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What was the best decade for movies? for TV?
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What was the best decade for movies? for TV? |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Reading Slate the other day and a few critics were making the claim that movies were better in the 70's than the 90's. I'm watching the Godfather right now and am inclined to agree with them.  What do you think? On the other hand, I think you can make a case that television series have gotten a lot better than the 70's. |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration |
say... 1910's...? Kill Your Television, Read a Book. C |
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wayoutwalt Member Elite
since 1999-06-22
Posts 4870TEXAS (it's all big) |
1939 was the best year in movies for sure |
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Poet deVine
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612Hurricane Alley |
I don't think you can compare. Each decade, each year, has good movies/TV shows and bad. And YOUR taste differs from mine... I may love 'Shawshank Redemption' and 'The Green Mile' but you may hate them. I may love 'CSI' and 'The Guardian' and you may hate them. It's like trying to decide who makes the best french fries. |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Why the 1910's? Chris, you're actually telling me to read a book? Why 1939? Sharon, Just because there will be a large divergence of opinion doesn't mean we can't talk about it. There are such things as trends. I always thought Carl's Jr. had the best fries (as far as the chains are concerned). But of course I haven't eaten at CJ in six years so things may have changed. We don't have a franchise here. Brad |
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hush Senior Member
since 2001-05-27
Posts 1653Ohio, USA |
Carl's JR. is a fast food chain? Huh, good timing, I was just reading a book that referenced it and had no idea whatsoever what the narrator was talking about. Thanks Brad. As far as movies go, I have no real preference... there's just some stuff I like and some I don't. Most TV nowadays is tastless, humorless, and all in all, very boring, outside of Jeopardy, Malcom in the Middle, and a few animated sitcoms. Watching TVland... I realized most TV, period, has been. There will always be a few shows that stand out above the rest, and some the fall below... but the malaise of mass entertainment can mostly only be blamed on the public... we eat it up, so why shouldn't they keep dishing it out? "Love is a piano |
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Poet deVine
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612Hurricane Alley |
I think movies today are more honest. We look at our past without those rose colored glasses! |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration |
quote: http://www.inventorsmuseum.com/television.htm it wasn't invented yet Brad, that's why! seriously though - i can't say which decade was teh best, though i do miss the old musicals... i will say that this one's not starting out too well by the movies i've seen in the theaters... how in the world can they compare Moulin Rouge and A Beautiful Mind???  |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Chris, Yeah, but film was around. Sharon, I'm trying to think of a film in the last ten years or so that fits your description. Can you give me an example? Thanks. |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration |
Brad - Sleepers. Brutal. Honest. |
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jenni Member
since 1999-09-11
Posts 478Washington D.C. |
tough one, brad, at least as fas as movies go. tv is easy -- the 1990s to present i think is far away the best era for television shows so far. seinfeld (best comedy series ever, if you ask me), frasier, friends (until recently), the sopranos, sex & the city, ER, law & order, homicide, my so called life, mad about you -- just to name ten off the top of my head -- these were/are quite well written, head and shoulders above a lot of the leading shows from earlier times, in my opinion. there are of course notable exceptions -- the old dick van dyke show, the first bob newhart show, mary tyler moore and cheers come to mind (funny, i can't think of any tv drama that really holds up very well) -- but a good show here and there does not a good decade make, lol. as far as movies go, i think it's a toss up; i don't think any decade has an edge, really, in terms of story, directing or acting. there are good and bad flicks and good and bad performances in every era. sure, "the godfather" is an awesome movie. but what about 1977's "smoky and the bandit"? i absolutely love movies from the 1930s and 1940s, but man, is the acting cheesy and "old fashioned" sometimes, and the sets look like...well, sets. one area where current movies (1990-present) have a huge advantage is in special effects, cinematography and sound; the whole look and feel of movies these days is so much better than ever before. maybe story quality and acting/directing isn't quite as good now as in some previous eras, perhaps because of overreliance on a lot of filmmakers on special effects (compare 1958's brilliant and moving "a night to remember" with the drippy kate & leo story of "titanic"), but i think there's alot to be said for actually seeing, say, those dinosaurs of jurassic park, or keanu reeves' bullet-dodging moves in "the matrix". anyway, good topic. my pick for best picture this year is moulin rouge...but will the academy listen to me? haha jenni [This message has been edited by jenni (02-20-2002 02:26 AM).] |
