The next generation of movie goers don't care about classic movies
Jul. 17, 2012
There is a brilliant new article by Neal Gabler over at the LA Times regarding how the majority of the Millennial Generation (people born in the late 1980s through the 1990s) doesn't care about old movies. Now, I am not talking about silent cinema here, I mean Scorcese and Coppola and even Raimi. If a movie was not made within the last five years, it is not worth watching.
I am 31 years old and I have loved movies since I was a little kid. I took film classes in high school and college. I never had aspirations to be an actor but I did love to write and to discuss movies. I have every ticket stub from every movie I have seen since 1996. At one point, my Netflix history showed that I had watched over 3.000 different movies. I love everything that cinema has to offer. That includes old movies. I don't know where my film perspective would be if I had never discovered Alfred Hitchcock or Orson Welles or even Roger Corman.
Some people complain that they don't like old movies because they are boring. I would then ask what "old movies" did they see? Generally they cannot name a specific movie at all. Then there are those that say they will not watch anything in black and white? My wanted response is to shake them as hard as I can until they come to their senses. You cannot judge hundreds of movies because of the lack of color on the celluloid.
My all time favorite movie is Hitchcock's NOTORIOUS. Ask the average person to name a Hitchcock film and I doubt any of them would name this masterpiece. If I refused to watch black and white movies, I never would have seen one of the best every made. Sure, you could argue that there are countless movies made today that are worth 120 minutes of your time, but there are movies made before you were born that are just as worthy.
Cinema does not have the same level of reverence that literature does. No matter how popular a current bestseller becomes, we will always look back to Shakespeare, Dunne, Shelley, O. Henry, Austen, and every other classic author from our past. But when it comes to movies, which are just over a hundred years old, each succesive generation seems to forget about the movies that came before.
Gabler's article says "One has to acknowledge that part of this cinematic ageism is the natural cycle of culture. Every generation not only has its own movies, it has its own aesthetics, and the contemporary aesthetic might be labeled "bigger, faster, louder" because our blockbuster movies are all about sensory overload — quickening the audience's pulse. It is the same force that drives video games. Still, the difference between the attitude of boomers and that of the millennials is that boomer audiences didn't necessarily believe their aesthetics were an advance over those that had preceded them."
Frank Darabont would not exist without Frank Capra. Steven Spielberg would not exist without John Huston. Hell, superhero movies as a whole would not exist if we never had Richard Donner's SUPERMAN and his film owes just as much to the black and white superhero movies that came before him.
Remakes have proliferated in the last twenty years because of this Millennial phenomenon. A studio can easily remake a classic film with a young, hip cast without needing much extra work. They could literally shoot the movie scene for scene, like Gus Van Sant's PSYCHO experiment, just to capitalize on the generation who don't watch black and white movies.
The point is this: Hollywood feeds off of what the movie watching audience wants. As long as those paying to see a reboot of SPIDER-MAN pony up the dough, it will happen again. I fully expect a new Batman movie to hit theaters within the next five years and those teenagers will barely remember BATMAN BEGINS.
We cannot forget about the movies that helped create the cinema we know today. I urge every single person out there to watch as many of the American Film Institute Top 100 movies before they begin to criticize today's films. The old adage that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it works for movies as well. The next time you flip through one hundred channels and say there is nothing on, I beg you to turn on Turner Classic Movies and watch at least one whole movie. I am pretty sure you will discover an entire world of stories you didn't even know existed.
What do you Schmoes think of this phenomenon? Do you love old movies as much as new ones?
| Source: | LA Times |
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Back in 2000 people (on the internet of course) complained about the teenagers that watched movies and now those teenagers are twentysomething it's their turn to complain about the current
Back in 2000 people (on the internet of course) complained about the teenagers that watched movies and now those teenagers are twentysomething it's their turn to complain about the current teenagers and in ten years they will all claim to love old movies and bash the future teenagers and on and on.
You must ask yourself: is it necessary to watch Citizen Kane to enjoy other movies? Is there a void in your life if you don't like The Godfather? Why do 'moviefans' feel it's an obligation to like/watch certain movies? Will I appreciate the twelve Friday the 13th movies more if I finally see Psycho? Let me just watch movies I want to watch, I don't need other people to tell me what I MUST see and how much I suck for not liking a movie.
Such a shame.
