'Dated' Movies
OK everyone, follow me here. I read a whole lot of posts from people who complain about the look, music, etc., of 70's and 80's movies as being "dated". As in the above review, even is someone likes a movie, they always feel compelled to add that disclaimer if the movie if from the 70's or 80's. For some reason, earlier movies than this usually don't receive this gripe.
My position here is that is a wholly invalid criticism, if that's what it's meant to be. For one: what exactly are movie producers supposed to do? Prognosticate twenty years into the future to see what people will expect movies to look or sound like then? Which brings me to For two: ALL movies are dated. They were all made in a certain place at a certain time reflecting the sensibilities of that time. If you can't enjoy a movie because it's "dated", I feel sorry for you. You're missing out on a lot of great films. The trick is to take it for what the filmmakers were trying to achieve, not to dwell on superficial aspects of the film over the substance.
In ten years, will people refer to "Pulp Fiction" as a "90's movie"? Will we decry the "cheesy turn of the century soundtracks" of recently made films twenty years from now? God, I hope not. The world was here before you were. Films have been getting made for a long time. If you can't watch something that doesn't fully incorporate your present and limited worldview, it's really, really too bad. That's like saying, "Sure, 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' is OK, it's just so DATED".
I don't mean to skewer the guy that wrote the review of "Stick" (a movie I've never seen, and that he actually liked- I was just browsing Elmore Leonard books that have been made into movies). I just get tired of all the "cheesy" and "dated" references to movies that, yes, may have came out before you were born, but that does not make them any less valid. Because you didn't exist in the 70's doesn't mean the 70's didn't exist, and you may watch an older movie and say, "That's been done so many times BEFORE!", but guess what? Those movies came FIRST. There are no groundbreaking films being made now, as evidenced by the fact that the film industry is in its worst slump in almost ten years. But there were groundbreaking films being made once- and now they are called "cheesy" and "dated" by people who have only seen ripoffs of the original works.
Follow me? Think outside your own frame of reference.
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