Why do so many people act like old movies are the best?

The last word of your question answers your question.

I completely 100% agree. I prefer modern movies.

However, when you’re 80, you will probably think the movies of right now are better than the movies that are going to be out later.

I’ve never understood the fascination either

A great percentage of modern movies are focused on blood/gore/violence/sex/nudity. They substitute character development and relationships with “WOW” moments. Many people prefer a good story – even if the acting or direction is forced or cheesy – to watching 2 hours of shallow characters and special effects. Many other people prefer the latter. To each his own.

I do love me some Gone With the Wind, but I also do not understand the old black and white movies. I’m an 80’s kid though, and I get nostalgic about Top Gun.

Some of them are better. But a lot of them have primitive acting and cinematography. Maybe it has to do with originality. It seems like recently movies just take bits and pieces from movies past. Not all, of course. But those original black and whites have given us so many memorable characters and stories that it seems as if anything created now, is just a conglomeration of what we already know of film. It’s just like love for The Beatles. In comparison, there are hundreds of comparable bands, but the Fab Four were the originals.

@jamielynn2328 : Lurve for GWTW! My fave.

Because the acting of yesteryear made some sense. I agree with MrItty. The movies of today have no depth. They’re either all special effects, cussing, sex, silly-assed “romantic comedies” that hold no meaning, or they’re beat ‘em up & kill ‘em.

When my husband & I were dating, we saw almost every movie that came out. They were worth watching. If we were dating today, I don’t think we’d ever go to the movies. What crap.

I do not judge movies based on how “old” they are. I judge movies on how good they are. They can be “old classics” such as “Gone with the wind” or “Casablanca” and I would still find them just as overrated as “The Dark Knight” or “Transformers”. There are many good “old” films and many good modern ones as well

…apart from Brief Encounter…

Because they had to sell a film with the story rather than how amazing the special effects are. Also, it’s a lot harder to enjoy something that you can’t relate to, which is why older people tend to enjoy films of their era and vice versa.

Personally I can enjoy a good old black and white (Casablanca, Citizen Kane) just as much as any decent ‘modern’ film. It just needs to tick a few boxes (story and cinematography being rated above all else).

Actually Moby Dick was just on TV (the digitally enhanced/coloured version) and I think that film has some of the best acting I’ve ever seen even if it is mainly coming from Gregory Peck.

Because new movies suck! Have you ever seen Seven Samurai? Sure there are some older movies that aren’t so good, but at least they aren’t all dick and fart jokes aimed at a 13 year old audience.

in regards to new movies having no story, this is true of many new movies but not all. Take district 9 for example it has tons of special effects and a good deal of violence, but it’s main focus is still telling an incredible story, one that couldn’t be told half as well without those special effects.

The reason why “old movies” seem better to many film buffs is that time has winnowed out the lousy ones, so only the good ones remain. A huge number of movies are made every year, and they run the gamut from wonderful to beyond bad. The bad ones, or more particularly, the just-okay films had short runs and have disappeared into the ether without a trace except for listings in film databases, while the good ones get remembered and revived.

I suspect that movies like White Chicks and Grind will disappear almost as if they never happened, while Million Dollar Baby and No Country for Old Men will be revived and remembered, just as All Quiet on the Western Front, An American in Paris, All About Eve, and, yes, Gone with the Wind are still being watched, purchased and enjoyed.

As time passes the forgettable movies of today will be forgotten, and in the future someone else will ask why some people think the movies of today are better than the movies of tomorrow, without realizing that the movies of the past are just a small subset of all the past films.

For me it is just a matter of how society was back then. You weren’t watching scantily clad women detectives solving gruesome and heinous murders (in every graphic detail as it is today).. you had Jimmy Stewart learning that he had a wonderful life, etc. With limited effects, the stories had to be more engaging.. the plots more interesting.. That’s just my humble opinion.

Of course that doesn’t mean I think new movies are crap. The wonders they are able to do now with special effects etc is amazing.. Personally I enjoy both older and newer movies.. both for different reasons.

I couldn’t have said it better @NaturalMineralWater. Todays movies seem to focus on shock value more than on deep emotional or societal content….

Transformers and GI Joe finally made me realize how crappy modern movies are.

The majority of all movies are mediocre at best-no matter what era. I agree with @sebastian_von_tulu that the story telling is more entertaining to me than the computerized special effects. Movies are becoming more about animation than about acting. The day is coming when acting will become just voice overs. Check out the either the 1938 or 1951 versions of The Christmas Carol vs the new Disney 3-D gag fest. Which one has the emphasis on the story which is the reason for the movie and which one emphasizes the the special effects that are so overpowering they detract from the story. Why make an expensive new version, just to show off your 3D technology?

Some of the older movies go beyond storytelling and get into looking at values and allow us to think about change and compare our standards over time.

A good example is “A Letter to Three Wives” Made in 1949, it addresses the very common modern problem about making relationships work. (also the most common topic on Fluther) Okay their clothes are old fashioned but the problems of trust, self esteem and putting personal issues above the relationship are very current.

