Shows/Movies of yesterday and today

[Tales]

Hi everyone, I was talking about this topic in my audio blog in which I still haven't found the right words to describe this.

Okay, as a movie buff and a story buff since since I began to know how to write stories, I began to notice the difference between the movies made more recently and the ones of the yesterday like 10 - 20 years ago.

Anyone who have the same feeling? Let discuss that here intelligently and see what's the difference and what changed.

[*Jess♥]

A big difference has been in peoples ability to uinderstand visual language.

storytelling practices have changed to fit in with more sophisticated viewers.

if a person from 1920 watched a film from this year they would not be able to understand the story. because there are things we take for granted that these people did not.

[Tales]

I see.

But I see that the movies made yesterday and I am talking about some great movies made several years ago even as early as four to five years ago. I had some different feelings whenever I watch them and compare them with the "hollow" story movies of today.

Okay set aside the visual language understanding, the current movies lack the depth in storyline compared with their predecessors. I mean some of the films made in the past had some kind of food for thought after the person watches it.....

Whatathink?

[Super Existence]

I think a lot of the differences between say 70's and 80's movies have something to do with what was happening in the world at the time. Seventies movies tended to be very dark and cynical as the US had recently come out of the vietnam war and it was a reflection of people's attitudes. The 80's was all about greed and aquiring things and also the zeitgeist of the time was that everyone had to be successful or an action hero and so the movies reflected that.

The trouble with today's movies is life is a little boring. Nothing is happening that is affecting cultural attitudes so movies and music and art in general is pretty hollow.

As grim as it sounds if we had a bad war of somekind a few years down the line art would get interesting again.

It's cynism and frustration that seems to power great art, for some reason decadence and easy living seem to have an adverse effect on passionate creativity.

[Tales]

Hmm makes sense but I still feel that it is not really a good reason for this falling in the standards of stories. Could there be a bigger reason? This fall of the standard has affected not just american movies, even eastern shows like Kamen Rider too is also witnessing this. In fact the problem is so serious it caused quite a ruckus in the fandom with each flaming each other.

But however, even in times of "peace", we still have the usual stuff with human life going back. Jealousy, fight for survival,etc these are things that we like to see on screen. But now most of them is just plain comedy that doesn't make me laugh.

Anyone else?

[Tales]

Okay I put this in my audio Blog here. Thanks so much for your food for thoughts.

[*Jess♥]

I think this is also to do with risk.

the film studios at the moment are playing it safe with the same formula that has been working for them.

they don't want to risk in investing in something new and interesting, they are concentrating on bringing the money in.

this is why indipendant films are the new interesting movies.

indipendants do it because they are passionate. studios look at what attracts punters. big name stars, amazing special effects etc.

the stuff that you CANNOT tell about without going to actually watch the movie.. i.e. the story... gets sacrificed.

they do it because they can get away with it. once you actually watch the movie, they already have your money.

[Tales]

Wow, that's a cheapo way to get audiences....

If there is a move there is a countermove. I wonder if there is a way to combat this and get stories back into movies again without a war like what Super Existence says?

[*Jess♥]

of course there is a countermove.

it's already happening.

I know lots of people who will download a movie and watch it before deciding wether or not to pay the price of a cinema ticket.

[Tales]

Ok but then back to the topic, even in peaceful times, we still have office politics, and more deeper philosophical stuff going on and it's not something that cannot be just covered up in films these days with comedy and special effects.

Like say, movies like say

Angels and Demons kinda made me ponder about our actions in the past when people of different beliefs slaughtered each other. In Angels and Demons, they said the Vatican and the illuminati had some ancient blood feud. Which made me think of Galileo, who was condemned to death by the church becos he was telling the scientific truth? How far can we accept differences in our society? And what things should be accepted?

Terminator Salvation awakened the technophobe in me. The scene of humans in the Skynet slaughterhouse even though it wasn't bloody made me ponder on how we can prevent ourselves from being betrayed by our creations?

I.Robot despite it was not really a well received by critics from what I heard did the same as Terminator Salvation. Especially the saying about "Ghosts in the machine". Now everytime my pc jams or hangs, this saying plays like some mp3 player in my head.

The Matrix trilogy enforces it even further. I now wonder how far should we go in bestowing our creations, intelligence and what is intelligence?

But to be more fair, the change in the story is a bad thing but this "trend" also had its positive points. Everything has pro and cons. I am trying to see what pros are there for impartiality reasons.

Does anyone think the 2008 writers strike had also an big impact too?

Edited July 25, 2009 by Tales

[*Jess♥]

pro's and con's.. yeah sure, there always are..

i think the most common pro when things seem to go bad is that anything that comes later seems so much better.

also, in a way, people get chance to calm down and have some rest time.

as you stated some very good movies... what we should remember is that sometimes a movie has to be out a while before it can be considered worthy.

because freshness of a movie can sometimes cloud us. are we just caught up in hte excitement or are we really appreciating the full aspect of teh film, story and all.

I wanted to see terminator salvation in hte movie house but i could not find a partner.

(it's cheaper if i go with someone to 'orange wednesday' promotion)

i think there can be problems sometimes though.. the movie house may decide not to play hte movies that are actually good story and will use promotionals on movies that have flashy trailers.

there will still be a lot of good movies made in each year, but you will not always get the exposure.

[Super Existence]

At the moment the appeal of CGI effects are waning they arent as powerful as they were, the public have seen nearly everything effects can throw at them now.

If you've noticed why there are so many super hero movies coming out is because they already have a following and are fairly well engrained into people's minds from an early age. Same goes for transfomers and why hollywood are chasing so many of these kinds of characters to turn into films.

They have appeal based on nostalgia but they'll soon run out fo those too.

Peopel think this is a new thing but it has happenined before.

The 70's was an awful period for movies there were some classics but people neglect to realise there was bucket loads of crap that came out and people forget all about them. Even Francis Ford Coppola has mentioned this and he grew up in that era.

People are fickle and eventually it will become boring. I think we're seeing signs of that now.

Think about it. For me the last big massive event movies where Terminator 2, Jurassic park and to a slightly lesser degree Independance Day. Those marketing campaigns were so titanic you could not ignore these movies.

These days those campaigns aren't anywhere near as big, I think the day of the event movie is over and now we are just left with blockbusters and their time will come too...

[Tales]

So where have the good storywriters gone? Are the scriptwriters of the past better than their descendants today? Or has this generation of scriptwriter cannot compare with the predecessors.

Edited July 30, 2009 by Tales

[*Jess♥]

good scriptwriters are within the general population of the world.

there is so much talent on the internet.

there are many talented writers among us in this community.

the only problem is that the good writers no longer get to write for hollywood or mainstream movies.

[Tales]

Anyway, I think whether times of great depression or peace, Movies with some form of seriousness or make the audience think still have appeal.

Oh yeah, guys do share any movies that make you think about life or even changed your life here.

[*Jess♥]

sure thing.

well you might not take me seriously.

movies that make me think like this are not always what you consider classic.

Evan Almighty

Dogma

Fifth Element

Matrix

[Tales]

Hmm true

I just got back from independence day the movie. Yeah, that was a good classic. Despite the Aliens and explosions, there is a lot of humanity stuff going on, family.etc. That's ain't deep stuff but it touches the heart a little.