Movies and generations...

[RobertScorpio]

Im sure we all know by now that there are movies from our past, that we think are great, but younger people do not. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (original) and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE are two movies that I watched with a mixed gathering. Three of us were 40+, three of us were 25, or younger. Needless to say, all us old farts thought it was great...the younge ones not so.

What movie do you like, scifi or not, that, for some reason, those who are younger than you just laugh at and..well..crush your spirit!!!

Mine? 1968 NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. I watched it with my daughter on Halloween and..well..she laughed at the scary parts..I wanted to cry!!!

Rob

 

[data_lover]

return to oz! that movie terrified me as a child and the scene with the heads all screaming at dorothy still freaks me out. kids these days don't appreciate that movie.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

I wouldn't necessarily say its a "generations" thing, I've seen plenty of movies from the era that A Clockwork Orange and I liked them just fine, but from what I have read about a Clockwork Orange, it just doesn't appeal to me, I never have bothered to watch it, and probably wont. I saw some of The Day the Earth Stood Still and that movie just didn't sell it to me, maybe it doesn't help that it was late at night, but the movie just didn't seem to work for me. It's the movie, IMO, not the era or 'generation' it came from. In the same light, I am sure there's plenty of movies that the current 'generation' likes and the 'older' one goes "meh..."

 

[RobertScorpio]

I wouldn't necessarily say its a "generations" thing, I've seen plenty of movies from the era that A Clockwork Orange and I liked them just fine, but from what I have read about a Clockwork Orange, it just doesn't appeal to me, I never have bothered to watch it, and probably wont. I saw some of The Day the Earth Stood Still and that movie just didn't sell it to me, maybe it doesn't help that it was late at night, but the movie just didn't seem to work for me. It's the movie, IMO, not the era or 'generation' it came from. In the same light, I am sure there's plenty of movies that the current 'generation' likes and the 'older' one goes "meh..."

Yeah, it does cut both ways. Me? My son, who is twenty, and his friends LOVE the Blade movies; I don't. They think DISTRICT 9 is heaven sent...not me. They also think The Hurt Locker is the greatest war movie of all time; I didn't, at all.

We do all agree that ALIENS kicks ass though!!

Rob

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I originally watched the '68 Night of the Living Dead years ago in college, and the audience then laughed at some of it - it is grimly funny - and I don't think that's a generational thing at all.

Frankly, the premise of this thread makes little sense. Some people appreciate movies from various eras and some people "can't stand black and white movies." It's more a factor of personal taste and frankly, intelligence and imagination. Some people are just clods who can only understand things on the most literal and superficial level. Laughing at a darkly funny horror movie might show more intelligence and imagination, not less.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I don't know if your point necessarily holds true for all types of movies, but I do think it is generally true for children's movies, for the obvious reasons of appreciating something when you were a certain age that adults at that time weren't interested in. For example there are movies such as Homeward Bound, Mrs. Doubtfire, or Fern Gully that people my age grew up watching and express tons of adoration for whenever you mention these titles, but those in the conversation who are older don't necessarily hate the movies but don't see them as anything special, they were just some kid movies that came out that they had no deep interest in.

So in that sense, the generation you grew up in can have an affect on the movies you enjoy. I still own and watch many of the movies I loved as a kid, such as Land Before Time or Hook. And there are some older movies that people gush over that I can't understand, like The Goonies, which seemed popular among kids just a bit older than me. Also, even if you're from the right generation, if you wait to see one of these movies until you're an adult then it just doesn't have the same affect (usually).

 

[Greg Cox]

Young people who have trouble appreciating older movies are missing out on a lot, but it doesn't mean they're shallow or lacking in intelligence. I watch a lot of TCM and one of the things that fascinates me is watching how how filmmaking styles have changed over the decades. Older movies are differently paced. They're slower, a bit more static, and tend to convey information verbally rather than visually--much like the stage productions they evolved from. There's a lot more exposition, too, probably because audiences were less familar with a lot of the genre conventions that modern audiences take for granted. ("You see, Susan, there is no gravity in space.") As a result, stories take longer to get going and move more slowly.

I still love those old films, but I can see where younger viewers, who have grown up with a more dynamic style of filmmaking, would find them creaky and frustrating.

