What's new
By:
Filters
Christian Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Are Very Old Movies Best?

craigdressler

craigdressler

Craig Dressler
Member
Because so much of the current movie scene is full of ungodly language, morals, etc., aren't very old movies usually the best to watch? I don't include recent Christian movies in that first sentence but still hold to that Hollywood generalization about unrighteousness. My favorite all-time very old movies include the following:
1) The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
2) The African Queen
3) The Angel and the Bad Man(The one with John Wayne not the other one.)
 
My favorites are silent movies. They are Pre-code so they didn't have as many rules although most were clean. Also not all countries had/have the same rules so even today some movies will get edited before they are allowed to go from one country to another.
 
craigdressler said:
Because so much of the current movie scene is full of ungodly language, morals, etc., aren't very old movies usually the best to watch? I don't include recent Christian movies in that first sentence but still hold to that Hollywood generalization about unrighteousness. My favorite all-time very old movies include the following:
1) The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
2) The African Queen
3) The Angel and the Bad Man(The one with John Wayne not the other one.)
Click to expand...

the longest day, Poseidon, the original. the original war of the worlds, the angry red planet with Robby the Robot!Planet of the apes(all of them with Heston as the protagonist and later Cornelius as the protagonist)
 
I'm a movie buff, so I hold in high appreciation the older movies. Many of today's movies fall short on plot, character development, or mere entertainment factor. And then again, there have been some excellent movies made in recent years that's I've enjoyed.
 
I actually didn't fully realize that this thread was meant to be talking about specific old movies. ^^; I'm slow sometimes.
Let's see if I can think of any others I like...
 
AirDancer said:
I'm a movie buff, so I hold in high appreciation the older movies. Many of today's movies fall short on plot, character development, or mere entertainment factor. And then again, there have been some excellent movies made in recent years that's I've enjoyed.
Click to expand...

True.
 
the problem I have with modern movies is that it is beginning to get real hard to watch them.some aren't that bad. some are. remember in the 80's rated r movies were bad and well sinful. compare them to today's r movies and they look like a sunday school lesson.todays pg-13 is about where the rated r movies were when I was a kid.
.
terminator was rated r because of its nudity, and yet we have pg 13 almost as bad today
 
I actually watched a movie from the early 20thcentury about Abraham Lincoln. Enjoyed that one a lot.
 
One of the funniest 'older' movies ever: "Support Your Local Sheriff" with James Garner, Walter Brennan, Joan Hackett, Jack Elam, Henry Morgan et al. It was a light-hearted spoof of Bonanza (the Cartwright family equivalent being the 'bad' guys) and a variety of other westerns -spaghetti or otherwise.
 
I want to see the original the Incredible Journey movie. I've only ever seen the Homeward Bound version from1993.
 
The Incredible Journey is a good movie ... you'll enjoy it when you see it.

Old Yeller made me sob for an hour when I saw it as a child. But then, Charlotte's Web made me weep when Charlotte died - happened when I read the book & when I saw the movie.
 
AirDancer said:
I'm a movie buff, so I hold in high appreciation the older movies. Many of today's movies fall short on plot, character development, or mere entertainment factor. And then again, there have been some excellent movies made in recent years that's I've enjoyed.
Click to expand...
Do you think it could be because of the pure saturation of film media these days? Not to mention the marketing influence. My personal opinion is that because of the newness of the medium, directors, actors, script writers, etc had more room to take chances and experiment. In our modern time, we have studios that built themselves off of experimentation, but now have to focus on marketability to either keep in business or grow. So due to the newness companies took risks because of the lack of material to source as good sellers, so newer ideas were easier to pitch because people where just trying to figure out what worked?

I think there has been some amazing cinema in the modern age, but will we have another Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind, or Ten Commandments? Sadly i don't think so. :sad
 
I rather enjoy the Bruce Willis/Helen Mirren movies 'Red' & 'Red 2" ... comedy with serious drama blend.

The problem with many modern movies: too much focus on winning awards & making money. Great epics, like the movies you cited, [MENTION=89648]Meatballsub[/MENTION] , couldn't be made today because of the cost. The typical audience wouldn't want to sit through three hours (without including intermission) of an epic like "Gone With The Wind" or "My Fair Lady".

Back in the studio days, the studios kept their actors/actresses busy. It was nothing for top A-list stars like Bette David, Clark Gable, etc, to make several movies in a years' time, while many of those on the B list made twice as many. By having a constant flow of films for theaters (which the studios either owned or helped finance), there was money being made on a steady basis. In addition, the studios also kept their A & B listers pidgeon-holed in categories the audiences expected. Bette Davis was a femme fatale ... Myrna Loy was rarely a bad girl ... and Doris Day was America's sweetheart. Today, without being held back by studios, actors/actresses try different genres, sometimes to the great disappointment of their usual audience.

Anyway .... it took a curious amount of shopping around his script & ideas, starting in the late 70s and early 80s before finally Steven Spielberg's "ET" was financed & had a studio to back it. Another example was George Lucas' "Star Wars" ... took a bit of time to find backing; too many thought it would be a re-make of Star Trek & no one wanted another cheesy Captain Kirk.

So today, we see Brad Pitt in "WWZ" (which doesn't resemble the book at all, with the exception of the name of the lead character & one other detail), which didn't last long, even though it was a big zombie movie - again, an attempt to cash in on the zombie fad. There are far too many modern movies I wouldn't allow my kids to see, if my kids were young enough to be minors & at home.

All I can say is I'm glad there were studios who made many of Michael Crichton books into films .... Andromeda Strain (in which the author has a cameo) ... Sphere ... Timeline ... Jurassic Park, Lost World (much of what was in Jurassic Park III was from those 2 books) ... etc. :)
 
Oh, My Fair Lady...loved that movie. :)
I also liked the BBC Narnia movies...not sure if they qualify as old or not.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top