Reading the Appreciating Classic Film thread got me thinking. We can't have fallen so far in movie quality. Yes, the multiplexes are filled with CGI bloated eye-candy, yes most films are forgettable popcorn pap, and yes it's hard to figure out just what certain actors are being paid multi-million dollar salaries for.
But surely there are films being made that are classics, or rather will come to be called classics as the years go by.
Of course that raises the question as to what defines a classic film. A simple criterion will be timelessness, hard to judge when a film is still playing in the cinema. These are film which will still be watched sixty or seventy years down the line, have performances, themes and scripts that stay relevant no matter how much time passes.
They also exceed the boundaries of their genre. I'm not saying that they should be fit for general audiences, rather they ought to make an impact beyond their target audience, generate word of mouth and buzz that a PR man would dream of.
I'd like to say more, but that would invite comparisons to established classics in terms of actor performances, dialogue and visuals, as well as add a whole lot of my personal opinion, where the fact is that there's no reason why profanity, sex and violence should be precluded from timeless status. It's about what a film means to someone who watches it.
Of course judging a modern classic is a matter more of speculation than hindsight, opinion rather than fact.
So let's throw it open. What do you consider a modern classic? Which films do you think people will still be watching at the end of the 21st Century?
As for rules, let's make it easy, although it will give nonagenarian Trek BBSers an unfair advantage. The films have to have been made within the poster's lifetime, although the more recent a film, the better. Arbitrary though it is, it will annoy everyone, as while I can happily nominate Jaws, Raiders or Star Wars, I'm already frustrated at not being able to mention The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
Anyway, my first example of a film that ought to be considered as a classic of our age.
The Dish (2000)
A delightful Australian period comedy, about the 1969 moon landing, and the radio observatory in Australia tasked with ensuring that the world got to see the live pictures of the landing. Wonderful characters, a gentle, almost parochial sense of humour, yet it somehow recaptures the sense of wonder and optimism the world must have felt when Armstrong first set foot on the moon.
But surely there are films being made that are classics, or rather will come to be called classics as the years go by.
Of course that raises the question as to what defines a classic film. A simple criterion will be timelessness, hard to judge when a film is still playing in the cinema. These are film which will still be watched sixty or seventy years down the line, have performances, themes and scripts that stay relevant no matter how much time passes.
They also exceed the boundaries of their genre. I'm not saying that they should be fit for general audiences, rather they ought to make an impact beyond their target audience, generate word of mouth and buzz that a PR man would dream of.
I'd like to say more, but that would invite comparisons to established classics in terms of actor performances, dialogue and visuals, as well as add a whole lot of my personal opinion, where the fact is that there's no reason why profanity, sex and violence should be precluded from timeless status. It's about what a film means to someone who watches it.
Of course judging a modern classic is a matter more of speculation than hindsight, opinion rather than fact.
So let's throw it open. What do you consider a modern classic? Which films do you think people will still be watching at the end of the 21st Century?
As for rules, let's make it easy, although it will give nonagenarian Trek BBSers an unfair advantage. The films have to have been made within the poster's lifetime, although the more recent a film, the better. Arbitrary though it is, it will annoy everyone, as while I can happily nominate Jaws, Raiders or Star Wars, I'm already frustrated at not being able to mention The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
Anyway, my first example of a film that ought to be considered as a classic of our age.
The Dish (2000)
A delightful Australian period comedy, about the 1969 moon landing, and the radio observatory in Australia tasked with ensuring that the world got to see the live pictures of the landing. Wonderful characters, a gentle, almost parochial sense of humour, yet it somehow recaptures the sense of wonder and optimism the world must have felt when Armstrong first set foot on the moon.
But realistically, I know they're not going to make the "classics" cut.
)