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Poet deVine
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612Hurricane Alley |
Saving Private Ryan. |
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PhaerieChild Senior Member
since 1999-08-30
Posts 1787Aloha, Oregon |
Decades seem so long though I did like the shows in the late sixties and early seventies. M*A*S*H will always be my all time favorite for TV. I also liked Cagney and Lacey and The Rockford Files in the later part of the seventies and early eighties. Movies were okay but I have never really been to many of them and those I did see were ones like Heavy Metal, The Wall, Rocky Horror, etc. More recently I like Sex in the City and The Sopranos and OZ. Never really got into the chick flicks. I did like Bed of Roses and hated Chocolat. Really like most of the Pixar stuff like Monsters Inc. cuz the graphics are great! Patience is the ability to idle your motor, when you feel like stripping your gears. Author Unknown |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
I've been trying to pin down what it is and I can't. Perhaps, it's just my own nostalgia or perhaps the very limitations of technology forced the movie makers to be more subtle. I don't think "Saving Private Ryan" or "Sleepers" are more honest. In fact, neither are particularly complex in their morality (You know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are). But with that said, we still have films like "The Red Violin" or "Memento" which are morally ambiguous. And if you take this track, you're stuck with 'Star Wars'. I suppose the only thing, maybe, would be there's a certain moment in more 70's films where you don't know where they're going, a certain feeling of development that you really don't get in 90's films. Compare 'The Deer Hunter' with 'Saving Private Ryan' or 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (1969) with the last few "Lethal Weapon" films or "Zorro". Now I like every movie I've mentioned here, and we shouldn't discount the increased spectacle of 90's films (it is a visual art form after all) and my wife adamantly disagrees with me here (she finds the older films plodding and meandering), but I still think a certain experience in film has been deemphasized and replaced by spectacle. And what's wrong with "Smokey and the Bandit"? |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Do we hear stuff like this anymore: from greatestfilms.org: There are loud slammings of window covers, latches, and doors. He notices how secure it is and how things have changed - asking the uniformed guard: Butch: What happened to the old bank? It was beautiful. Guard: People kept robbing it. Butch: That's a small price to pay for beauty. Butch's partner is introduced in a similar, sepia-toned sequence filmed in close-up. During a blackjack card game in Macon's Saloon - a typically cliched Western scene, Butch's partner, a dead-panning, silent, dim-witted, mustached, dark-hatted cardsharp 'The Sundance Kid' [(Robert Redford) not identified by name until later] deals cards to other players at a gaming table. One opponent named Tom folds his hands and asks for credit from the saloon owner/gunman Mr. Macon (Donnelly Rhodes), but is denied. Off-camera, Macon confronts the mustached player: Macon: Well, it looks like you just about cleaned everybody, fella - you haven't lost a hand since you got the deal. What's the secret of your success? Sundance: (mono-syllabically) Prayer. Macon: Let's just you and me play. Sundance plays against his final, sole opponent - a professional gambler and gunman and the only one left at the table. When Macon busts, he accuses Sundance of cheating while the card player is raking in his winnings and stacking everything neatly in piles: "You're a helluva card player fella. I know, cause I'm a helluva card player. And I can't even spot how you're cheatin'." Although Sundance attempts to ignore the insulting accusation, other players back off. Macon stands with his immense hand readied by his holstered gun: "The money stays - you go." Butch enters the saloon - he would rather rely on his brains than gunplay, and so he interrupts an impending shoot-out: Butch: We seem to be a little short on brotherly love around here. Macon: If you're with him, you'd better get yourselves out of here. Butch: (urging his partner) We're on our way. Come on. Sundance: (with his head slightly down) I wasn't cheating. Butch: (now more urgently as he drops down beside him) Come on! Sundance: (louder) I wasn't cheating. Macon: You can die. For that matter, you can both die. Butch: You hear that? Sundance: If he invites us to stay, then we'll go. Butch: We were gonna leave anyway. Sundance: He's gotta invite us to stick around. Butch: He'll draw on ya. He's ready. You don't know how fast he is. (He moves around behind his pal) I'm over the hill, but it can happen to you. Sundance: That's just what I want to hear. Butch: Every day you get older. Now that's a law! (Macon cocks his pistol.) (Butch rises and moves over to the gunman) What would you think about maybe asking us to stick around? Macon: What? Butch: You don't have to mean it or anything. Just ask us to stick around. I promise you...