re: Are older movies truly better?

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A more accurate statement is hard to imagine.

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I'm particularly impressed by the detailed argument that supports your proposition.

I'm drafting a thesis on the subject. In it I'm compiling a chronological list of every movie ever made, then I'll rank them according to 12 different criteria. All to impress you, VOR. You'll be like Forrest Gump discovering his own penis.

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You'd better go ahead and provide a PowerPoint to explain this concept for VOR.

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I've seen no "concept". Only a one note unsupported opinion.

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. Political Correctness often stifles creativity

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possibly, you have to remember that for most of cinema's history, the severe censorship was in force and even up until the late 60s, most major studios stayed away from really provoking films, focusing on comedies, epics and musicals.

I love pre-1970 movies but IMO the greatest film ever made was The Shawshank Redemption which came out only 20 years ago in 1994.

However, there are sooooo many great old flicks:
All Quiet On The Western Front
Wizard of Oz
Gone With The Wind
Double Indemnity
Witness For The Prosecution
Citizen Kane
On The Waterfront
Yankee Doodle Dandy
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Psycho
The Birds
Rear Window
The Time Machine
Twelve Angry Men
The Graduate
Cool Hand Luke
Best Years of Our Lives
Stalag 17
D-Day The Sixth of June
The Bridge on The River Kwai
Hans Christian Anderson
African Queen
Casablanca
Strangers On A Train
The Greatest Show On Earth
It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Jason And The Argonauts
Shane
Patton
The Searchers
Giant
Rebel Without a Cause
From Here To Eternity
The Sound Of Music
Mary Poppins
Butch Cassidy
You Can't Take It With You


And that's not even mentioning all the great Xmas movies of yesteryear:
A Christmas Carol (1935, 1938, 1951)
It's a Wonderful Life
It Happened On Fifth Avenue
The Shop Around the Corner
Meet John Doe
Christmas In Connecticut
A Holiday Affair
Miracle On 34th Street

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Originality beats pretty lights and explosions 9.9/10 times.

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The two arent mutually exclusive

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There are great movies from every decade (except maybe the '80s )

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To name a few...

ET
Ghostbusters
Back To The Future Series
Indian Jones Movies
Terms of Endearment
Breakfast Club
Top Gun
Goonies
Poltergeist
Platoon
Robocop
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The Terminator
Full Metal Jacket
Aliens
Bladerunner
The Thing
Stand By Me
Empire Strikes Back
Die Hard
The Shining
Ferris Bueller
Raging Bull

Some good, some perhaps not. A number of the story lines were better then. Acting was better in a number of cases. My only criticism of the earlier movies is that they frequently did not do much in the way of character development in contrast to later movies. Then again, the later movies may have had to rely on more in-depth character development as a number of the scripts were not as strong, and in a number of occasions just crassly predictable. Granted, there are exceptions. However, this is a quick capsule in comparisons.

I saw this thread the other day and have been giving it some thought. This is my hypothesis:

Back in the day, movies were the form of entertainment. There was something for everybody, from eight to eighty. There were well-crafted films for grown folks because grown folks went to the movies. Nowadays, who goes to the movies, primarily? Teenage and early twentysomething males. They want to see 1) boobs and 2) shite blow up, in more or less that order. Hollywood could make great movies with character development and serious themes, and the primary moviegoing audience would stay away in droves.

That said, there are some great movies being made-I'd but NCFOM up there with the very best of any era. Just now as many as there used to be. Meanwhile, there's some great original stuff on cable, because adults will watch it at home.

The same goes for popular (and popular country) music. Nobody listens to terrestrial radio any more except young girls, so crappy music that young girls like is what gets made and played.