Classic films were rubbish

bobbyss

Saw bits of North by North West today. Am sure it's regarded as a classic. Maybe it was in its time. Now so dated with stilted acting. Eve Marie Saint, I think was the lead female, spoke with such drearyness it'd put you to sleep.

johnny_ultimate

Counterpoint: Nah.

pixelburp

All generalisations are false n' all; I contend that it's hard to form an opinion of any movie when starting with "Saw bits of...". Or indeed condemn every "classic film" on the basis of a half watch of one :P

There's no doubt older movies can be jarring in terms of technical or artistic style, but they remain classics for a reason. Drunk driving being a $2 fine did cause a huge laugh, having recently re-watched North by Northwest myself.

Harry Palmr

North by Northwest is a cunning classic, a thriller for a knowing audience. The back and forth between Grant and Saint is priceless. Now if you can't appreciate the style cues of the era then you'll have hard time enjoying it.

Any John Hughes film from the 80s has dated a lot more trust me.

Rothko

All classic films were rubbish? Ok...

Full_Circle_81

Harry Palmr wrote: »

North by Northwest is a cunning classic, a thriller for a knowing audience. The back and forth between Grant and Saint is priceless. Now if you can't appreciate the style cues of the era then you'll have hard time enjoying it.

Any John Hughes film from the 80s has dated a lot more trust me.

I'm not one to write off all "classic" movies myself (love me a good Hitchcock!), but gotta say that this particular example really wasn't one of my faves.

And your John Hughes point is alarmingly true. I watched both 16 Candles and Pretty in Pink recently and was shocked at how "problematic" they were throughout.....

santana75

I think to say that classic films weren't all that shows a lack of maturity really. You have to look beyond the special effects or lack there of. I mean the Godfather was made in 1972 and I know people who wouldn't even watch it because it's so "old". Real quality lasts. It's the difference between led zeppelin IV and whatever ariana grande is churning out. In 40 years time zeppelin IV will still be doing steady business whereas Ariana grande will have been completely forgotten about.
Classic movies are the same. The Maltese falcon comes to mind.......in my ignorance I refused to even watch this at one stage because it was black & white and made in the 1940s. Eventually i gave it a chance and now it's one of my favourite films. I reached a level of maturity that looked beyond the visuals and appreciated great story telling.

memorystick

Modern Times is challenging to young people but The Great Dictator is still great.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

bobbyss wrote: »

Eve Marie Saint, I think was the lead female, spoke with such drearyness it'd put you to sleep.

Just a point on this.....I've been watching The Movies on Sky Arts, and Eva Marie Saint herself talks about how Hitchcock basically told her to play it that way, he didn't want any of the emotional method style acting she'd done before.

S.M.B.

I need to go back and watch the episodes of The Movies that cover the earlier years in Holywood. I've only watched from the 80s onwards.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

S.M.B. wrote: »

I need to go back and watch the episodes of The Movies that cover the earlier years in Holywood. I've only watched from the 80s onwards.

Some of it's really interesting, like how different things resulted in certain genres becoming popular. It's probably common knowledge to anyone with a big interest in behind the scenes stuff, but they talk about how Noir sort of was a result of WW2 and how television was seen as a big threat to cinemas so they started making those big epics like Spartacus and Ben Hur, to give people something they just couldn't experience on a home television. I couldn't help thinking about the current "threat" of streaming, and now Covid. I wonder what will come out of that. Hopefully a renaissance of happy, feel good films.

silverharp

what time decides classic? black and white? pre 70's? 60's?

pixelburp

The MCU films made a repeated joke about Peter Parker talking of Back to the Future and Alien as "old movies" cos... Yeah. They are now at this stage; 40 odd years old and as ancient as 50s films would have been when I was watching my first movies in the late 80s.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

silverharp wrote: »

what time decides classic? black and white? pre 70's? 60's?

I like the way they've done it on this The Movies series. 40s/50s is considered the Golden Age, everything after that is done by decade, and the general idea seems to be that they're all classics.

The MCU films made a repeated joke about Peter Parker talking of Back to the Future and Alien as "old movies" cos... Yeah. They are now at this stage; 40 odd years old and as ancient as 50s films would have been when I was watching my first movies in the late 80s.

:eek: It obviously depends on age. I saw something the other day that made me realise Moulin Rouge is 20 years old in 2021. Couldn't believe it, there are people old enough to vote that were born after it was released.

Hitchcock films do look quite dated but they were clever for their time- To Catch a Thief is very lightweight but it has the stunning backdrop of the south of France and of course Grace Kelly & Cary Grant.

I love NBNW but I think Charade is superior- AKA “the finest Hitchcock film he never made”

Some other great classics for me:

Citizen Kane- an epic with ground breaking cinematography for its time
The African Queen- Bogart and Hepburn
The Big Sleep- Bogart and Bacall
The Searchers- John Wayne
Some like it hot- Monroe
Modern Times- Charlie Chaplin
The Apartment - Lemmon and McClaine
The Odd Couple - Lemmon and Matthau

All great movies that I watched many times. More Modern classics would be films of the 70s like

The Taking of Pelham123
Chinatown
Apocalypse Now

To name but a few. I highly recommend you delve into best movies of 20th century lists and give them a go.

silverharp

silverharp wrote: »

what time decides classic? black and white? pre 70's? 60's?

