Turner Classic Movies is (or was, anyway - it may have been an April thing) showing Harold Lloyd movies on Sundays. Perhaps he’s making a comeback?
There’s an option for us young 'uns who’re looking to catch up on their classic films - cable, especially TCM. A generally good selection of movies (All About Eve included, and lots of the old musicals), and no commercials, unlike AMC.
I don’t know if I would recommend Citizen Kane to anyone who’s grown up watching cartoons. By the time I saw it, I’d seen so many parodies that it had just lost all meaning for me. But the Marx Brothers are awesome. Even the piano and harp stuff.
iv seen some of that stuff, some i havent, have passing interests n some, others iv never heard of… so i suppose maybe i am guilty of not knowing the stuff that interests the older generation… but ask yourselves this… do you know what we are interested in? movies? music? lit? etc… its probably an even split, some do some dont, its just when the younger ppl dont know it its seen as a somewhat bad thing… but how many of you know what ur kids favourite book is?
justa thought
So, Delly, let’s hear some of yours. Thinking ee cummings might be on the list ;).
That reciprocal question occurred to me when I was writing the OP but I didn’t bring it up b/c so many thread subject lines already mention recent pop culture references (guessing LOTR would be on most lists). But I’m interested in your input. I’ve really enjoyed reading the posts so far - and I have to admit, I’ve never seen a Marx bros. movie!! So it’s off to the library for me!
Some more of my pop culture favorites -
Gone With the Wind (book, not movie) is really amazing - although I always need to re-read Roots afterwards to get the racism out of my mouth (skipping pages also helps).
Tom Wolfe’s books from the mid-1970’s onward.
Lonesome Dove is awesome (again, book more than movie IMHO); actually I love McMurtry’s books from the mid-1970’s to 1990 or so.
For short stories, Roald Dahl and O. Henry.
And moviewise, Chariots of Fire is one of my highbrow favorites.
I will always consider myself lucky that I didn’t see any Citizen Kane parodies until after I saw the movie. (Meant I got to enjoy the ending AND the feeling “Ah-hah, I thought that might be it!” I think that enhanced my enjoyment thousandsfold; if I was an Animaniacs fan, things might’ve been different. But even if you know in advance what Rosebud is, it’s still remarkable storytelling and a groundbreaking film. You might not get the same thrill, but I think it can still be appreciated plenty.
With regard to Delly’s question, the difference between contemporary entertainment and the classics is that the latter have stood the test of time because they offer commentaries on humanity that speak to every generation. Long after everyone here is dust, people not yet born will be laughing at Marx Brothers movies and humming along to Beatles tunes. They’ll be reading Mark Twain and P.G. Wodehouse because their works speak to people in every age.
With regard to the entertainment of the under-30 set, most of what you enjoy now will be utterly forgotten, but that’s been true for every generation’s pop culture. Sure, The Beatles are legendary now, but where are The Buckinghams or Paul Revere and The Raiders? Most pop artists are evanescent flashes of popularity that then fade. Eminem won’t be rapping into his old age, and Fifty Cent will be a Trivial Pursuit question in the 2033 “Remember The Millennium?” edition. Avril Lavigne will be on VH1’s “Where Are They Now?” in 2010.
IMO, right now, there are no musicians with the the idiosyncratic genius to create music with longevity; no equivalent of The Beatles or Dylan. They might come down the road next year of 5 years from now, but there are no music immortals popping in 2003. What will be remembered from 2003 are TV shows and movies. People will be laughing at The Simpsons and grooving to The Matrix fifty years from now when your grandkids will be asking you, “Who were The White Stripes?”
The Matrix? I doubt it. Unless the next two movies are something really extraordinary, the Matrix movies will be considered hilariously dated in twenty years. They (or at least, the first one) are all style and no substance, and style changes all the time.
And I wouldn’t exactly pick the 2003 season of The Simpsons as the one that’ll be remembered throughout the ages, but I suppose the shows from the mid nineties grandfather them in.
Aside from being one of the greatest and most enduring series ever, I think The Simpsons has affected the way people - fans, anyway - live, think and talk, and it spreads outward from there. It’s not every show that gets college classes taught about it and books written about its religious and philosophical implications. Some of the guests and things are more topical (i.e. prone to becoming dated) than they used to be, but the show is 300 episodes old and they need to get new material from somewhere. This season has had some very good offerings in my opinion.
I think people are off their gourds when they talk about The Matrix as a philosophical work. It says nothing on that level. “Ooh, we don’t know what’s real and what isn’t” is about the extent of it. REAL groundbreaking.
What the movie does is bits from Eastern religions and the Christ myth to provide some nice flavor to a movie with a plot that’s not that unusual - it’s the context that’s unusual. All of those things are also true of Star Wars, I think. And like Star Wars, most of the acting ain’t great, but the effects are remarkable and the action is very good. The Matrix does that stuff as well as you can possibly do it, and has raised the bar for others, hence so many spoofs and steals. Doesn’t make it a great movie, but it’s a great action movie perhaps. Is it timeless? Eh. More than some movies, perhaps. Not like Star Wars, although the current movies may have detracted from that some.
I know the OP said books and movies, but can I throw a musical thing in here, too?
A few months ago, a teenage girl randomly IMed me on AIM, and out of boredom and courtesy, I had a bit of small talk with her. She mentioned in passing that she was listening to “the fathers of heavy metal” and, in response, I said “Black Sabbath?”
Her answer? “No, dude, Guns n’ Roses! Who’s Black Sabbath??”
Excellent point, QGG - I was just thinking that I believe this year marks the 30th anniversary of Dark Side of the Moon, Quadrophenia, and Houses of the Holy. The Stones must have done something that year as well.