This doesn't mean today's generation is stupid. In a way, they're more sophisticated. They've absorbed so much pop culture that they already know all the cliches by heart and are probably way ahead of most stories. They don't need to be spoon-fed the basics. They just want to get on with things.

Take vampires, for instance. Up until the 1970s or so, vampire movies still felt obliged to throw in a scene where some scholarly authority figure explained what exactly a vampire was and what the rules were. ("The vampire must return to his coffin by dawn," etc.) Can you imagine a modern horror movie wasting time with a scene like that today? Nowadays, you just show some guy sprouting fangs and the audience knows what the score is . . . .

 

[RobertScorpio]

I don't know if your point necessarily holds true for all types of movies, but I do think it is generally true for children's movies, for the obvious reasons of appreciating something when you were a certain age that adults at that time weren't interested in. For example there are movies such as Homeward Bound, Mrs. Doubtfire, or Fern Gully that people my age grew up watching and express tons of adoration for whenever you mention these titles, but those in the conversation who are older don't necessarily hate the movies but don't see them as anything special, they were just some kid movies that came out that they had no deep interest in.

So in that sense, the generation you grew up in can have an affect on the movies you enjoy. I still own and watch many of the movies I loved as a kid, such as Land Before Time or Hook. And there are some older movies that people gush over that I can't understand, like The Goonies, which seemed popular among kids just a bit older than me. Also, even if you're from the right generation, if you wait to see one of these movies until you're an adult then it just doesn't have the same affect (usually).

Im just saying that I have kids. And with kids come their friends. And for the past 11 years I can generally say, with the kids I have watched grow up, and are now teenagers, and adults, that they just dont seem to care for older movies, even movies from the 80s. When we watched RAIDERS three years ago, me and about eight kids (10-15 yrs old) they thought the MUMMY movies were better.

And i was the same when my uncle got me to watch those old Sinbad movies. I think there is a generational gap when it comes to movies. Not that it is a good or bad thing, but it is there..

Rob

 

[Greg Cox]

I think maybe today's kids have less exposure to older films, too. When I was growing up, old Sinbad and Tarzan movies, etcetera, were still aired regularly on Saturday afternoons and such. So I watched plenty of movies that were filmed long before I was born. Ma and Pa Kettle. Francis the Talking Mule. Abbott and Costello. Etc.

Nowadays black-and-white movies have been pretty much banished from tv, aside from TCM and late-night screenings on public tv. So how are kids going to develop a taste for them?

What's really scary, of course, is to realize that, in another sense, there are still plenty of old movies on tv. It's just that these days BACK TO THE FUTURE and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK are relics from a previous generation . . . .

 

[Emher]

I'm pretty good at watching older movies and enjoying them, but it really depends on the movie. Some stuff I really can't stomach anymore. Like a bit back I recorded and then watche "The Searchers" with John Wayne since it was supposed be one of the greatest Westerns of all time. And it really did not grab me at all. It's just this whole style that didn't work for me. Plus a majority of the movie which is supposed to over quite a big area including a big chunk of Texas, looks like Monument Valley. Which EVERYONE knows is in Arizona. And Texas looks nothing like.

But my "favorite" thing is the music that just plays. All. The. Time. And it's superdramatic. Like when they come back and find that the house has been burned down and it's SUPER MEGA ENORMOUSLY DRAMATIC!!! My brother was in the kitchen when that happened and called out "Is it dramatic now?" "Yeah it's pretty dramatic."

I can watch older movies, I loved Fritz Lang's "M", I love "Lawrence of Arabia" and dang it "Citizen Kane" is pretty nifty in it's own way. But some stuff just rubs me the wrong way.

 

[J.T.B.]

[...]Plus a majority of [The Searchers] which is supposed to over quite a big area including a big chunk of Texas, looks like Monument Valley. Which EVERYONE knows is in Arizona. And Texas looks nothing like.

Arizona and Utah. And there are parts of West Texas that look like much-scaled-down versions of Monument Valley. But the movie is not a travelogue; the setting is meant to give the viewer the impression of a vast, wild, imposing West where the settlers are insignificant. And to look beautiful, which it does. How I wish I'd been alive to see that movie in VistaVision!