I personal favorite is the Newman/Woodward version of “The Long Hot Summer”. First of all it is multi dimensional with themes about father/son issues, carrying baggage and dealing with it in positive vs negative ways, making choices instead of waiting for life to choose for you. This particular version is great because the way it treats sex. I have always preferred sexual tension to peeping through the window sex.

The local movie house had a Barbara Stanwyck retrospective and I got to see some of her 30’s work which was pre-code and brilliant.

Even the 1960’s epics like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago use the special effects to enhance the story rather than obscure it.

Many of today’s movies focus on shock value because those who are producing them are looking for a quick buck, not immortality. However, there are movies even today that portray deep emotional and societal content. What about Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)? The Reader (2008)? Michael Clayton (2007)? Tsotsi (2005)? And there are many more.

Just as the old Saturday morning serials are all but forgotten, Transformers and its ilk will be forgotten, too.

@Darwin Out of Africa (although it was a little slow…)

@Val123 – Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005). Criminal (2004). Donnie Darko (2002). Big Fish (2003). and many, many more.

@Darwin I’m movieley challenged! Haven’t seen any of those! Schindler’s List

Gran Torino

@Val123 – I love movies. Watching them, making them, acting in them, writing about them, the whole nine yards. In This World (2003). Hotel Ruanda (2005). Igby Goes Down (2002). Y Tu Mama Tambien (2002). The Color of Paradise (2000). The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005). Talk to Her (2002).

@Darwin I am humbled!! You go for some serious movies! Do Apollo 13 and Seabiscuit qualify for your list?

@Val123 – Yes.

@Darwin Whew! I don’t feel so ignorant now! :)

@Val123 – Just because a movie does well at the box office, it doesn’t mean it can’t possibly be any good. However, a lot of very good movies don’t get the attention they should simply because the producers don’t have the money for a media blitz. That is why the rise of the DVD has been so wonderful. It lets us see just about any movie we want at any time, whether it ever made it into our local theater or not.

Sampson and Delilah has won a few prizes and is a gut wrenching movie to watch. Especially if you are living in the midst of it and know that it is true and happening all around you. Very little dialogue but it speaks a million words. No special effects, nothing fancy, just story and acting.

So I think they still make some good ones, but they seem to be few and far between. @MrItty says it all and @Darwin makes an excellent point in that only the good ones endure.

I prefer the comedy movies from the sixties, seventies, and eighties. Like Kentucky Fried Movie, Airplane, and Naked Gun.

Try His Girl Friday, Holiday and Bringing Up Baby (hint: not a hyper-precocious kid in sight)

@sweetteaindahouse There will never be anything like SNL in the 70’s!

Have you watched The Ladykillers (Alec Guinness) or 12 Angry Men or The Dam Busters (Michael Redgrave) or…. Old films have a charm all their own. It’s not an either/or situation.

It’s the same deal with “classic” books. Honestly, I read what I’m given in school, but I think people see certain “classical” books as classics because they were great back then, and the stigma just stuck with it.

@ipodrulz I DO have to ROFL at that!! Excellent point. I must make it a point to go back through all of the books that I was told were “Classics” in HS, and see if I still agree today! I can tell you though, that I would still consider “To Kill a Mocking Bird” and “The Grapes of Wrath” classics, because I’ve read them as an adult, since they were assigned in HS…...)

i am a big fan of the older movies and newer ones as well, i find that in the old movies that had to find different ways to show things unlike now when they use cg (which i think too much cheapens a movie) like in the old hitchcock movies he had to really scare you psychologically not the in your face gore… in general i believe a return to character and story driven movies is on the rise , which is what it was then. Its not the appearance of these movies but the feel of them.

Ok, there are many good movies still being made, but the effort isn’t there anymore. In John Ford’s movies, every shot mention something: every shot was a work of art, meticulously constructed. David Lynch is the only current director who comes to mind that attempts to do this, and his movies are beautiful. A movie is a work of art, and should be treated as such. Anyone who sacrifices story, cinimatography, or acting in the name of making a quick buck is a hack.

Every decade has great movies, and awful ones. The stench from the awful ones (I’m looking at YOU, Michael Bay) finally drifts away, and you only remember the great ones. I can count the great movies of the last 10 years on 2 hands, but the 70’s had tons, and 1939 to 1946 had more than there have been since.
Black and White is better than color.
Silent is better than sound.
Anything is better than Transformers.

@filmfann I never saw Transformers, but it is hard to believe anything is worse than Crybaby.

Try Disney’s Christmas Carol in 3D.

@Capt_Bloth but it is hard to believe anything is worse than Crybaby

I for one loved cry baby, that movie was absurd and a lot of fun , and isnt that why we go to the movies is to have fun…..

@evil2 that is exactly why we go, I’m glad you like the movie. I was hoping for an absurd flick, but was seriously dissatisfied. It did help me to understand why Johnny Depp didn’t think he was good enough to play Edward Scissorhands.

Probably nostalgia. Granted, I hate it when people act like as if anything out of their own generation is crap.