Old vs new movies

I watched two famous movies this week. On The Waterfront starring Marlon Brando from 1954 and Black Swan starring Natalie Portman. Both these movies usually get four or five stars out of five. On The Waterfront is a classic, Black Swan might be one day.

However, these movies are not in the same class. Compared to modern films, On The Waterfront is naive, includes clumsy acting and its point is simplistic. So like in many other genres of art (notice my agenda), old movies get respect for their pioneer work and old reputation, but apart from learning history there is not much to see in them now.

 

Most (but not all) older films are hard for me to really get into.

 

Psycho & The Wizard of Oz are a couple of great older movies that I like.

 

Gee, I love "On The Waterfront", one of Brando's best performances ever.

I love many old films like "The Maltese Falcon", "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (1951), "The Ten Commandments", "Samson & Delilah", the original "Village of The Damned", "Northwest Passage' (now THAT is what I call a great adventure film!), "Beau Geste", "Broken Arrow", "High Noon", "The Searchers", "To Kill A Mockingbird", "Dr.Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" (the Spencer Tracy version...like Bogart, Tracy was a marvel, I haven't seen one film he starred in that I don't like). "In Like Flint", "Tribes", "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", all the Bing Crosby & Bob Hope "Road to..." films; "The Thief of Baghdad", "The Shape of Things To Come", "Planet of The Apes", "The Time Machine" (1960), "Journey to The Center of The Earth" (1959), "Inherit The Wind", "King Kong", "20 Million Miles To Earth", all the Ray Harryhausen "Sinbad" movies plus "Jason & The Argonauts"; "How to Suceed in Business Without really Trying", "Blazing Saddles", "Young Frankenstein", "Airplane", "El Mal", etc.

 

There's only a handful of pre-60s films that I stll think are excellent to this day but for the most part modern films are better.

 

I have not seen all the movies you listed but nevertheless. I am not saying the old movies could not be good, in fact many of them are great. It is more that if those same movies were made today, they wouldn't get nearly the same reputation . The standard is higher now

 

There was a big revolution in movie making and acting in the late 60s, much like there was in music. Unless the 'artform' you're comparing this to went through a similar schism (which for the one you're transparently talking about mainly happened in the 20s through 40s) I don't think the analogy holds.

The Conversation, Taxi Driver, Dog Day Afternoon, One Flew Over the cukoos nest. Godfather etc would all be highly regarded today, IMO, with certain minor concessions for fashion.

 

The early 70's more realistic, grim reality and cynic feel of filmaking was stopped on its tracks when STAR WARS came out and breaked all box office records in a short time. That marked the beginning of the end of what was then called "New Wave Cinema" and brought to birth the infantilization of american movies. I love Star Wars, but most Hollywood producers didn't get it and thought that by spending millions of dollars on special effects and sound effects while ignoring such vital things as PLOT, direction and acting, they will reproduce the Star Wars formula. All copycats failed miserably then, but that same approach is still alive today (example: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"). I like today's moviemaking technology, but in general the vast majority of the films are inferior and unoriginal in comparison to older films. Otherwise we will not be seeing lists of over 75 movie remakes in the planning stage.

 

Still allot of great films being made though. I have a friend who's always bemoaning the state of modern movies but I don't really agree..... Allot of shit was made in the 70s too along with the good stuff just like today.

 

Deer Hunter is the cure for insomnia.

A film can't be a classic when it should have it's running time slashed by at least an hour.

 

I am 33 and I last saw Deer Hunter 2 years ago.

It is at least an hour too long. Said hour could actually be edited out of that film without hurting it at all. The wedding scene springs to mind.

 

Disagree with bold.

 

Each to their own. I personally found it interminable.

 

I meant standard for a classic or even a respected movie. Also, shit has been made always, they are just quickly forgotten

 

Back to my original point, I think Black Swan would be a classic if it were made in 60s while On The Waterfront is lesser movie than Wrestler for example. Classics are still made, they just don't get the same recognition because the big-money crap drowns them

 

why did you use Black Swan as an example of a good modern movie?

that movie is boring and crap

 

i'm not sure why that scene is in the movie....can you provide any insight?

surely it would have been ok if it went for only 5 minutes

 

not the best movie ever but surely equals plenty of "classics"