re: The Days of Great Movies Are Gone With the Wind

Waaaay TLDR but....

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Has anyone actually given a second viewing to Best Picture winners like (1)"The Artist" from 2011? Or (2)"Argo" from 2012? Or (3)"Spotlight" from 2015? What about the movies that lost? (4)"The Theory of Everything," anyone? (5)"Her," anyone? (6)"La La Land," anyone?

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Perhaps I watch too many movies but

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No
4. No
5. Yes
6. Yes

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"Star Wars" lost to (1)"Annie Hall." "Raiders of the Lost Ark" lost to (2)"Chariots of Fire." "E.T." lost to (3)"Gandhi." "Pulp Fiction" lost to (4)"Forest Gump."

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Answering the same question for the past winners he venerates...

1. No
2. No
3. No
4. Yes

(answer is yes to the 4 that didn't win)

Not saying they are bad, just that once was enough for me on the first three.

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What differentiates those movies from that of "The Terminator" or even "The Dark Knight" is they feel less like movies and more like glorified television shows. Bottom line: they just don't build to a meaningful climax. There's no suspense because we already know that Spiderman or Iron Man or Black Panther will overcome their nemesis no matter how great or dire the cliffhanger. Like any television show, we instinctively know that next week's episode will set the universe right again.

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Yeah, I was always worried that Arnold, Sly, Bruce, or whoever the frick the good guy/protagonist was would die in their movies. The hero dying almost never happens regardless of the genre or era and the ones that do come to mind are more b/c it's so rare. When it does happen it's almost always in a sci fi or horror.

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In any classic, you get a sense that the filmmakers carefully crafted something for their audience to enjoy. You get a sense that Spielberg really wanted to make "Jaws" or that James Cameron really wanted to make "Titanic" or that Peter Jackson really wanted to make "Lord of the Rings." No such experience exists with the modern blockbuster.

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Dafuq? First off, how is LOTR not a modern blockbuster? Second, he thinks people like James Gunn, Taika Waititi, the Russo Bros, Christopher McQuarrie, Guillermo Del Toro, Patty Jenkins, JJ Abrams, James Mangold, James Wan etc don't really want to make the big budget movies they make? They were like "Ehh, it'll buy me a house like how Jaws The Revenge did for Micheal Caine."?

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Is there really any difference in quality between the "Star Wars" sequels, the Marvel movies, and "Jurassic World"?

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100% YES

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As products of executive committees, they look the same, feel same, and sound the same. Some are indeed slicker and more entertaining than others, but none of them actually rise above a mere amusement park ride.

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He says this while bringing up movies like Jurassic Park, Forest Gump, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Jaws which, while all great classics, are still escapist "amusement park rides" (this is not a bad thing BTW). Never mind that there are many who would view those movies with the same "ehh, it was fun for 2 hours" attitude just like there are some who might watch them every single time they happen across them on TV.

Maybe he should just come out and say he loves Spielberg more than any modern film director?

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While the Marvel films certainly dazzle the senses for 2-plus hours, few people can argue leaving a Marvel movie with the same emotional elation as they do in a movie like "Raiders of the Lost Ark." An even stronger argument could be made for the "Star Wars" sequels. DC all but destroyed its brand with "Justice League."

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This dude writing the article graduated college in 2010. That puts him somewhere in his late 20s to early 30s and means he would have seen Raiders when he was a little kid. Does he really expect ANY movie to have the same emotional impact as an adult as it did when he was a kid? It's like, I love The Goonies. But an adult seeing it for the first time today? They'd probably be bored to tears. Would I go nuts for Jurassic Park the same way I did when I saw it in middle school? Very doubtful. When I was a kid and saw Raiders I was all "Hell yea" and then I saw Temple of Doom and went "Hell yea". I did the same for Ghostbusters 1 and 2. The same for all three Back to the Futures. I still watch them from time to time. Would I feel the same way as an adult? Would I watch them multiple times to the point that some are nearly once a year watches? Probably not.

