MovieChat Forums > City Lights (1931) Discussion > Sheer brilliance

Sheer brilliance

posted 17 years ago by blackmambamark
5 replies | jump to latest

This movie is the definiton of timeless.......seriously.....over 70 years since this was made.....and yet it is still brillant to this day.....any film lover, or basically anyone will find enjoyment out of this......anytime i have a guest over, and they wish to watch a movie, i always recommend this one......because chances are that they have never seen it......and when it is over, they want to do nothing but watch more........sheer brillance. How on earth is this not in the top 50......and not only that, only a little over 20,000 people have voted on this??? Come on people.

[–] aciolino 16 years ago

Your indignation is well justified.

But I don't know if you've noticed, as you should (because you sound like someone with a brain) that our culture, our society has become suicidally stupid.

The "Dumbing of America," (a popular euphemism for what has been systematically imposed upon our population since the sixties maybe late fifties) continues unabated. Just look around. Look at popular culture: it doesn't (or rarely) permit the appreciation or even acknowledgement of what has come before; look at news broadcasts--they are little more than pap and pablum served up by drop-outs from modeling schools, (and college, no doubt) short on substance information or insight.

Broadway is now limited to the vapid or extremely vapid (Disney).

Television is now not only a wasteland it is a toxic wasteland, poisoning our children's minds, and keeping us angry, frightened, and not the least bit entertained, but spending lots of money we don't have.

No one reads, education is at an all-time low (I'm a teacher of twenty-five years)and no one cares. We celebrate vulgarity and what was previously considered anti-social or even deviant behavior.

We are doomed, and you wonder why "City Lights" goes unappreciated.

It is more remarkable that anyone knows the film at all.

[–] heyuactor 16 years ago

Wow, acio, now tell us how you really feel. Just kidding. Maybe it should be run on cable more so people can be exposed to it, and not merely the usual junk, but would you say City Lights is purposefully being kept away from audiences? It looks like it, but I don't think we are "doomed", because: "With God all things are possible."

"I can understand it, but I don't like it none!"--Cheyenne.

[–] vinidici 16 years ago

They've aired this on TCM; the station usually plays at least one silent film on Sunday evenings--"Silent Sunday."

acio, I share much of your indignation, but consider THIS:

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

(Attributed to Socrates by Plato; Google Answers suggests it might come from Plato's Republic Book 4.)

There's little to argue with how you've stated your outlook on civilization, in general, and our American culture and society in particular; however, your pessimism is nothing new, because Socrates (or at least Plato) said essentially the same things as you--and I suspect such gloomy prognoses probably go much farther than even the 400+ BC era of Socrates and Plato, perhaps even to the dawn of time, itself.

Secret Message, HERE!-->CONGRATULATIONS!!! You've discovered the Secret Message!

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Tetra123 16 years ago

It's beautiful. Cynicism can't touch it, even after all these years and cultural changes. It remains a masterpiece of humanity...and I don't want to live to see the day when that ever changes.