Originally posted by: Tiptup
Assuming I haven't clicked on the link and read your argument, is film grain my friend because it best preserves real-world visuals in an analog-ish way? If so, then I would agree with you. A lot of the time it also looks pretty cool.

Well, it just preserves what's on the celluloid of the reels of film. Depending on the film, it'll have very high to even moderate and low grain. Due to alot of the times the film stock being used and the artistic choices of the Director and Director of Photography.
One thing I can't stand is a highly-denoised/no-grain and overly edge enhanced release of a film onto any optical disc format. One of the worst offenders of this abomination is the Region 1 Special Edition of Die Hard: With a Vengeance (which I may have already mentioned earlier in this thread). How come the trailers and the deleted scenes look far superior compared to the film itself? To me, reference quality is where the transfer retains all the film grain and has high levels of detail. Even if it's a desaturated colour pallette such as Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report and several other films in the category mentioned. Or even films where it particularly has lush, vibrant colours such as What Dreams May Come. Even goes for the classic 1.37:1 Academy Ratio films I so enjoy DVR'ing from Turner Classic Movies. Even certain films have a different tone for certain parts of the picture. There's also soft focus, different lenses and many different techniques involved in filmmaking.
Celluloid film, of course, has a far higher "resolution" compared to 1080p. Just wait until Ultra High Definition media.