Old Movies Don’t Play Anymore
Among all the enormous disparities in the world today between the Baby Boomer generation and this new configuration of alphabets, the differences are from here to Mars.
Probably further since we actually got to Mars, at least Rover did.
New generations seem totally apathetic to anything that happened beyond ten years ago. Nostalgia is a word with which they have cultivated no relationship, nor do they care to.
To young people the eighties are considered ancient times and there is no interest in anything that preceded boy bands.
I am saddened by the fact that young people today show such a lack of interest in classic movies. I suppose it was inevitable looking at mid-20th-century cinema through a 21st-century lens.
When I was a kid there was a man in Detroit who had a show on each afternoon called Bill Kennedy at the Movies.
Most of the movies were made from the time talkies came in to the late fifties. These were mostly black and white and featured stars like Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Bette Davis, James Cagney, Jimmy Stewart, Joan Crawford and the big stars of that era.
Despite the fact I was very young I adored these movies. And movie stars. Actors were managed then and we knew nothing about their personal lives until much later in the sixties. That contributed greatly to the glamour and mystery of Hollywood. And unlike today, ignorance was bliss when stars said little.
The sight of Errol Flynn swinging on a tree rope to a branch, extending his hand and saying, “Welcome to Sherwood,” was a line I couldn’t get enough of.
Because the movie was made eight years before I was born meant nothing to me. I didn’t see it as outdated or archaic, I just saw a great movie.
The James Cagney gangster flicks, John Wayne cowboy movies, screwball comedies, Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, anything with Cary Grant, remain loved by so many.
Although movies remain a showcase of human behavior, it is truly a fact they are dated.
Yet although times and scenery may change people don’t. The love, crime and family stories endure.
They are a portrait of what the U.S.A. was like before television, freeways and malls.
A window into small town innocence in America featuring Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, or Jane Powell. Neighborhoods where one needn’t lock their front door and Sunday picnics in the park were the best way a family could spend a day.
One movie, The Male Animal with Henry Fonda showed college life in America at a Midwest university where football games and bonfires were all part of the experience. Based totally on U of M or Ohio State is my guess.
What is amazing to me is watching the way cities like New York have changed.
If you watch Barefoot in the Park or Breakfast at Tiffany’s you get a picture of how wonderful New York was in her heyday. And a bit of sadness as well.
The quiet and peaceful vibe of rural, urban and family life literally jumps through the screen and reminds us of the uncluttered and slow moving pace of our lives then.
Yet today, kids are bored by these movies. A good story doesn’t seem to be enough to capture the attention of young people who have been raised with IMAX and AI.
They have little interest in historical classics like Gone With The Wind, despite its incredible story and acting.
I recently asked my grandsons to watch The Producers with me. The original and in my opinion best one, with Dick Shawn, Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. They were quite skeptical about my rave reviews, but they went along for the ride. I also suspect it’s because my daughter ensured them it was indeed one of the funniest films ever.
When my children were young I exposed them to great comedy, like The Producers, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and just really funny movies. I like to believe it’s why they have great senses of humor today.
So yes, my grandchildren enjoyed the Zero and Gene version very much. Despite its dated demeanor they laughed and got every joke. Seriously, Springtime for Hitler? Genius never fades.
A great motion picture moves at its own pace. Kids today live in a fast-paced world.
There are video games, technology, Virtual Reality and space travel. You Tube has changed the watch interval considerably from two hours to seeing ten shows in that time.
I personally find it a bit disheartening that so few young people today appreciate how glorious it is to simply lose oneself in Casablanca, The Godfather, Citizen Kane or It’s A Wonderful Life.
The list of great movies is endless and I devour them all.
But the world moves at lightning speed and kids aren’t about to stop and watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington when they’re in the middle of a game on their Virtual Reality headset.
As a kid we watched old movies at home, or went to a neighborhood theatre in Detroit called The Mercury that featured murals of the cosmos on the walls that glowed in the dark. And we loved every minute. Movies were a great way to escape into other worlds, interesting places and intriguing stories.
I guess when the world sped up the need for old movies slowed down. Yet historic preservation of old movies also preserves a view into the past. How the world changed and yet in many ways has stayed the same. Watching Spartacus lead a revolt is a whole lot better than reading about it in a history book.
But you must go with the flow. So I watch my old movies and You Tube. I admit to still feeling a tinge of sadness when watching an old movie and catch a glimpse of the Brooklyn Dodgers playing in Dodger Stadium in Brooklyn. Those were the good old days with an emphasis on good! But as long as we can still visit classic Hollywood on the screen, these memories will remain.
