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Post by mstreepsucks on Aug 23, 2020 16:05:59 GMT
I don't know if i am correct on this assumption, and i'm just throwing this out there ok. It seems like with older stuff there was such a thing as 'ideas' in them. However with all films (that i know of)that were made in the last decade or so there seems to be almost no ideas.
Here's what i'll say, as far as examples go: Comparing the first 6 star wars to anything made recently with star wars.
Star Trek the original up until the next generation. Including the 70's and 80's star trek films: All seem to have ideas. But everything else by star trek after that has no ideas.
I haven't seen the jj abrams star trek, but i'll guess that comparing that to the old star trek it has no ideas in them.
But let me know if i am wrong.
Also compare something like Dune from the 80's to something like any science fiction made today, same thing. I guess it goes without saying this also applies to things besides science fiction. But that's just the easiest example of it.
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Post by politicidal on Aug 23, 2020 16:10:12 GMT
Well I hate David Lynch’s Dune but loved Abrams’ Star Trek. Ideas or not, as long as it’s entertaining and I’m attached to the characters, I’m satisfied.
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Post by mikef6 on Aug 23, 2020 16:27:13 GMT
Just about half-a-day ago on the List Your 25 Favorite Movies Of The 1930s thread over to the Film General board, I took occasion to say: I consider the expanded decade from 1935 to 1949 to be the period that produced the largest number of great films. Even more important, the highest number of good, entertaining films. People used to say, “I’m going to the movies.” Not, “I’m going to see this or that movie.” They would just go see what was playing and had a very good chance of being entertained. That hasn’t been true for at least 50 years now, maybe longer.
I don't consider the first Star Wars trilogy to be "older films." They are well made and have those "ideas" but they are firmly in the modern era style of action film making.
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Post by Isapop on Aug 23, 2020 19:21:58 GMT
I don't know if i am correct on this assumption, and i'm just throwing this out there ok. It seems like with older stuff there was such a thing as 'ideas' in them. However with all films (that i know of)that were made in the last decade or so there seems to be almost no ideas.
Here's what i'll say, as far as examples go: Comparing the first 6 star wars to anything made recently with star wars.
Star Trek the original up until the next generation. Including the 70's and 80's star trek films: All seem to have ideas. But everything else by star trek after that has no ideas.
I haven't seen the jj abrams star trek, but i'll guess that comparing that to the old star trek it has no ideas in them.
But let me know if i am wrong.
Also compare something like Dune from the 80's to something like any science fiction made today, same thing. I guess it goes without saying this also applies to things besides science fiction. But that's just the easiest example of it.
I'd say you're trying to generalize from an extremely limited sampling.
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Post by Prime etc. on Aug 23, 2020 20:37:30 GMT
Everything has less intensity today.
Acting, musical scores, story ideas.
There's a 1950s film I watched-one of those "uncensored" or "inside" crime films set in a city--and they used real law enforcement and city officials for a few parts and you could instantly tell they were not actors because their voice inflections lacked all the dramatic emphasis that professional actors have.
They sounded like modern actors.
Robert Pattinson's Batman voice is nowhere as commanding as Kevin Conroy's or Adam West's.
And I only use that as example since I am really tired of superhero movies!
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Post by london777 on Aug 24, 2020 2:16:10 GMT
The OP opines that more recent movies have no "ideas". I guess he is American and is speaking of American cinema, of which he probably has a greater knowledge than me, so I will not contest his opinion about that region.
But I can assure him that there are more excellent films containing plenty of "ideas" being made nowadays than ever before. We just have to look outside the USA to Europe, Russia, China, Korea, Japan, Turkey, Iran, Latin America, and elsewhere. Sadly, I cannot include the UK in that list.
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Post by Prime etc. on Aug 24, 2020 3:46:24 GMT
The professional commercial realm of western film has seen a cultural implosion--downsizing and a shift away from audience attraction.
In a commentary track for a 1971 movie an English actress, director, and writer were discussing how it seemed British film was doing so well around 1972 and then just collapsed overnight. All money gone, no opportunities.
Hollywood cut off the money and UK companies went through some nefarious downsizing like Bryan Forbes at EMI or Rank.
I strongly suspect a major reason you had a British accent or two in Hollywood films like Jaws (Robert Shaw), Star Wars (Guinness, Cushing etc), Superman, even Halloween was because of some quota requirement for distribution. They wanted to make it more accessible to UK audiences since they weren't making their own films at all anymore.
Christopher Lee famously said once: "There is no British film industry." You can hear him saying it with authority too.
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Post by phantomparticle on Aug 24, 2020 7:05:30 GMT
It may be that modern films and actors have become homogenized.
Older movies had a grandeur that filled the screen and the actors who populated them were larger than life. Contrary to Norma Desmond's "we didn't need voices," stars of that period had great voices. No one confused Gable's delivery with Cagney or Colman. Until about the 1980's, impressionists built careers on mimicking everyone from Lugosi to Lancaster. How many great voices can you name today that would fuel someone's comedy career?
We still have great actors and great movies. I'll watch nearly anything if Russell Crowe is in it (except Les Miserable again). Johnny Depp and Gary Oldman pushed the limits of acting to the breaking point. But for every one of them there are a dozen Keanu Reeves with personalities somewhere between vapid and bleak.
There are probably more movies being released to the public today in a single year, than were made by the all the studios combined from 1930 to 1960 after you have totaled up feature films, the home video market and the cable tv industry, which is insatiable for new product. With more money at stake than the gold in Croesus's vault, who is going to bank on originality to make a profit.
The enormous output means more work for actors than ever before, but most of them simply fill the role without attaining wide spread name recognition that will catapult them into the upper echelon of fame comparable to a Dustin Hoffman or Robert Redford.
Going to the movies hasn't been a family affair for over half a century. Films are produced for the youth market. Older generations can find everything they want from the innumerable cable outlets, classic to modern, on TCM, Starz, Showtime and you-name-it.
Ideas are a risk. Blowing up stuff makes money. Particularly if you wrap the movie around a superhero.
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