You know, the only black guys as shoeshine boys, yeah, that’s incidentally creepy to modern eyes, but all the sexism displayed in The Apartment was supposed to be creepy. That was the whole point of the movie. It was kinda groundbreaking.
That’s true enough, but one night about a year after the trial, I was channel surfing during the wee hours, and I came across a movie, I never found out the name, where the Juice was playing a 'roid raging athlete beating the crap out of his blonde girlfriend. That was distinctly creepy. Never figured OJ for a method actor.
I find The Apartment significant because it’s one of three movies (along with The Caine Mutiny and Double Indemnity) in which Fred MacMurray plays a real bastard. I first saw MacMurray during reruns of the innocuous “My Three Sons” (as well as those “Flubber” movies) and the fact that he could convincingly play such creeps was a real eye-opener.
The “yassuh!” stuff in old movies is a bit annoying, but putting that aside, there shouldn’t be an impression that old movies are necessarily good movies. We remember the good movies, because all the crappy ones were withdrawn, shelved and forgotten. For every Casablanca there were 50 formulaic B-westerns.
That said, I’ve always found Gone With the Wind too irritating to watch, just because of all the shrieking. I’ve never gotten through more than 5 minutes of it.
And of course, you should remember that movies you love today, which are really acceptable and correct, in twenty to thirty years may seem horribly offensive.
For an example, imagine that in thirty years there is a strong social taboo on keeping birds or fish in a house. Its considered completely disgusting. Every time people see an old movie where someone is giving their Macaw a snack, it will provoke cries, Ewww, gross. I cant believe people used to live like that! And A FISH CALLED WANDA will be only shown with parental advisories…
Chalk me up as another fan of The Apartment. I’ve seen the movie at least a dozen times and, for the most part, I think it holds up pretty well. sugaree’s point about the creepy sexism is dead-on and some of the movie’s points are still relevant today. Actually, I think most of Billy Wilder’s filmography has aged very well. Sunset Blvd seems so fresh it could have been released last year.
For the most part, I’m usually willing and able to over-look occasional dated elements if the movie is good enough. However, there’s one minor, niggling plot point that still drives me up the wall. In Orson Welles’ film-noir masterpiece A Touch of Evil,
the protagonist’s newlywed bride is taken out of danger to a secluded motel. Unbeknownst to our hero, the evil gang has followed her. The gang, all hopped up on gasp marijuana, proceed to terrorize and rape her (not seen, but implied) then blow smoke on her clothes to frame her as some sort of reefer junkie!!.
Arrrgh, :smack:.
This is a movie that features some masterful camerawork, including a mind-blowing 6 minute long tracking shot, beautiful cinematography and great acting but this little anachronism yanks me right out of the film as I roll my eyes heavenward. I swear, this movie’s attitude towards marijuana is right out of Reefer Madness.
That would never happen to our movies! Oh wait, didn’t they edit out guns in the latest release of ET? Hmmm…and when I was a kid Han Solo fired before Greedo could ever get off a shot. Uh oh! :eek:
Marc
I find all silent, black and white movies vaguely creepy for different reasons than what everyone’s posting here. Mostly I find them creepy because I know everyone appearing in them is now dead. It’s like watching ghosts. To this day, I still can’t watch Nosferatu with the lights off…
YES! That was weirding me out after seeing The Apartment too. I kept thinking “Everyone in this movie but Shirley MacLane is dead!” Brrrrrrrrrrrr. (Probably not true, but certainly likely!) BTW my favorite part of that movie was when Lemmon input a series of numbers into his “IBM Machine” and stared at it for several minutes while it ploddingly calculated the total. Are those the same units that now run the SDMB? [Nelson Muntz]Ha-ha![/Nelson Muntz]
::flees::
I’ve always used It’s a Wonderful Life as a negative example for people who think they’d like to live in a peaceful, small town in Upstate New York. Just watch the scene where Mr. Gower beats the crap out of a ten-year-old boy.
–The laugh tracks used for early TV situation comedies were recorded with studio audiences in the 50’s. When you watch old reruns does it bother you that most of the audience you’re laughing with has probably joined the choir eternal?
Well, Anita Page and Mary Brian are still alive, if you wanna go rent some of their films!
Yes. I agree. And, y’know, I also think that music today is far superior to that of the sixties. I mean, the 1910 Fruitgum Company and The Archies pale in comparison to contemporary artists such as Radiohead and Bjork.