I'm 23 and my favorite film of all time is The Maltese Falcon
On the other hand without revival houses there is no place to see classics with a good audience which can add so much to a film.
Fathom has started running one night only classic films at multiplexes, Singing In The Rain played to a fairly large crowd near me and they have The Birds, Frankentstein/Bride of double feature, To Kill A
On the other hand without revival houses there is no place to see classics with a good audience which can add so much to a film.
Fathom has started running one night only classic films at multiplexes, Singing In The Rain played to a fairly large crowd near me and they have The Birds, Frankentstein/Bride of double feature, To Kill A Mockingbird all coming up.
And let's not forget the Stooges, still appreciated in B&W by a huge fan base.
Born in '86
Classics are my favorite!
Everyone should watch 'M'
For the record I still haven't gone to see the new Spiderman reboot because I
For the record I still haven't gone to see the new Spiderman reboot because I don't fucking care.
Unlike older generations, this millenial generation has access to more media at an earlier age than us older kids. You're trying to tell me that they're not gonna come across something that leads them to older movies and TV shows? I was teaching a class with some teenagers and managed to segue into a discussion where we brought up the plot to Adventures in Babysitting, and then one of the students immediately brought up how that sounding exactly like the plot of the The Sitter. At which point I bestowed upon her the biggest truth she will ever know: That Hollywood copies everything from something old.
But at the end of the day moviegoers are profoundly different than film fans. There will always be moviegoers who don't know and/or don't care about the history and prestige of filmmaking, and they'll be fine with that. So long as they're not the ones greenlighting films in Hollywood, that's fine. The film lovers will always be there to pour over Cinematographer, Film Forum, Empire and other film magazines, discussing classic films with friends and geeking out on online film forums. A couple of days ago I was walking around in New York, and passed by this group of teenage boys, had to be about 13-14 years old discussing Scorcese and filmmaking.
There's still hope.
In other news, old man yells at cloud
Somehow I doubt The Philadelphia Story or Casablanca are going away anytime soon.
Somehow I doubt The Philadelphia Story or Casablanca are going away anytime soon.
Born in 82, not crazy about being attached to this
If you call yourself a film lover, then there should be no limit to which films you restrict yourself from. Where would our LOTR's be, if Peter Jackson didn't fall in love with King Kong ? Or where would our Dark Knight be if Christopher Nolan didn't get his inspiration from A Tale of Two Cities? Or Scorsese's inspiration The Expedition (which is what he based Taxi Driver on btw).
If you call yourself a film lover, then there should be no limit to which films you restrict yourself from. Where would our LOTR's be, if Peter Jackson didn't fall in love with King Kong ? Or where would our Dark Knight be if Christopher Nolan didn't get his inspiration from A Tale of Two Cities? Or Scorsese's inspiration The Expedition (which is what he based Taxi Driver on btw). The point is, the films of today that this generation to which this article refers too, all come from the classic films that inspired film makers to create this goodness we all get to view. If you deem yourself a film enthusiast there should be no ignorance in your film library.
By the way, if you haven't seen all the films listed.... get it done!
people are sheep...
Not me, but I know others where this is true
Not me, but I know others where this is true
Like for tv, I still find re-runs of Cheers funny but younger people just see it as a boring old show.
For music, most younger people don't listen to any artist pre-Nirvana, unless they're a huge artist like Johnny Cash, the Beatles, etc.
For books, if the person actually reads books, they're mostly those made popular by tv, movies, or hype (Hunger Games,
Like for tv, I still find re-runs of Cheers funny but younger people just see it as a boring old show.
For music, most younger people don't listen to any artist pre-Nirvana, unless they're a huge artist like Johnny Cash, the Beatles, etc.
For books, if the person actually reads books, they're mostly those made popular by tv, movies, or hype (Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, Fifty Shades of Grey, etc).
I don't know why this trend occurs, but it does and not just for movies. I feel if people actually gave older movies a chance (i.e. not on the phone/online during the movie), they might like some of them.
He's extremely knowledgeable on film otherwise, but he just doesn't have a drive to see anything from before his time. It baffles me.
Hi, I'm 23. My 5 favorite films are:
2. The Great Escape
3. Evil Dead 2
4. Back to the Future (They all count as one)
5. Ghostbusters
If you extend that to 10, you'll hit 'In Bruges' which is the most recent and is already 4 years old.
