I watched Ken Russell’s Tommy the other night. (Came across it while looking for State Fair for the musicals group and figured what the hell.)
Dear God, what a pretentious piece of claptrap, what an unmitigated mess it was! I saw it in the theater when it came out, and thought it was bad (only “bad”? well, it was the '70s, there might have been chemicals involved), but damn, it is close to unwatchable.
Clapton was stoned out of his mind – Tina Turner was profoundly scary – Ann-Margret was actually pretty good, considering – but the whole montage once Roger Daltry breaks through the mirror, boy – ai yi yi.
I can’t believe I watched the whole thing.
So – other examples of movies, books, music, whatever, that were bad to begin with and have only gotten worse now that the original cultural context is gone?
Most any gameshow. The Gameshow Channel is an ongoing lesson in all that TV has done wrong. The only possible exception to this might be Groucho’s You Bet Your Life.
Arnold’s and Sly’s 80’s Action Movies. I remember really enjoying many of these at the time of their release, like Commando for example, but they’re nearly unwatchable for me now. I guess the fact that I’m not a carefree 20-something anymore might be a contributing factor, though. Dark Shadows. I tried watching this in repeat a couple years ago. It wasn’t just bad. It was OMFG bad. How did this show last for as long as it did? Why did I hurry home from school to see it?
Tommy was awful, but not so much for Russel’s direction (I enjoy his movies in a perverse way), but because Townshend ruined the music by going way too heavy with the synthesizers. One correction: Eric Clapton was not stoned during th emovie. He had just cleaned up after spending the previous 3 years hooked on heroin and Townshend got him the job as a favor.
Fun fact–Ann Margaret was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress for her role! :eek:
I find most TV shows form the 60s to be painful to watch now. Get Smart, for exampole, depended a lot on contemporary cultural references for its humor, so watching Maxwell Smart defeat The Groovy Guru really doesn’t have the humor it did back in 1967.
The Prisoner. I wanted with all my heart and soul to like that. But I couldn’t do it. Not when it was first shown on American TV, and not when I rented (thankfully not bought) the DVDs a few years back.
Cleaned up, maybe, but he sure as hell doesn’t look like all the drugs have left his system!
I’m not knocking Ken Russell – I actually enjoy his movies, some of which hold up fairly well (I watch The Boy Friend at least once a year) – but the collaboration between him (he?) and Townshend was Not A Good Thing.
I disagree. I think the Groovy Guru has even more humor now, for the same reason you think he doesn’t. I think it’s a hoot seeing artefacts of the sixties and seventies in TV shows and movies of the era.
Fame - I rented that awhile back, because I realized I had never seen it all the way through. What a hackneyed piece of garbage that was. And now the outdated musical stylings and costumes just make it worse.
And there are too many t.v. shows to mention. Just a few:
An old Cary Grant movie called “Every Girl Should be Married” may have been ok in its time (1948) but watching it now will make your brain try to escape out your ears.