FTR I agree w/Marley23 on The Matrix - I was really expecting something significant & wound up wildly bored. And I hated that animated movie from a couple summers ago on the same grounds - can’t remember what it was called but the drawing style was “unique”, meaning it was so jiggly I couldn’t stand it. Of course, I didn’t enjoy My Big Fat Greek Wedding, either (except that part about the neck fetus was cool). Nina whatsername is cute, but I thought that had been done before.
Being There and Slacker were better philosophical movies, IMHO. I also love Harold and Maude - a bit ham-handed, but still.
Harold and Maude is one of the greatest movie ever. IMHO, of course.
I agree that most of today’s music probably isn’t going to stand the test of time, but what about Radiohead? Or Nirvana? (Heck, I think Nirvana has already been relevant for quite a bit longer than I certainly would have thought as a middle schooler seeing Smells Like Teen Spirit for the first time.) Or the Cure, for that matter?
Here’s a story that some of you might appreciate. I was in high school when Marilyn Manson (already a Jeopardy question) came out with their cover of Sweet Dreams. I mentioned to a slightly younger friend that I preferred the Eurhythmics version. His reply - “Who?”
Hi. 21 year old checking in here…
I agree that the library is a pretty damn good and cheap place to get decent movies. Last week, I checked out a few, and so far I’ve seen Bright Eyes , I love Lucy (video collection), and the over melodramatic Love Story. Ugh. Anyway, I tend to like older movies. They aren’t as polished as the stuff that’s out today. Old movies can show you a walk in the park and make it interesting where new movies have to have some sort of gimmick (like blowing stuff up) to get money for production. Movies that I really liked: The Shop Around the Corner, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (doesn’t everybody?). But I haven’t seen Casablanca yet or It Happened One Night. (Convince me to go and see that, 'kay CrunchyFrog)
Also, if anybody has any recommendations that us younguns should see, I’d be interested.
As for stuff previously mentioned, I haven’t seen/read a lot of it. I did however happen to watch the Maltese Falcon a few years back, and to this day, it ranks up there w/ the best movies I’ve ever seen. My favorite oldies are all the old John Wayne movies. My grandmother sent me a giant box of them she found at a second hand store, and I kinda ignore them for a while thinking they would be pretty boring, then I came home one day to my roommate watching them, and we both were enthralled. Red River Valley is just amazing. While it’s not really a movie, to this day, the original Twilight Zone series still scares me.
I was working at a public library in Cincinnati when video rentals first got going and I believe it was $1.00/day. Our library here in suburban Chicago doesn’t charge unless you’re late, but the rental period is really brief.
I thought of another excellent twist on reality movie (not really old, though) - The Purple Rose of Cairo. Bullets over Broadway is my other favorite Woody Allen movie sans Woody.
So do you “younguns” know about Monty Python? Can I relax about that?
Xanadu, I don’t watch many romantic flicks (haven’t seen Love Story myself, will take your word on it) - but you simply must see both Casablanca and It Happened One Night. I wouldn’t have gone through all that coding if I didn’t mean it! You are already onto something with your Audrey Hepburn choices. Bogart/Bacall (sp?) movies might interest you as well.
One more B&W favorite from me - the original Father of the Bride w/Spencer Tracy. Nothing against Steve Martin, but that movie is so much better than the remake.
I know what you mean, but I think you’ve got mixed up in what’s going to be remembered and what won’t be. Eminem’s big enough and (unfortunately - he’s good but overrated) important enough to be remembered in fifty years time. He’s close to doing for hop hop what Dylan did for folk. I won’t compare him to Elvis - other artists had already done the groundwork, but the difference between hip-hop pre Eminem and now is certainly big enough that he’ll be remembered for a long time.
I also think you’re wrong about the White Stripes. The New Rock thing is definitely a movement, and the premier group of a movement is always remembered. That is why you recognise the names Elvis, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, The Clash and The Supremes.
In fact, on thinking about this, I think the “most of the music around now won’t be remembered in the future” argument doesn’t hold much weight. Pop culture sticks around for a surprisingly long time. I was born in 1983 and I can tell you about Small Faces, who had a song called Itchykoo Park. They were by means important in the 60s, but I still know of their existence, and could recognise their song when I hear it. A whole lot of meaningless music hangs around for a long time.
As for the Matrix, it’s going to be today’s Jurassic Park. It’ll be remembered for its effects and the amount of money it made, but once the technology has significantly moved on, people will see it as the pretty thin movie that it is.
It’s possible that Eminem and The White Stripes might be remembered fondly a half-century from now, but IMO it’s unlikely because other, newer, groups and musical fashions will have replaced them. But the only genuine judge is Time, and I could be utterly wrong.
Eh, I dunno. There are tons of SF movies from the 1950sthat have plots thinner than The Matrix that are being released on DVD nowadays and finding a new audience, like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and It Came From Beneath the Sea. I could be wrong, but I think The Matrix will have staying power for decades to come. Like I said in my earlier post, *Star Wars * is juvenile space opera and it’s spawned a whole mini-industry of crappy tie-in novels and videogames.
Kids, do not miss WC FIELDS, possibly the funniest human who ever lived.
And I would like to vent about the hollywood whores remaking movies that were great the first time. Like “The Out of Towners” with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis, which I thought was hilarious, which for some weird reason was remade a few years ago and received horrible reviews.
PS When my now 17 year old daughter was 5, we were watching “The Honeymooners” together on tv one day. She was laughing loudly at Ralph and then a few days later said “Dad, can we watch “the Honeymoons” again”?