Cinemascope
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Posts posted by Cinemascope
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> "...it's also probably responsible for the general
> dumbing down of American movies..."
>
> ...not to mention Americans...
It actually would have to go a lot farther back than the 1970's, as H.L. Mencken said, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public" -- and he didn't even live to see the modern Hollywood blockbuster...
In hindsight, it's amazing we had such good movies for most of the 20th century...
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Only a change in demographics... it helped turn the tide to where young male moviegoers accounted for the most ticket sales, in part because they felt films like Jaws or Star Wars demanded multiple viewings. So at least part of the problem was that adults accounted for less ticket sales, therefore less incentive to make movies aimed squarely at adults.
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Very probably you were too old for it... the Fox executives also thought it was going to be a disaster.
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Well, what a lucky fella!
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> Kyle:
>
> Thank you, I had heard that SAG and AMPAS were
> basically U.S. orientated, thus my confusion of all
> the nominations for foreign films. There used to be
> a category for foreign produced and language films
> which separated them from U.S. offerings. i.e. the
> Academy was for American crafters, not foreign.
"Used to be"? The Academy still gives out an Oscar for "Best foreign-language movie", which in this day and age could just as easily be an American movie such as Letters from Iwo Jima or Apocalypto -- they're both American films in a foreign language.
Nor is the rest of the Oscars meant exclusively for American films, just for English-language films, so it can include English-language movies from England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
> Cinemascope:
>
> Thanks for the psuedo-history lesson about foreign
> trade barriers and free trade. What do you think the
> Revolutionary War was about, sometime back around
> 1776 or so?
Ah, but things have changed a bit since 1776.
> As for isolation, I believe in buy American in cars,
> clothes, movies, gymshoes, and candy. I'm not an
> isolationist, I simply believe in 'See America
> first', as in Mount Rushmore and Broadway, before the
> Swiss Alps or Piccadilly Circus in London. My
> generation also thought we had a good thing going
> with foreign problems with our foreign aid programs
> and such, especially after the Berlin Wall was torn
> down, and the cold war ended. Mine was the first
> generation to visit China and Russia. Nobody has a
> lock on safety and freedom, 911 proved that. With
> each generation one thing gets settled, then another
> yo-yo decides he's going to become the King of
> the World!!! I'm pretty well versed in Italian,
> Polish, Irish, Scottish, English, Mexican, and Greek
> cultures due to a very large extended family. So
> don't preach to me about the need for education in
> various cultures.
Yes, you have every right to your own preferences and prejudices, however a celebration of all the best movies in the world necessarily has to include movies made in and by people of many other countries, including Britain, Mexico, Japan, Germany, etc.
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Thanks for the link. Do you have a preference for Crawford films of her early career, or late in her career? Or you just like all of them?
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Well it doesn't surprise me that you still haven't realized that put-downs on bulletin boards are oftentimes meant to be taken about as seriously as a popcorn movie. But then, why should I be surprised if only the most literal interpretation of something comes to your mind?
Now I certainly don't think it's a crime to have an opinion about a movie, and also it is not a crime to have an opinion about your opinion!
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Well, as I said before, it's one thing to want to win an Oscar when you've never won any after several decades of fine performances... On the other hand, wanting a competitive Oscar after winning an honorary Oscar might strike some as maybe a bit much. I've mixed feelings about it, but I certainly think if I were an actor, an honorary Oscar might in some way be more cherished, since there's far fewer of them ever being awarded.
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> How can anyone watch an awards ceremony, be it Oscar,
> Emmy, Grammy or the like, and not know what to
> expect? I don't think that watching television
> qualifies as a task, do you?
Actually, under certain circumstances it is a task.
> Except for news coverage, the medium is designed to
> entertain and shouldn't have to be worked at.
The medium is designed to communicate. It can also be used for educational purposes, although in America this may be virtually unheard of!
I, quite frankly, couldn't care less about what you do
> with your time. After all, it is yours to do with as
> you please.
Yet that's not what you said in your earlier post... is it?
I'm just amazed sometimes, at how some
> people choose to spend theirs. The biggest difference
> between you and me, in my opinion, as far as these
> message boards go, is that the majority of my
> postings are in the form of questions, hoping to
> learn something from people who know far more about
Actually, the two more recent examples I can think of were just to knock things you don't particularly like.
> You, on the other hand, seem
> all too eager to try and impress others with just how
> much you know and to bless us with your almost
> limitless opinions on an almost limitless number of
> subjects.
I certainly don't find my own film knowledge to be impressive at all. There's a lot of other folks who've had decades more than me to soak up on their film knowledge.
Take a cue from lzcutter and
> FredCDobbs and wait for someone to ask for
> your opinion rather than just foisting it on us.