2. The Great Escape
3. Evil Dead 2
4. Back to the Future (They all count as one)
5. Ghostbusters
If you extend that to 10, you'll hit 'In Bruges' which is the most recent and is already 4 years old.
I'm an '88 kid
BUT Is this new? In the 80s I bet people were saying nobody cares about movies from the 50s! In the 50s, nobody cares about movies from the 20s!
There will ALWAYS be people who do and don't care. I don't know if today is any different from any other point in
BUT Is this new? In the 80s I bet people were saying nobody cares about movies from the 50s! In the 50s, nobody cares about movies from the 20s!
There will ALWAYS be people who do and don't care. I don't know if today is any different from any other point in history.
Sadly true article
Clearly JoBlo readers are among the exception to the article.
I was born in '87 and I have my parents to thank for my love of classics. When I was in elementary school, my parents made a point of going to the video store in town at least
Clearly JoBlo readers are among the exception to the article.
I was born in '87 and I have my parents to thank for my love of classics. When I was in elementary school, my parents made a point of going to the video store in town at least once a week and we would get a couple movies, and one of which had to be from AFI's Top 100 Movies list.
I'm a Media Teacher
However I can't drive and know sod all about cars. I couldn't tell you a different make of car from another, I don't know what cars are popular now, I certainly don't know what cars are considered "classics" other than a car that just looks older than newer cars. There are a large
However I can't drive and know sod all about cars. I couldn't tell you a different make of car from another, I don't know what cars are popular now, I certainly don't know what cars are considered "classics" other than a car that just looks older than newer cars. There are a large population that feel the same about movies, it's just a thing. There are people that feel the same about books, video games, paintings, decor, clothing, music, etc, etc.
People just have patience and interest in different things, just be glad that movies have as much of an audience as they do generally. Because that audience translates into money, time and effort creating the things that we movies lovers...love. We could all be fans of some really really really specific niche market that gets no love at all.
I also love the old tough guys. Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, guys who understood that being tough wasn't about
I also love the old tough guys. Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, guys who understood that being tough wasn't about posing, but just being. Watching Marvin's Walker in "Point Blank" gave me chills.
People who refuse to indulge in anything just a few years past is just either just a kid or just a consumer. They don't look at movies probably as anything more than a chance to turn the brain off for a couple of hours. Which is fine. Me, I'm not one to geek out at certain movies and insist on being there opening day, but I do take my movie fandom very seriously when it comes to what I will watch, re-watch, or purchase. Two of my three favorite movies are "The WIld Bunch" and "Chinatown." All that means is there's an even chance the person I'm talking to has never seen them.
I watch old movies.
I'm a teenager and most of my peers don't know much about good movies. If I ask someone what their favorite movie is, I always get NAPOLEON DYNAMITE or MEAN GIRLS. I like those films, but there's so much great and powerful
I'm a teenager and most of my peers don't know much about good movies. If I ask someone what their favorite movie is, I always get NAPOLEON DYNAMITE or MEAN GIRLS. I like those films, but there's so much great and powerful storytelling out there. I try to show my little brother (he's 11) some of my favorite 80's films and his favorite movies now are the first two TERMINATOR flicks and the BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogy, and that makes me proud (and as he gets older, I'll show him more mature and deep films). I know a lot of adults, aged 50+, that have seen and love plenty of movies, but there definitely is a disconnect in younger generations, including the ones above and below me, and that's a shame. I remember once I was talking about the FOOTLOOSE remake to someone, who a) didn't even know it was a remake, and b) didn't know who Kevin Bacon is. The fuck is that all about?
I love old movies
I love old movies
I wholeheartedly agree
I feel that every day when I try to have a conversation with someone my age about classic movies, that it always reverts to the lord of the rings trilogy or even the spiderman trilogy
These films today would be nothing without the likes of kubrick and even people like Robert Zemeckis
I just wish that film fans in the present would take an interest in the history of film
I feel that every day when I try to have a conversation with someone my age about classic movies, that it always reverts to the lord of the rings trilogy or even the spiderman trilogy
These films today would be nothing without the likes of kubrick and even people like Robert Zemeckis
I just wish that film fans in the present would take an interest in the history of film
And for the record, Notorious is definitely my favorite Hitchcock film.
And for the record, Notorious is definitely my favorite Hitchcock film.
sad indeed...
THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS ...
agreed
There's a Difference