told what to watch," says Kelly Johnson, a Graduate Student. "Who cares what I'll miss out on? If they're not on Netflix, they're probably not important anyway. Besides, who wants to pay money to watch movies anymore?"
The ramifications of Netflix have spread in the movie business, including the Academy Awards. There have been rumors that the "Best Picture" nominees will be narrowed down to the movies that will be leaving Netflix this February. "Sure there's Netflix at the whole," said Johnson, "but movies leaving Netflix are really the only movies people watch anyway, right?"