Did someone really ask you for your opinion of the Oscars? No, you just volunteered it.
> There's no denying that you're a knowledgeable person
> when it comes to movies, but there can be "too much
> of a good thing." Capiche?
Nope, there's never too much of a good thing when it comes to classic movies. And it has very little to do with one being knowledgeable or not.
> p.s. I've always ascribed to the old Chinese adage
> "Better to sit in silence and be thought the fool,
> than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." I
> think it's served me well.
How odd that you didn't observe the adage when it came to your opinions on the Oscars and about film criticism in general.
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I can't imagine what it was nominated for
Best Writing, Motion Picture Story
Joe Connelly
Bob Mosher
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Tivo'ing for later viewing...
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Once again, you're wrong. I've said that to me personally there's no such thing as a bad classic film. But "bad" isn't an objective quality that can be quantitatively measured. Most casual film goers will generally base their opinion of "good" or "bad" largely on their own enjoyment level, rather than a purely artistic appraisal. It's very hard to be able to acurately pinpoint the artistic achievements or failures of any particular movie in a way that's truly detached from a personal reaction to the film. So it's not like I'd expect you to be able to do it!
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Well, but of course! Don't tell us -- nowhere near as good as Kubrick's Clockwork Orange, right?
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Well at least I'm glad we appear to share our appreciation for the wonderful Marx Bros.
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On the contrary, btr, I am not in any way, shape or form threatened in the least bit, I'm just expressing an opinion, why should you (or anybody else for that matter) be so thin-skinned simply for someone expressing an opinion? And you're wrong, I don't mind at all when someone says they didn't enjoy a particular movie.... there's a lot of reason why someone might not enjoy a particular movie. And whether or not a movie is "great" is a matter of opinion.
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I don't agree with that, I think it could be argued that in this day and age, what people will or will not enjoy could be based on any number of factors, and that a lot more people are getting information from the Internet, at any rate...
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Ah now you're trying to pull a fast one on me!!! There is no 11th commandment!!
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Based on your high opinion of him, I'll definitely look for those soundtracks at the local library...
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Otter, that is exactly my point... if thousands of people over many decades have generally thought highly of a certain movie... and then 16, 17 people on the TCM boards say they didn't enjoy it that much... then you're still talking about something like 0.000012% of all those who have seen it.
When it comes to classic movies, there's maybe 200 or 250 of the more highly regarded, for lack of a better word, that I guess most or all film buffs would like to watch at least once... and that's most of the movies that have been mentioned here, the ones which already have a great reputation 60, 70 years after their original release... so just because a dozen or so TCM viewers didn't like them all that much doesn't mean they're not worth watching -- or at least considering watching.
I don't think anybody comes here and says -- "Party Line is totally overrated!"
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No, I don't think it's even possible to delete threads with this kind of bulletin board, someone else already asked that question.
And please don't say I should "lighten up" regarding the appreciation of classic movies. A lot of the problems that we've run into with film preservation has been the total disregard that many people had over decades and all of the priceless negatives that have been lost due to fires, neglect, etc. They weren't taken care of because some people thought they weren't all that important.
Film preservation goes hand in hand with a thoughtful approach to appreciating classic movies, again not because everyone should be expected to like every one of them, but because we should be grateful for the movies that have survived, and very sorry that so many of them -- most of the work from the silent era and possibly as much as 50% of all pre-1950 movies -- have already been lost forever.
I hope you'll agree with me at least that we should hope everyone gives the classics an even break.
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Welcome grantgirl and everyone else who's joined recently.... as you can imagine this is kind of a busy month, with so many great classic Oscar winners and nominees shown over the "31 Days of Oscar".
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The greatest living American director? Without a doubt.
Glad also that TCM showed most of his early shorts last year -- I very much also enjoyed The Big Shave, It's Just Not You, Murray and What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
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But how can we really ever know any influence that it might not or not have? There may be some people who've looked at it and have been discouraged from watching one of cinema's great classics, simply because it might have been mentioned here? How do we know that couldn't happen? That's it -- we don't really know, one way or another.
In all honesty, if a friend or acquaintance of mine came to me and told me they hadn't enjoyed a certain classic movie, well, I'd be respectful of their opinion but I'd sure encourage them to perhaps try it again some other time, especially if it's one of the more highly-regarded classics... and of course that person could totally ignore me and everyone else who encouraged them... In the end, if we don't promote watching classic movies, who else will? Word of mouth is probably still the most influential factor there is....
And the Oscar goes to.....
in General Discussions
Posted
> Great to be patriotic and loyal, but I would hope not
> "blindly," and you'd have to be blind to claim that
> the American movies you're seeing are as good as the
> foreign?
Ditto.