Movies & The Concept of Art

I agree completely with many of my classmates that propose art as being a form of beautiful expression through writing, music, and acting, and whose to say what is art itself, and what is not art? though, when it comes to the topic of movies being art, my opinion differs with many. Movies began as a manifestation of ones artistic expression within the Silent Era, and I agree that as technology advanced and many modes of filming, videotaping and photography came to be, movies, television and model magazine covers, became replicas of something that left its audiences floored decades beforehand, but in my opinion, there are movies that will always radiate as beautiful renditions of art, and reside away from the sterotype of "Movies being of entertainment value and nothing remotely close to an artistic endeavor", in relation to the realm that the act of creating art was once known as.I think of movies like Philadelphia, Mask (Cher/Eric Stoltz not Jim Carrey), Steel Magnolias, Shawshank Redemption, Schindler's List and Stand By me, and no matter how cheesy some of them may seem to my classmates or anyone else for that matter, these movies have instilled something within me that has led me to strive in my artistic capabilties, and to pursue my creative endeavors. Movies that strike something within someone, something that is worthy enough, minutely or enormously profound, to bring about a coping mechanism for life are undeniably art. These characters and their essential subsistence as mere mortals have mastered a beautful work of art that has brought moments of piece into my enduring battles in life, and for me that is what the notion of Art, as I stated above is founded upon, and I can argue so for the rest of my life.