But my "favorite" thing is the music that just plays. All. The. Time. And it's superdramatic. Like when they come back and find that the house has been burned down and it's SUPER MEGA ENORMOUSLY DRAMATIC!!! My brother was in the kitchen when that happened and called out "Is it dramatic now?" "Yeah it's pretty dramatic."

Interesting. But what didn't work for you obviously worked quite well for George Lucas, who adapted the burning homestead scene for Star Wars, with pretty dramatic music, as well. But it's too bad you didn't like The Searchers, a very sophisticated piece of moviemaking that directors like Martin Scorsese, Stephen Spielberg, Peter Bogdanovich, Clint Eastwood and Lawrence Kasdan can go on and on about.

One thing about "generations' and movies: When I was a kid, if you wanted to watch something, you had to watch what was being shown on TV. And there were plenty of old movies on TV, in the day or late at night (there were no infomercials or judge shows yet). So you might see a musical like Top Hat one afternoon, or an adventure like Beau Geste, or a comedy like You Can't Take it With You, or science fiction like The First Men in the Moon, or a crime movie like Bullitt (these are all shows I remember watching on one of the six channels we got). What you couldn't do was pick a movie or a kind of movie you liked to watch, unless it happened to be coming on. So with an exposure to all kinds of old movies, it never occurred to me that the old dialogue could be considered odd sounding, or that musical interludes or dance numbers could be considered corny, or that black and white could be considered unnatural. It was just how old movies were, and if they were good you liked them. Or not, but not just because the looked/sounded/felt old. It's too bad, because I have to fight to get my son to watch any movies made before 1985.

--Justin

 

[RandyS]

Young people who have trouble appreciating older movies are missing out on a lot, but it doesn't mean they're shallow or lacking in intelligence.

This is exactly right, they just lack taste in some cases. They're young and naive and don't know any better. But they'll grow out of it, just like we did, and their kids will in turn like movies that they don't get.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I laugh at the old Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials...but at the same time, I enjoy them...

'It Conquered the World' has a funny, cheesy monster...and an interesting plot...but I do enjoy the movie (and Beverly Garland)...

 

[RobertScorpio]

Young people who have trouble appreciating older movies are missing out on a lot, but it doesn't mean they're shallow or lacking in intelligence.

This is exactly right, they just lack taste in some cases. They're young and naive and don't know any better. But they'll grow out of it, just like we did, and their kids will in turn like movies that they don't get.

But does it go the opposite way? They have movies they love that i don't care for, but they think are just as good as the classics.

Rob

 

[StarshipDefiant]

Young people who have trouble appreciating older movies are missing out on a lot, but it doesn't mean they're shallow or lacking in intelligence.

This is exactly right, they just lack taste in some cases. They're young and naive and don't know any better. But they'll grow out of it, just like we did, and their kids will in turn like movies that they don't get.

But does it go the opposite way? They have movies they love that i don't care for, but they think are just as good as the classics.

Rob

It Does go the opposite way, I'm tellin' ya, it's not the generation, it's the movie. As for Indiana Jones and the Mummy Movies? Never saw the third one (Mummy) and I never really watched Raiders because I have a snake phobia, but I loved The Last Crusade, that was just fantastic, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? Meh, it had it's moments.

 

[Fist McStrongpunch]

I originally watched the '68 Night of the Living Dead years ago in college, and the audience then laughed at some of it - it is grimly funny - and I don't think that's a generational thing at all. .

There's a reason the zombie movie led so naturally to the development of the zomedy.

 

[Greg Cox]

"Zomedy?" I'd never heard that word before. That's great!

 

[RandyS]

Young people who have trouble appreciating older movies are missing out on a lot, but it doesn't mean they're shallow or lacking in intelligence.

This is exactly right, they just lack taste in some cases. They're young and naive and don't know any better. But they'll grow out of it, just like we did, and their kids will in turn like movies that they don't get.

But does it go the opposite way? They have movies they love that i don't care for, but they think are just as good as the classics.