At this stage we’re over 100 years of movie making so there are many to choose from in each of the decades. 30-40 years is the usual timeframe most things are recognised as “classic” - commercial success and popularity at the time has a lot to with it too I think I’m terms of weather a film rises to that level of accolade.
The 80s has The Godfather 3, Back to The Future, Out of Africa; Ferris Beullers Day Off, Rambo 2-they would all be considered “classic” now- as I grew up with all of these, some have aged better than others but all would still be considered “classic” in that they had some form of an impact at the time, either from an acting, cinematography, award or popularity aspect.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Deleted User wrote: »

At this stage we’re over 100 years of movie making so there are many to choose from in each of the decades. 30-40 years is the usual timeframe most things are recognised as “classic” - commercial success and popularity at the time has a lot to with it too I think I’m terms of weather a film rises to that level of accolade.
The 80s has The Godfather 3, Back to The Future, Out of Africa; Ferris Beullers Day Off, Rambo 2-they would all be considered “classic” now- as I grew up with all of these, some have aged better than others but all would still be considered “classic” in that they had some form of an impact at the time, either from an acting, cinematography, award or popularity aspect.

It's interesting to try and think of more "recent" films that will be viewed as classics in 20 or 30 years time. In terms of cultural impact, success, and spawning an entire annoying genre, I'd have to think something like The Blair Witch Project.

saintsaltynuts

Deleted User wrote: »

Hitchcock films do look quite dated but they were clever for their time- To Catch a Thief is very lightweight but it has the stunning backdrop of the south of France and of course Grace Kelly & Cary Grant.

I love NBNW but I think Charade is superior- AKA “the finest Hitchcock film he never made”

Some other great classics for me:

Citizen Kane- an epic with ground breaking cinematography for its time
The African Queen- Bogart and Hepburn
The Big Sleep- Bogart and Bacall
The Searchers- John Wayne
Some like it hot- Monroe
Modern Times- Charlie Chaplin
The Apartment - Lemmon and McClaine
The Odd Couple - Lemmon and Matthau

All great movies that I watched many times. More Modern classics would be films of the 70s like

The Taking of Pelham123
Chinatown
Apocalypse Now

To name but a few. I highly recommend you delve into best movies of 20th century lists and give them a go.

Chinatown is brilliant. That ending though.

pixelburp

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

It's interesting to try and think of more "recent" films that will be viewed as classics in 20 or 30 years time. In terms of cultural impact, success, and spawning an entire annoying genre, I'd have to think something like The Blair Witch Project.

Purely as pop culture totems, you'd probably look to the MCU (though technically that's ongoing), or maybe the Harry Potter franchise? Then there's the cult classics like Fury Road, Edge Of Tomorrow that might get more prolonged acclaim

Sad Professor

The "classical era" of Hollywood cinema refers to the pre-late '60s. Pre Bonnie & Clyde basically. It relates to a time in which a particular style and approach to narrative filmmaking was dominant. This is distinct from "classic" in the sense of "a lot of time has passed and we still think it's really good".

I think we're still in that post-classical era which probably puts the bar for being considered a "modern classic" very high because stylistically films haven't changed that massively in the last 60 years and barely at all in the last 20-30 years. Where as North by Northwest seems semi-ancient even next to films produced only 10-15 years later.

saintsaltynuts

saintsaltynuts wrote: »

Chinatown is brilliant. That ending though.

Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown.

Optimalprimerib

bobbyss wrote: »

Saw bits of North by North West today. Am sure it's regarded as a classic. Maybe it was in its time. Now so dated with stilted acting. Eve Marie Saint, I think was the lead female, spoke with such drearyness it'd put you to sleep.

North by northwest was the film that gave me the love I had for film. We had film studies in transition year and spent three weeks breaking that film down, discussing themes, juxtapositions etc.

I fcuking hated that film because of it. After finally finishing the movie, that evening, I saw jaws for the first time and inadvertently used what I learned in class on jaws. That is still and forever will be my favorite memory of watching a film. Jaws is still and forever will be my favorite movie of all time.

I owe alot to north by northwest and I gave it another chance over a year ago, and i still don't like it. Still innovative for it's time though. James bond before James Bond.

Denny61

Deadly pursuit..or also known as shoot to kill with Sydney potiour.and tom berenger is a great thriller..back in the 80s

gigantic09

Love the old black and white movies. Bogart, Bacall, Cagney, Edward G Robinson, Wells, Crawford and their ilk. Old noir my fav but so much to choose from. I know there are plenty good films still being made, loved 1917 a year back but as for all those superhero and action franchises, I'd rather watch Oireachtas report on loop to be honest.

Skerries

the only reason I have watched so much B&W movies is because that is all that was on the telly back in the 70s to early 90s with sprinkling of more modern films