MovieChat Forums > The Sand Pebbles (1966) Discussion > I can't stand people my age.

I can't stand people my age.

posted 17 years ago by huggin_possums
67 replies | jump to latest

So, I'm watching The Sand Pebbles one day, and I'm totally engrossed by it, and all of a sudden a couple of my friends show up and want to hang out. I basically told them to **** off, I'm watching a movie. Anyway, I go back to my movie, and they sit down and start watching it with me. For the next hour and a half I have to listen to these two guys bitching about how boring this movie is, and how I never like good movies. So one of them goes to the DVD player and tries to put Happy Gilmore in and I once again have to tell them to **** off. They don't. They just sit there, and tell me how much this movie sucks.

Which brings me to my original point. Why is it that other people my age have no attention span when it comes to movies? It's like they need a movie with either no plot, a ton of CGI, or lots and lots of lame, disgusting jokes to hold their attention. To me, a movie can be over three hours long and still manage to entertain. A movie can have a couple of scenes of nothing but dialogue. A movie can pull off a battle scene with realistic amounts of explosions and fire. A movie doesn't need to go over the top with every single detail in order to hold one's attention.

Maybe this is just a passing thing. Maybe once my friends and I get out of high school we'll all be able to appreciate good movies. But I don't think so. I think that our nation's youth has lost all of it's good taste and intelligence. I don't think that there's a way out of it. A couple of months ago Meet the Spartans was the number one movie in America. In my opinion, this is what politicians should be campaigning about. It's a very pressing issue! I want my president to promise me that he or she will solve this ongoing problem! Am I all alone? Who's with me?

Oh, and I didn't mean to put Happy Gilmore down. I thought it was a fun movie.

Personal philosophy: Clothing optional.

[–] sheywhat 12 years ago

You lost me at Happy Gilmore. Get new friends.

[–] PrometheusTree64 11 years ago

Although I'm five years too late to this thread, as others have said, these kinds of attitudes existed with older generations, too -- it just depends on the individual.

That said, the problem was not that their tastes were "different" or even that they have no attention span -- it's that they were trying to prevent you from doing your own thing, to deliberately ruin it for you. And just for "power" purposes.

That will play out in any number of other ways, not just movie watching...

Hopefully, you've since found higher quality folks who don't try to stop you from enjoying something they don't happen to share an interest in.

--
Anybody who trashes Christina Crawford is akin to a satan-worshipper...

[–] photoe 11 years ago

A man is judged by the company he keeps. Its a cliche, and its supposedly good to be flexible with people, but there are smarter and dumber people out there, so you might need to get new friends.

Frankly, the thing I love about movies from the 50s-70s is that the filmmaking chops and acting were there, but the budgets and technical advances were such that a lot of these movies use real period ships, and weapons, and there's a budget for lots of extras, and locations.

This movie would cost a fortune today, and they would use a CGI ship, not a real one, which would have compromised many of the scenes. The locations as well would be difficult to reconstruct, and the incredible junks in this film wouldnt be cheap.

THe entire theme of the movie wouldn't be done. Noone would bother to set an anti-war film in such an obscure piece of history (to us now). The trajectory of the end of the movie, from the deaths at the cutting of the barrier rope to the captain's pointless death and McQueen's dialog railing at fate before his death, prove just how deeply and genuinely anti-war this movie is, and it would never have been made during our last decade of rah-rah war (again). It was made early for anti-military feeling as well, 1966, so I now understand why I just saw it. It's been kept deliberately obscure. For endings, this is up there with WIld Geese, except that at least one hero makes it out of the end of that film. Hwood just doesnt make movies this nihilistic anymore. It's considered too much of a handicap to box office. Syriana was a pretty nihilistic war movie. I'll give that one credit.

Still, people preferring a bonehead comedy to a depressing drama can happen. Its a totally different mood.
However, yes, some people are irretrievable dolts, with zero interest in history. Up to you if you want to continue
to be around them (they also don't protest wars or economic injustice).

[–] flickersfan 11 years ago

It's not going to get any better. It's devolution.

[–] wamper35 11 years ago

There it is

[–] Catherine-Mullins 11 years ago

ROFLOL!

Why is it that other people my age have no attention span when it comes to movies? It's like they need a movie with either no plot, a ton of CGI, or lots and lots of lame, disgusting jokes to hold their attention. To me, a movie can be over three hours long and still manage to entertain. A movie can have a couple of scenes of nothing but dialogue. A movie can pull off a battle scene with realistic amounts of explosions and fire. A movie doesn't need to go over the top with every single detail in order to hold one's attention.

All the comments you made are just spot on. That's exactly how I felt in highschool and still do now (early 30's). Get used to feeling alone.

It was just ironic to come across this post because I was thinking the same thing. I don't understand the obsession with CGI. To me it looks almost as fake as cartoons. And if I have to sit through another every-joke-is-cruder-than-the-next movie I'll puke.

In fact, it had been so long since I saw a decent plot driven, multi-faceted, film with three dimensional characters, that while I was watching it for the first time, I was like "what is this incredible feelling that's coming over me? My brain feels stimulated, , my eyes pleased, and my heart gripped? It's too good to be true." Then, when the feelling didn't end, and the film became more and more engrossing, I felt like I'd just won the lotto. A movie that made me think and feel at the same time? I thought I'd seen all those,and was doomed to the same marvel comic strip repeated in different forms over and over again(Spiderman and Thor are fun, but less than fulfilling)

I'm sorry your friends can't appreciate this, but it's their loss. They may be innocent victims of the A-D-D entertainment universe that afflicts the modern world. Just enjoy the fact that you haven't been spoilt by it yet (and hopefully not ever), and seek out the satisfying films along with the "popcorn" ones.

[–] rready4198-693-489748 11 years ago

huggin_possums, I believe it has a lot to do with having too much "visual" and not enough "imagination." It has been happening over the last 30 or 40 years. I noticed it in my children, niece and nephew (all born between 1968 and 1978). They do not want to think and want the answer to everything without watching the whole show. I use to have to say, "Hands on lips" just to watch a program and Lord help me if a movie was on! The radios use to have the stories on them so you listened and let your imagination do the work for you. Television dawned and it was all over...I know I am a television addict but I also read. That is the last place for the imagination to fill in the blanks. You should have put your friends out if they could not be polite enough to sit still...but that is another problem young people have today...sitting still!

[–] marcellis_robinson 11 years ago

Oh, how standards have been lowered over the past 30 years or so. I'm 56, and I began noticing around 1980 how the movies were becoming more and more childish. Fewer good scripts being written, fewer actors who know their craft, fewer directors with literate sensibilities, more studio executives for whom maximizing profit is their sole criterion for greenlighting a movie project.

The end result: Fewer movies like Sand Pebbles, Serpico, or Great Santini. More movies like Happy Gilmore, Rambo, Titanic and Shrek. A great number of dumbed down movies, for a dumbed down audience. Because that is where the most profit is.

[–] residentevil6901 11 years ago

I think youth has a lot to do with that, when I was young it was all about action movies and stuff, for example a movie like 1990's Presumed Innocent I hated but love it now. The older I got the more patience I would get and I had more of an appreciation for other kinds of movies that I didn't like when I was young. It could also be the intelligence level of some people lol