Post by drystyx on Jun 17, 2018 22:48:32 GMT
One of the reasons I enjoy the golden era films so much (estimate pre-1965) is that audiences had a more realistic outlook on characters in life and death struggles and situations.
Take the classic Westerns-Shane, Gunman's Walk, High Noon, The Last Hunt, The Tin Star, From Hell to Texas, pretty much the whole gamut. Even the heroes balk a bit, don't feel too sure when facing a gun.
Characters didn't walk around corpses with guts hanging out, and smoke cigars and drink coffee and act like it was natural and nice smelling.
Leone and Coppola began the stupidity trend for the bubble boys, but the critics and the bubble boys who copied them and praised these hacks did it, too.
We got a bit of a break during the nineties and early zeroes I believe. "Ride With the Devil" showed a return to basic fear and unsureness. Maybe the best example was the Jurassic Park series, of which the first two were Mickey Mouse, but the third showed actual credible characters in panic situations.
Take the mother in Jurassic Park III, who constantly does things that from an outside viewer may look like "WTF", but in reality, this is how people act. They have ups and downs. They have those "Aliens Hudson" moments. People who think they wouldn't be as foolish as the characters in this movie are doomed to behave even more foolish in deadly situations.
Alien and Aliens were pretty good at showing real life panic situations. It's the Hudson who is the norm, not the exception.
Modern generations of people who have limited knowledge of life and death struggles in the first world, who have always been surrounded by family and people they trust, how can they not believe war is a video game? Even if they're educated and think they know the reality, I don't see how they can really understand it. It isn't their fault. It is what it is.
One trouble is the "information age" which makes a few new fangled generations feel they know everything, and feel the need to be giving orders and be in charge. The danger isn't in no one stopping to help the person passed out on the street. It's 40 know it all types each insisting on gathering around and taking away all the person's air.
That's for the every day type of emergency. For the "life and death struggles" that many have never been a part of, they feel they would be in total control. Well, the movies tell them this. TV tells them this. Internet tells them this. Who doesn't tell them this? Who doesn't "preach" this to them?
When someone pulls out a hand gun, I run. I've noticed that half the other people run with me, and half the people freeze and wait around like they'll get some brownie points from someone who pulls a gun. Fortunately, I've never witnessed a killing. Although I've run from some shootings. Obviously, when you're alone with someone who pulls a gun, the "running" is a bit tougher.
Now, I'm not talking about the "little jokes in the face of death", because those are natural for experienced people who realize there just isn't much more one can do. I am talking about the "calm, cool, collected, acrobatic" acts of disarming others who have the drop on you. I'll buy it from the armed forces and police in some situations, but not others in the movies. That's why the smarter writers use Marines and policemen for heroes in their scripts. Or at least use them as catapults for others.
The movies and action TV have regressed a lot lately, back to the retarded years of Leone and Coppola. Maybe I've just seen the wrong ones. My room mate has goofy tastes.
I realize that we don't want to think we have fears, and we don't like to see heroes and heroines be afraid, but those of us who have lived in the hood can only understand that sort of behavior. We don't buy into this "natural demi god act". Reality is Hudson in Aliens. Reality is O'Neal in Platoon. The more you deviate from that, the sillier your movie looks.
Take the classic Westerns-Shane, Gunman's Walk, High Noon, The Last Hunt, The Tin Star, From Hell to Texas, pretty much the whole gamut. Even the heroes balk a bit, don't feel too sure when facing a gun.
Characters didn't walk around corpses with guts hanging out, and smoke cigars and drink coffee and act like it was natural and nice smelling.
Leone and Coppola began the stupidity trend for the bubble boys, but the critics and the bubble boys who copied them and praised these hacks did it, too.
We got a bit of a break during the nineties and early zeroes I believe. "Ride With the Devil" showed a return to basic fear and unsureness. Maybe the best example was the Jurassic Park series, of which the first two were Mickey Mouse, but the third showed actual credible characters in panic situations.
Take the mother in Jurassic Park III, who constantly does things that from an outside viewer may look like "WTF", but in reality, this is how people act. They have ups and downs. They have those "Aliens Hudson" moments. People who think they wouldn't be as foolish as the characters in this movie are doomed to behave even more foolish in deadly situations.
Alien and Aliens were pretty good at showing real life panic situations. It's the Hudson who is the norm, not the exception.
Modern generations of people who have limited knowledge of life and death struggles in the first world, who have always been surrounded by family and people they trust, how can they not believe war is a video game? Even if they're educated and think they know the reality, I don't see how they can really understand it. It isn't their fault. It is what it is.
One trouble is the "information age" which makes a few new fangled generations feel they know everything, and feel the need to be giving orders and be in charge. The danger isn't in no one stopping to help the person passed out on the street. It's 40 know it all types each insisting on gathering around and taking away all the person's air.
That's for the every day type of emergency. For the "life and death struggles" that many have never been a part of, they feel they would be in total control. Well, the movies tell them this. TV tells them this. Internet tells them this. Who doesn't tell them this? Who doesn't "preach" this to them?
When someone pulls out a hand gun, I run. I've noticed that half the other people run with me, and half the people freeze and wait around like they'll get some brownie points from someone who pulls a gun. Fortunately, I've never witnessed a killing. Although I've run from some shootings. Obviously, when you're alone with someone who pulls a gun, the "running" is a bit tougher.
Now, I'm not talking about the "little jokes in the face of death", because those are natural for experienced people who realize there just isn't much more one can do. I am talking about the "calm, cool, collected, acrobatic" acts of disarming others who have the drop on you. I'll buy it from the armed forces and police in some situations, but not others in the movies. That's why the smarter writers use Marines and policemen for heroes in their scripts. Or at least use them as catapults for others.
The movies and action TV have regressed a lot lately, back to the retarded years of Leone and Coppola. Maybe I've just seen the wrong ones. My room mate has goofy tastes.
I realize that we don't want to think we have fears, and we don't like to see heroes and heroines be afraid, but those of us who have lived in the hood can only understand that sort of behavior. We don't buy into this "natural demi god act". Reality is Hudson in Aliens. Reality is O'Neal in Platoon. The more you deviate from that, the sillier your movie looks.
