They don't make them like this anymore.

[saoirse13]

I'm in the middle of watching The Sting and have just come to the conclusion that no matter how much Hollywood tries, no amount of glitz and glamour will ever beat older movies like this. They don't need to have special effects to have a great movie.

I just wish they could make more movies like The Sting, The Color of Money and North By North West.

Anyway there was a question behind this. Do any of you escapists agree with me or do you think that the movies that hollwood are making now are better than older movies?

I know its a broad generalisation. But you know what I mean.

 

[Vuliev]

I do think that studios tend to forget that they don't need special effects to make good movies, but it's probably more effort to make something genuinely entertaining on premise, acting, and actor chemistry alone than to just throw in a bunch of special effects.

 

[TaintedSaint]

I'm a fan off the oold black and white Bogart flicks, Noir at its best

 

[Shuguard]

Hollywood movies these days are garbage. There is sometimes a good movie every few years. I still love Soylent Green more than anything Hollywood puts out.

 

[Saladfork]

Film is like any other art medium - styles, standards and expectations change over time.

They don't really make paintings the way they used to in, say, Leonardo Di Vinci's time either.

That said, I do enjoy some older movies, but I wouldn't necessarily call them 'better' than the ones we see today.

I would however say that overall quantity of movie releases is larger now than it ever was before, so you do have to wade through a lot of shit to get to the good stuff.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

It has just changed over time. However, I do invoke a sense of nostalgia when watching the oldschool epics like Spartacus or Waterloo.

 

[Screamarie]

I think whenever we look back at older movies we put our nostalgia glasses on. Don't get me wrong, there was some really great movies to come out in yonder years...but there was also a LOT of crap!

We think about the gems...but they were gems in a pile of shit that the people before us had to sift through. Luckily for younger generations we have our parents and grandparents to point out the good ones so we can steer away from the rest of it.

The thing about these gems is that it's GOOD that they're the beautiful shining beacons in the sea of poor-acting, bad writing, and horrible directing. Because if everything was a polished piece of perfection...we wouldn't care!

So fine Michael Bay make another Transformers with giant metal testicles! We're due for another Saw that has absolutely no point but gore! OH look at that! It's Generic-Romantic-Comedy #48674839! Then whenever something truly great comes out...you appreciate it all the more.

And when we get older we'll turn to our kids (or nieces and nephews in my case) and point out the really good stuff and they won't see the horrid stuff we've shoved under the rug and then they'll get older and think "They don't make them like that anymore."

 

[sextus the crazy]

What's happened to movies is what's more or less already happened to books; complex, thought provoking masterpieces are no longer profitable and due to the large amount of money poured into them no one is willing to make the gamble. Sure, there's still good stuff and non-fiction/ documentaries are still stable in quality (like always), but fiction has to appeal to the average viewer now.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

You are cherry picking the absolute best releases of the past. Trust me, the ratio of crap to non-crap was just as high back then as it is now. Movies these days just get bigger releases and more advertising, regardless of their quality.

 

[TheFederation]

i would say that todays films are better, but i think the reason the 'older' movies are looked on more admirably is because we only remeber the best ones, in 20 years time, noone will remeber transformers (i hope i wont) and we will only remember the good movies that came out in this era. movies today aren't bad, but i think people expect them to be better since we are more advanced then we were 30-40 years ago. Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favourtie directors, but there were alot of 'michael bays' and 'uwe boll's' back then to, we just choose to forget them.

 

[4RM3D]

What is happening to the movies is also happening to games. Studios try to appeal to as many people as possible. Thus they are focused on making "popcorn movies" / "summer block busters" or as I would like to call it BBNB (Big Bang and No Brains) movies. A pretty bad development overall, but there is a upside to this all. Sure movies like Transformers suck, but on the other hand we get The Avengers, which was awesome. A movie like that wasn't possible back in the day. Another good recent movie was Inception. So, the mainstream movies aren't all bad. But they usually are.

Then there is the indie scene; movies (with a smaller budget) for a smaller audience. With all this mainstream stuff going on, there are still many (independent) studios seeking refuge in indie movies. These movies are probably the closest you can get to the old movies. So not all is lost.

To answer your question... Are old movies better? *looks at my 700 DVD collection* No, they are not. I do have a few timeless classics, but going on quantity the new movies are winning.

 

[Ralen-Sharr]

I can't help but think some people need to throw away their nostalgia glasses and really look at the stuff they are saying is better again. I'm not pointing ANY fingers at ANYONE(in this thread).

Some old movies are genuinely good. But some people just can't get over the movies they grew up with, realize that they are crap and move on to better things (I have a co-worker like this. That's why I am posting this)

There are some really great movies that have come out in the last decade. I'm not going to say everything is great, or even that the average is better. To me, in the past decade, movies have moved more into extremes, the highs are higher, and the lows are lower. there's a lot more of them out there and it's easy to pick one at random and say it's not as good as some old movie, especially since time may have caused the older crap movies to be forgotten.

Honestly, I don't like old movies in general. To me most of them are no better than Uwe Boll flicks.

 

[Woodsey]

I find films from the past 20 years or so far more watchable than anything before that. The concept of plot and scene pacing apparently wasn't invented until the late 20th Century.

And the others are right, past decades seem better because people have cherry-picked the good stuff for so long that they can't remember the shit at all.

 

[SckizoBoy]

It has just changed over time. However, I do invoke a sense of nostalgia when watching the oldschool epics like Spartacus or Waterloo.

Marry me! Though you've got to admit, Gracchus was a bit of an anachronism...

On that theme, I'll point out Tora! Tora! Tora!, good god that film would be impossible to make now without masses of CGI (and the crowbarring in of a hammy-romance). *wonders to self* *hopes A Bridge Too Far remains the only film ever to portray the Battle of Arnhem*[footnote]Yes, yes, 'Theirs Is the Glory' notwithstanding.[/footnote]

Even so, I'm with [user]Screamarie[/user] on this:

I think whenever we look back at older movies we put our nostalgia glasses on. Don't get me wrong, there was some really great movies to come out in yonder years...but there was also a LOT of crap!

While there are a helluva lot of films that I enjoy pre-1980, there's also a lot of dross amongst it all that I'm glad I have either not seen, refused to see or forgotten about.

However, let's just say that the manner in which the good films are made has changed a lot more noticeably than in most other media, reflected in social mores, technology, attitudes and fashions. I mean, would Victim have barely any impact as a piece of social commentary if it was made now?

 

[Shoggoth2588]

There are some good movies coming out in this day and age but the odds of another 12 Angry Men coming out are slim to none.

 

[Doneeee]

I think that no matter how hard movie-makers try they can never recapture the essence of classic film noir. Neo-noir is okay but the originals have a different kind of magic.

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

They don't really make paintings the way they used to in, say, Leonardo Di Vinci's time either.

Yes they do. You just have to look for it since it rare and I just proved your point while trying to disprove it.

 

[Axolotl]

While I don't agree with the people who say that there are no good films being made anymore I do feel that modern cinema isn't quite as good as say the 60's was.

 

[bossfight1]

Funny, I watched The Sting last week in my American Cinema class.

Well, some of the films today are quite good (The Grey, Cabin in the Woods) but classics like Mildred Pierce are still quite influential, IMO.