Rob

I don't know. I guess it can. I personally have only experienced it from the way I described.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Im sure we all know by now that there are movies from our past, that we think are great, but younger people do not. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (original) and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE are two movies that I watched with a mixed gathering. Three of us were 40+, three of us were 25, or younger. Needless to say, all us old farts thought it was great...the younge ones not so.

What movie do you like, scifi or not, that, for some reason, those who are younger than you just laugh at and..well..crush your spirit!!!

Mine? 1968 NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. I watched it with my daughter on Halloween and..well..she laughed at the scary parts..I wanted to cry!!!

Rob

Great movies are timeless. I just saw "Night of the Living Dead" for the first time last year (I am in my 20s) and I thought it was awesome. Impressively suspenseful, intelligent, and scary. I liked it even more than "Dawn of the Dead" (both versions), and in fact, I thought the 70s one was boring by comparison.

I saw "Clockwork Orange" as a teenager and thought it was a blast and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" was riveting to me. It's a shame if someone people can't recognize how amazing these movies are just because they're old. I think a lot of them are much more effective than many newer, slicker movies.

That being said, there are a few so-called classic older movies that I felt like I just 'didn't get', and I think part of the reason is because of how differently they were made than modern movies. The style of acting, writing, and directing just made me feel alienated. For example, "The Searchers", "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" (and I usually love anything Humphrey Bogart is in), and "The Conversation" and "A Man For All Seasons" to name a few.

Still, I maintain that with patience and an open mind, younger generations should be able to appreciate the older movies that are truly timeless, even if they have primitive effects and acting/directing/writing styles by today's standards. My only experience with people not understanding why I love a movie so much is with "X2: X-Men United".

People just don't get why I make such a big deal about it, but for me it's the greatest example of a movie I'll always cherish because I was so excited about it before it came out, and totally satisfied after I finally saw it. Can't say that about a lot of movies. I suppose I'm a little biased because I loved the X-Men cartoon as a child (and still do), but I think even if I didn't have that nostalgia bias, I would still think it's one of the best and smartest action movies ever made. Would I still call it my favourite movie of the 2000s and the best superhero/comic movie yet made? Not sure.

 

[23skidoo]

For me the biggest generational gap I've encountered is not so much over one particular movie, but over how movies were made.

It annoys me to no end -- and I've been told this to my face by "young 'uns" -- that many younger viewers simply refuse to watch black and white movies, because of the opinion that they are all bad because they're black and white. Doesn't matter if it's Citizen Kane or Plan Nine from Outer Space, they don't want to watch it if it doesn't have color. And if they do watch it, they think it's garbage.

It's one of the rationales Ted Turner used back in the 80s when he started to put out colorized versions of movies. I'll never forget John Huston, virtually making his last gasps before dying a few weeks later, tearfully telling a news conference he didn't want to see his classic films colorized. Orson Welles had a similar reaction when there were plans to colorize Citizen Kane.

The fact colorization back in the 1980s was absolutely piss-poor didn't enter into it - it was the rationale behind colorizing that upset people. The process may have improved*, but frankly I still find the same rationale being used for adding color to films that were designed to be B&W.

Just the other day I saw some Little Rascals DVDs and they'd been colorized. Three Stooges and Shirley Temple films have also been "improved". What annoys me is that the target market for these films are little kids (shudder at the thought all you like) -- this is the age where they should be taught that there was great art (both high and low) made in B&W. Two words: Charlie Chaplin.

I'm seeing it happen again. I've been very vocal in my disliking for the reasoning behind the whole Trek Remastered idea -- redoing the special effects in CGI in order to make the show more palatable to a new generation of viewers. In other words, the original version was bad.

And I can see it happening again as James Cameron and the studios try to ram 3-D down our throats. There'll be a generation who'll hate (I use that word deliberately) 2-D films and demand they either be converted (which will destroy Citizen Kane completely) or abandoned in favour of Avatar Part 26.

Last night I was watching a Blu-Ray with an Avatar trailer. Avatar in 2-D looks absolutely amazing, and in fact I thought it looked a lot more colorful and vibrant than it did with the glasses on in the theatre.

But what do I know. I'm just an old fart who reads from dead trees and watches antiquated films and TV shows that actually put story ahead of special effects.

Alex

* And it has been used to good effect for restoring color productions that have since lost their color, like Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks.