MovieChat Forums > Marty (1955) Discussion > Apparently, This Movie Is 'Dated'

Apparently, This Movie Is 'Dated'

posted 17 years ago by nicoledesapio
73 replies | jump to latest

Yesterday evening I went to a public screening of MARTY (one of my favorite movies; I'm a fan of classic '50s TV drama) and coming out of the restroom after the movie was over, I heard one woman say she thought the movie was "ridiculous" because the dialogue was "very dated." She said it was "just so ridiculous" when Marty suddenly began talking about the time when he wanted to commit suicide -- as though this kind of speech didn't really belong in what is basically a comedy.

Someone can think what they want to about this movie or about any movie -- but what annoys me is that certain older films, plays, etc. get described as "dated." Why? Because they were made more than ten years ago and don't allude to MTV? Of COURSE a film made in another time is going to make references to its own time. (For example, Marty talks about having been in WWII.)

The irony is that I'm under 35, and the woman who made the "dated" comments was easily in her mid to late forties.

[–] franzkabuki 8 years ago

Well the attitudes and social, interpersonal dynamics certainly aren't what they are now. So... yeah, "dated", in this sense. Don't have anything to do with the film's quality though.

"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan

[–] liscarkat (19398) 8 years ago

There's nothing wrong with being dated. The movie was about people in 1954, so they looked and talked like people in 1954. So what? That's just one more thing that makes it interesting.

[–] TheBadgerMan (81) 8 years ago

Like the movie all you want, but don't act like being dated is perfectly acceptable and only a product of time.

Dated films tend to lose their message because they only applied it to certain people in a certain time period. Let me use 12 Angry Men as a popular example. It's about an all-male jury (back when that was the law) about to send a boy to the electric chair (back when that was more common). And yet, it's themes of speaking up for the helpless, considering prejudicial bias, and standing for your ideals (until they become destructive) all resonate today.

For the most part, Marty is also timeless. Two social misfits finding love - fighting those closest to them to get there.

Something like the mid-90s blockbuster and special effects exhibition Casper has not quite been as great a friend of time. It is a much more recent release, but feels much older and less relatable than either of the 50s classics.

[–] liscarkat (19398) 8 years ago

Nonsense. It is inevitable that all movies are dated, yet they don't need to "resonate today" to still be good.

[–] liscarkat (19398) 7 years ago

The movie was released in 1955 and it's about people in 1955. So it looks and sounds like 1955. So what?

[–] Stratego (31075) 7 years ago

I consider a movie to be 'dated' when the point, values and ideas of a movie itself are clearly from another time period, not because the values or morals or customs or even technology that's featered in the movie is not of our time. I mean, if you'r going to make a remake of Marty today that's set in the 50s there's no way of avoiding that either. It's rather difficult to understand what the woman you mentioned means with 'dated'. Does she mean that the dialogue doesn't seem realistic or sincere to her? That there's an intention behind it that we don't connect with today? Or does she actually mean the references to a time before she was born?

[–] laurieann74 (97) 5 years ago

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[–] laurieann74 (97) 5 years ago

I hate that term "dated." So stupid!

[–] jdforyou1983 (1470) 4 years ago

A good movie is no matter what year it came out in

[–] TheArgentinian (7251) 3 years ago

The only dated thing about Marty is how they refer to ugly people as "dogs". That cracked me up.