(Macon refuses to listen and gestures sharply for Butch to move away. Butch hesitates, turns toward his pal, and softly advises) I can't help you, Sundance. When the gunman realizes the identity of his opponent - that he is up against quick-draw "Sundance," a horrified, dismayed look crosses his face. As they stand facing each other, the gunman humbly apologizes to the fearsome killer with a deadly reputation, and then requests a display of Sundance's expertise as a gunman: Macon: I didn't know you were the Sundance Kid when I said you were cheatin'. If I draw on you, you'll kill me. Sundance: There's that possibility. Butch: No, you'd be killin' yourself. So why don't you just invite us to stick around? You can do it, and easy. Come on. (coaxing) Come on. Macon: (blurting out a subliminal apology) Why don't you stick around? Butch: Thanks but, hah, we gotta get goin'. (He scoops up the Kid's winnings into his hat.) Macon: (watching as Sundance strides out) Hey Kid! (louder) Hey Kid! How good are ya? (Sundance dives, whirls around, fans his gun and fires, demonstrating his lightning-fast draw. He detaches the gunman's gunbelt from his waist and sends his gun skittering and spiraling across the floor.) Butch: (to Sundance as they both leave) Like I've been tellin' ya, over the hill. |
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Ryan Member
since 1999-06-10
Posts 297Kansas |
"Bringing Out the Dead" is one of the more honest movies I've seen. But Scorcese did get his start directing in the 70's. And "The Way of the Gun," in it's own twisted, post-Tarentino way, could be seen as an honest movie. I think, at least for the main-stream, you're right, Brad, that something has been deemphasized in today's movies. We get more spectacle and less impact, maybe. For all of the spectacle in "2001: Space Odyssey," there was plenty of impact too. Walk out of, say Collateral Damage, and I doubt (though haven't seen the movie, so I can't say for sure) you get much lasting impact. Unless you count the THX sound blasting you everytime something blows up. Ryan I'm the ocean, I'm the giant undertow -- Neil Young [This message has been edited by Ryan (02-20-2002 11:44 PM).] |
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Ryan Member
since 1999-06-10
Posts 297Kansas |
Of course, on the other hand, all of the low quality movies of the 1970's have faded away by now, but we still remember all the bad ones from 3 years ago. Twenty years from now, the 70's and 90's might be judged as the same quality, and they'll both be seen as better than whatever is currently popular. Ryan I'm the ocean, I'm the giant undertow -- Neil Young |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
I can almost guarantee that someone twenty years from now will say that. |
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Interloper
since 2000-11-06
Posts 8369Deep in the heart |
Brad ~ 1939 spawned: Gone With the Wind Dark Victory Goodbye Mr. Chips Love Affair Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Ninotchka Of Mice and Men Stagecoach The Wizard of Oz Wuthering Heights Babes in Arms Beau Geste The Cat and the Canary Destry Rides Again Dodge City Drums Along the Mohawk The Four Feathers Golden Boy Gulliver's Travels Gunga Din Huckleberry Finn The Hunchback of Notre Dame In Name Only Intermezzo Jesse James Juarez The Little Princess Made for Each Other The Man in the Iron Mask The Oklahoma Kid The Old Maid On Your Toes Only Angels Have Wings The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex The Roaring Twenties Stanley and Livingston The Story of Alexander Graham Bell The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle The Three Musketeers Union Pacific The Women You Can't Cheat an Honest Man Young Mr. Lincoln ========================================= List from: http://members.aol.com/grbmd/year1939.htm ========================================= . [This message has been edited by Interloper (02-21-2002 12:52 PM).] |
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RosePetal
since 2001-08-26
Posts 2985South Florida |
Im not much of tv person..but the best movies were made in the 70's and 80's |
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wayoutwalt Member Elite
since 1999-06-22
Posts 4870TEXAS (it's all big) |
so you see why I say '39 for those big big movies that came from it |
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hush Senior Member
since 2001-05-27
Posts 1653Ohio, USA |
jenni- what about The Wonder Years for a TV drama that holds up well? That's always going to be one of my favorites... "Love is a piano |
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jenni Member
since 1999-09-11
Posts 478Washington D.C. |
hush-- yeah, it occured to me later 'the wonder years' is a show i should have mentioned. i don't know, it was only a half hour show though, right? i guess i was trying to think of one hour shows. but you're right, it was beautifully written (except for maybe the last season, but that's often the case), and, although i haven't seen it in years, i bet it would be every bit as good today. score one for the 80s, lol. jenni |
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