Honestly, he comes off like the same kind of lazy critic who whines there is no more good music like back when he was young, or worse, when his parents were young. People who grew up when the Beatles came out LOVE the Beatles. The kids whose parents made them listen to their music? Some of them LOVE the Beatles. People who came of age after the Beatles were a big deal or didn't have parents who foisted Beatles music upon them? Most will give a big meh, think of a couple songs they kind of like, and wonder what the big deal is. (again, not an attack on actual quality of Beatles music) Essentially this guy doesn't understand how much nostalgia plays into a love of something.

I think he massively underestimates just how much some of the modern era movies are going to be loved 20 years down the road. While some of those best picture winners will be forgotten (just as many other past BPs have) there are going to be plenty of blockbusters and "Oscar bait" flicks that for one reason or another become the new modern day classics.

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A native of Pasadena, Paul Bois graduated CSUN in 2010 with a B.A in Media Management. Paul lives in Monrovia with his wife where most of his free time is spent researching topical issues and the debates encircling them.

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LINK

Again, just noting that most of the movies he waxes poetic he likely would have first seen when he was a kid.

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Known as "Vox Dei" for the Michael Knowles Show, Paul Bois got his start writing for Ben Shapiro in 2013 and lives by the motto"punch back twice as hard."

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LINK

Well I can see why he gets about politics in Oscar bait. Funny that he ignores the politics of other films that came out around the same time the classics he loves were made. I wonder what he would think of the political subtexts of Gandhi and Chariots of Fire if they were released now?

I love most of the Marvel movies but the writer makes some good points.

We're in post post modernism. References abound.

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political propaganda

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Oscar-bait films

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I mean, I guess I have to kind of agree with the overall gist of the article, but I have some issues.

Looking at this year's Best Picture nominees:
Call Me By Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The Post is obvious Oscar-bait; otherwise, the list is generally free of shameless Oscar-bait.

Ever since Casablanca, nothing else matters.

Just take a look at the nominees for Best Picture in 1997. You had As Good as it Gets (a romantic comedy), The Full Monty (a dramedy about male strippers) Good Will Hunting (a coming of age story), L.A. Confidential (a crime noir), and Titanic (a historical epic).

None of the nominees have any kind of political or social messages. I suppose Good Will Hunting has an underlying message about alcoholism and domestic abuse, but beyond that, it's just an entertaining story about a kid looking to find his place in the world. What's more...they were all box office successes. When you adjust for inflation, they grossed the following in the U.S. alone:

Titanic: $1.2 billion
As Good as it Gets: $231 million
Good Will Hunting: $215 million
L.A. Confidential: $101 million
The Full Monty: $72 million

Here's something to think about, re OP's viewpoint. Movies are often based on what's popular in literature, not just TV. The Martian was a really good recent book. And a pretty good recent movie. At this current moment, I'm hard-pressed to name another.

Where are the good books these days? I'm sure they are out there, but I'm not talking about comic books or lightweight interpretations of comic books

OTOH,The Dark Knight was not a lightweight interpretation (compared with Justice League, for instance). It was an entertaining movie, worthy of the solid fan base behind it (See Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings, Jaws, even relatively lightweight Starship Troopers, ditto).

Movies are entertainment; but if they are to be lasting, the movies need to show some evidence that the characters, acting, direction, photography, and generally authentic "feel" sync with the story they are trying to tell.

Shouldn't just be templates trolling for a particular audience demographic, a la recent Star Wars offerings.

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people didn't rewatch movies until the late 80s because, and this is important, WE frickING COULDN'T. VCR's didn't become commonplace until the late 80s, so the only way to rewatch a movie was to wait for it to come back on TV.

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You have made a major point here, IMO. Just let me add that you could also wait for it to be re-released to the general public in movie theaters. Or go back and back again while it was still playing in its first release. Some did.

MCU in a nutshell. Let’s just fling as much $250 million dollar schlock out there and see what sticks.