All sarcasm aside, I appreciate good art from any time period. In fact, if I had to make an argument either way, I’d say that movies have improved with time; the artform is relatively new, so it is only natural that the actors and directors of today have a much greater feel for the medium that they’re working with and are more aware of the possibilities and limitations.
Jayne Mansfield was not decapitated. For more info, see:
http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/jayne.htm
Sexism and office politics were the point of The Apartment. It’s what brought Shirley MacLaine’s character to the brink of suicide.
Gjorp is correct about The Birth of a Nation. It wasn’t just racist by today’s standards, it was racist even by 1915 standards. However, it was also a milestone in the advancement of the feature film, and its rousing climax shows an assured directorial hand, even if it’s the Klu Klux Klan doing the rousing. You have to learn to separate your political feelings from your appreciation of the movie’s artistry.
voguevixen, you may call An Affair to Remember “total dreck”, but it was the inspiration for Sleepless in Seattle, which features several clips from it. What is “down on the plantation” dancing? Bill Robinson, the Nicholas Brothers, and Sammy Davis Jr. would like to know. Do you gasp when you see them dance onscreen?
Are you implying Sleepless in Seattle is NOT dreck? Even the out and out remake (Love Story starring Annette Benning and Warren Beatty) is superior to the Grant/Kerr version, IMO. (Although according to Eve the original Love Story that was remade as An Affair to Remember is the worst of any of them, thank goodness I’ve yet to see it.) Even people who love the movie Titanic would roll their eyes at the dreckiness of it.
:rolleyes: Are they the “token blacks” in an otherwise all-white scene/movie who are only thrown as a lame attempt at integration, then made to behave like Bugs Bunny singing “Swanee River” in blackface – in the 1960’s?!?!? If so, then YES I would gasp at that. You’re missing the point and trying to compare apples & oranges.
It sounds like the “creepiness” here comes from knowing what has happened to some of the actors ie, Grace Kelly dying.
It isn’t exactly creepy, but it’s definitely weird…well, okay it’s creepy to watch the Naked Gun movies with O.J. I know he was acquitted and all, but it’s still creepy. Especially since they’re so damned funny.
While the film is indeed a masterpiece, you misunderstand, I believe, Welles’ intention. There was no rape, he was satirizing what he believed were attitudes about marijuana. The kids were all having such a good time, and the woman was terrified of what was going to happen. Nothing did, except her exposure to the devil weed and licentiousness. If only Welles had had the guts to show the true dangers of reefers instead of portraying it as a happy party let’s make a prank drug. It is in fact a gateway drug. Virtually everyone who has ever died of a heroin or cocaine overdose started their illicit drug career with “chronic”.
At the risk of plunging this into Great Debate’s territory:
cite.
and, how about all the users of marijuana who did not go on to use heroin or cocaine. i could just as easily tell you that alcohol is a gateway drug.
[hijack]Eve, was that you who got a blurb in this month’s Vanity Fair. Congrats[/hijack]
Do NOT dis Breakfast at Tiffanys. Cringe and groan at Mickey Rooney’s horrible stereotyped role.
But this is one of my favorite movies. As most of you are aware, I adore Audrey Hepburn. Peppard gets on my nerves, but I still love this movie.
I mean, c’mon! The clothes, Cat, Moon River???
I always cry buckets at the end-not because of Holly and Paul, but when Holly goes back looking for Cat in the rain, and she’s crying, “Cat? Cat!” And then Cat pops up again! WAAAAHHH!!!
(I have an orange tabby-my Buffy-so I guess I’m a sucker).
As for other old movies, look at To Kill a Mockingbird-STILL a classic and still thought provoking. And of course, Audrey was much better in Roman Holiday.
Male leads were so much more debonair and charming. You can HAVE your Brad Pitts, your Tom Cruises, Ben Afflecks, etc. I’ll stick with Omar Sharif, Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, ANY DAY!
Well, you could have been a litle less sarcastic and considered the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin…but no doubt you consider them inferior to Radiohead and Bjork, too.
I satand by my statement…where is the wit, the romance, the great dialogue… Pulp Fiction is about the only movie from the lasr decade that I’d calla classic. While every generation has its clunkers and gems, I still say that the best movies of the 1940s and 1950s beat the best of today’s movies by a considerable mark.
Just to pick the best movies of one year, let’s consider 1939. The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Ninotchka, Wuthering Heights, The Women, The Grapes of Wrath, Drums Along the Mohawk, Babes in Arms
Which movies in 2002 would you nominate as equivalent or superior in quality? How many movies released today have such quotable dialogue?