re: The Infantilization of Popular Culture

ELL, I watched the first couple of minutes, and he may be onto something.

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Westerns are the precursors and those are gone as well, so they didn't exist for only 15 years.

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The majority of westerns made in the 40s, 50s, and 60s were the literal B-movies. Westerns used to be more culturally significant than they are now, and many made a lot of money, but they were never the dominant, mono-cultural, money-making force that action and now superhero movies became decades later. Not to mention that westerns were a massive sub-genre, and within that sub-genre you had all kinds of masculine and very, I'm sure you'd find offensively non-masculine films. Several of Anthony Mann's westerns (one of the more popular then and respected now directors of westerns) made films very critical of masculinity.

Also, by wishing for these action movies from your childhood or adolescense, you're doing the same crap that the idiot in the video is criticizing.

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I think most react based on fear, not that those films have necessarily changed, but that their level of importance/cultural impact is waning.

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Sure, but that was to be expected. EVERYTHING has less impact because everything is drifting to a smaller and nichier audience. The modern means of distribution means you can make a movie for almost any audience, and that's a GREAT thing.

but it also means big studios are more risk averse than ever because there is no middle. Everything is either a massive tentpole or small, niche film. And there's problem from the business side there, but... I don't care about the business side, honestly.

I care that there's tons of great things being made and I can access almost all of it with relative ease. I don't need someone else to see, say BLINSPOTTING, for me to know its great. I liked comic books when no one else did, so why should I give a shite that other people now do? They'll go away to another fad some day, but I'll still be here, because I like them.