Free Movies On-line?

Well, this piece, more or less came out in a Malaysian daily newspaper's pull-out; I just like the topic. So for the benefit of those who like this sort of stuff I reproduce it below:

Bored? Watch movies on-line for free
By Hazimin Sulaiman

THERE'S obviously nothing new about watching movies on-line. Everyone with a broaband Internet connection has more or less experienced watching movies on-line; the very least a .flv (Adobe Flash) based movies on Youtube.com and the likes of it. Of it might not compare to the excitement of going to watch the newest blockbuster with full silverscreen glory, DTS and ambiance to match, but it offers something else that movie buffs would appreciate. These are rare film specimens that you most probably won't find in stores.What are we talking about?

The classics and excellent works of art dating from the 1930's and older available on-line. Some of these movies have actually shaped and inspired the movies that we see today. One excellent example of a brilliant piece of science fiction-horror would be the 'I Am Legend' novel written in 1954 by Richard Matheson.

So influential was this piece of literature that it has so far inspired three movies. The latest, starring Will Smith, entitled the same to the book, caused a stir in the on-line community to search and find out more about the other works surrounding the classic novel. All of a sudden, Internet movie viewers were trying to see what they could find on trusty old Youtube.com.

The first movie adaptation in 1964 of the novel mentioned, was titled 'Last Man on Earth' 1964 and the second version in 1971 titled 'The Omega Man' starred Charlton, which is a cult-status movie itself. Heston thought that the novel would make a great movie when he read it on a plane, not knowing that it had been turned into a movie before, starring Vincent Price. Both the Price (the version more faithful to the novel) and Heston version influenced the 2007, Will Smith, I Am Legend version.

Good news is that, if you have a craving to watch how a strong storyline still makes a great movie and not the digital special effects; you can watch it free on-line! Vincent Price in his role as the Last Man On Earth, as Dr. Robert Morgan. The movie has fallen into the public domain and is free to watch on-line. In some instances, with some know-how one can download movies of the same sort for free as well. On Youtube.com the movie is available in two parts at about 40 minutes each.

Most public domain movie Websites will link the viewer to a Youtube or similar on-line movie service due to the heavy logistics involved to host movies. The quality is OK and watchable but some public domain movies do not share the similar fate as sources to convert from are hard to find.

These rare movie versions have detriorated and will probably be lost forever if nothing is done to digitalise them. Efforts to digitalise such classics are important not only for the study of film history but also for the understanding of the contemporary popular culture surrounding the particular timeline in history. After all, who can deny the irreverant comedy genius of 'Monty Phyton's Quest for the Holy Grail' available from moviesfoundonline.com? The movies found in this database usually link to somewhere else, but it makes it easier to find public domain movies available.

If one is adventurous enough, the Internet offers a wealth of opportunities to view other pieces of monumental film art. Those which have fallen into public domain are available Websites such as http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/, http://www.openflix.com/, http://www.publicdomaintorrents.com/, emol.org/movies and http://www.archive.org/.

In some instances, rights are even given for aspiring moviemakers to 'mash up' movie clips by editing, copying or morphing them into new clips. This is all relatively easy to perform with even the most humble movie editor built into Windows and Mac OS machines. Sites such as emol.org and archive.org are two examples of sites such sites. Archive.org has also nearly 2,000 films from the Prelinger Archives.

The Prelinger Archives, founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger, grew into a collection of over 60,000 movies within 20 years. Such flexibility in rights give ample opportunity for people to mesh up and try out their hands in desktop movie making. Making animation via Machinima is currently gaining popularity across the world. Surely enough if we all work together to put up more locally sourced pieces and release them on public domain content, we can inspire budding movie directors to start creating. Old movies after all inspire new ones in one way or another.