By James David Patrick
For any given year-dedicated listicle, I sit down with the top ranked and most-watched movies of the year, first scribbling down Top 5 considerations. For 1998, I started with 16. 16 movies that, in most any other year, would have been near locks for rarified air.
But let’s push pause on the gushing 1998 fan service.
I’m looking at 1998 today to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first disc shipped by DVD Netflix. On March 10, 1998, some lucky unknown recipient found Beetlejuice (1988) in their mailbox (shout out to my recent 1988 “Die Hard on a Listicle” post). The discs-by-mail business model ultimately provided the platform by which Netflix would later launch their streaming empire. Fast forward two and a half decades and DVD.com still sends out these little red promises of joy.
When I tell people that I write for DVD Netflix, the typical response is, of course, “That’s still a thing?” Yes! A thousand times yes! The devoted subscriber base keeps the discs flowing, hither and thither, for everyone to enjoy. If you’re one of us, you know. You know that the DVD Netflix catalog contains deep cuts you can’t find anywhere else. These hidden gems keep us digging and searching, always looking for that next buried treasure.
To celebrate, let’s go back to 1998, the origin of DVD Netflix, and one of the most fertile periods of Hollywood creativity. Looking back at 1998-1999, I’m hard-pressed to find a better time to be a movie fan in the history of cinema. There are other great years, of course – but was there ever a multi-year period quite like it? A time of tremendous output in terms of volume and quality, the great merger of the big-budget Hollywood production model and the independent spark of creativity. Brian Raftery wrote about 1999 in the excellent Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen. 1998 remained in the shadow, undersold, underappreciated. 1998’s Dark City compared to 1999’s The Matrix. One a box office dud, beloved by a Roger Ebert-led cult of admirers – the other a gargantuan zeitgeist causing a shift in the action spectacle and cinematic aesthetic.
I’ll just dive right in because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. First, that Top 5 list that caused so much anguish. And before you start listing all the movies I didn’t include on this list… keep in mind that I considered 19 more equally worthy offerings… but 25 spots is 25 spots for 25 years. And for any toss-ups, I consulted my gut. Which would I rather watch right now?
#1998s #Fear #Loathing #Dark #City #Picks #Years #DVD #Netflix
