# Great movies that have not stood the test of time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936 "2010-09-07T16:21:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/41 "2010-09-08T04:08:17Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Don’t forget that Kirk defeats Khan by realizing that as a man of the 20th (21st?) Century, Khan is not really used to thinking in three dimensions… 1. Spock realizes it, not Kirk. 2. It doesn’t have anything at all to do with Khan being a man of the 20th century; you must be misremembering the scene. Spock states that it’s because Khan simply isn’t experienced in commanding a starship, which is obviously true, and of course would be true of most people in any century. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/42 "2010-09-08T06:15:57Z")
_Marooned_ had “greatness” when I saw it as a kid (but I had to go to bed before the ending). Forgot about it after seeing it. Someone at work in the 90’s at just seen it mocked on MST3k and said it was just awful and boring. When the MST3k repeated the episode, I marveled how I as 12 year old would fail to see that it was like watching paint dry. Being a big fan of the moon landings probably had something to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/43 "2010-09-08T09:32:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Really? I haven’t seen many old movies, but I liked the The Seven Year Itch all right. Middle-class man, married with children, contemplating affair with young sexpot. How is that dated? > > One thing that dates it is the very setup – the “Summer Bachelor”, created by the desire to have one’s wife (and kids) comfortable during the hot steamy summer months. In the time before air conditioners, the way you did this was to send them off to the country or the seashore for the summer, while the male breadwinner stayed in the city at his job. This was, naturally, a source of temptation. Alistair Cooke did a wonderful column on it back in the 1950s, about the time of the play and movie. Air conditioning (as Cooke notes) killed off the institution of “The Summer Bachelor”. Summer bachelors are still alive and well in Spain, even if they happen to have a/c at home. Maybe that’s a reason The Seven Year Itch gets regular TV showings. A lot of my coworkers (of both genders) have spent most of the summer commuting on the weekend to the beach home where their spousal unit, the grandparents and the kids were. And thank you very much for giving me the English term for what we call “Rodriguez” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/44 "2010-09-08T12:07:52Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > 1. It doesn’t have anything at all to do with Khan being a man of the 20th century; you must be misremembering the scene. Spock states that it’s because Khan simply isn’t experienced in commanding a starship, which is obviously true, and of course would be true of most people in any century. Right, and of course even someone born in the 19th century would no have no problem making effective use of three dimensional space, so long as he happened to have been a fighter pilot in the first world war. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/45 "2010-09-08T12:28:00Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I dunno if it was ever considered a **great** movie, but [_Billy Jack_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Jack) once was shown in real walk-in theaters, and if you rent it you’ll wonder how that could have happened. Billy Jack came out when I was in High School and we thought it was really cool. As I recall, it wasn’t released through normal distribution channels. They did something called fourwalling, where they rented the theater and kept all the proceeds. It turned out to make a lot of money that way. As I recall Walking Tall was also released that way. [http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/fourwall/](http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/fourwall/) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/46 "2010-09-08T14:05:26Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I dunno if it was ever considered a **great** movie, but [_Billy Jack_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Jack) once was shown in real walk-in theaters, and if you rent it you’ll wonder how that could have happened. It was the hat. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/47 "2010-09-08T14:29:18Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#): > > _Marooned_ had “greatness” when I saw it as a kid (but I had to go to bed before the ending). Forgot about it after seeing it. > > Someone at work in the 90’s at just seen it mocked on MST3k and said it was just awful and boring. When the MST3k repeated the episode, I marveled how I as 12 year old would fail to see that it was like watching paint dry. > > Being a big fan of the moon landings probably had something to do with it. Marooned may have indeed been a great movie. If is purported to have eased tensions between the US and Soviet Union during the planning of the Apollo-Soyuz mission. On the other hand, ‘watching paint dry’ is a a charitable description. Paint dries faster than that. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/48 "2010-09-08T14:43:15Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > > > I dunno if it was ever considered a **great** movie, but [_Billy Jack_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Jack) once was shown in real walk-in theaters, and if you rent it you’ll wonder how that could have happened. > > It was the hat. > > Seriously. There can be no doubt. And the bare feet. I can still hear him saying “…and then I go Bee-zurk…” and punting some asshole’s jaw off. Not even a nod to acting anywhere in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/49 "2010-09-08T14:44:34Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > In this vein, I suppose one could also fanwank the mullet. If I recall my Star Trek chronology correctly, I think the Eugenics Wars (of which Khan is a veteran) take place in the 1990s, which would have been at the tail-end of the mullet era. Exactly what I was going to say. Complaining about an anachronistic character looking anachronistic is silly. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/50 "2010-09-08T14:51:59Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > > [@Jackmannii](#): > > > > Any pre-WWII era Hitchcock movie does not for me stand the test of time, chief example being _The Thirty-Nine Steps_. Still a compelling novel, but a creaky and dull movie. > > I strenuously disagree with that. It’s still very compelling with great setpieces, and a terrific ending. There was a BBC remake recently that wasn’t half as good (though, admittedly, the stage play is much better than either ). I thought the Hitchcock movie was pretty good (I can even overlook the laughable SFX of the autogyro); the BBC remake had its moments but wasn’t nearly as good. The stage play is making a comeback, I guess: [http://www.clevelandplayhouse.com/showinfo.asp?eventID=128](http://www.clevelandplayhouse.com/showinfo.asp?eventID=128) ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/51 "2010-09-08T14:53:09Z")
I don’t know if this fully qualifies, but I saw The Manchurian Candidate for the first time last weekend. It was an enjoyable film, so I guess in that regard it’s stood the test of time. But the entire concept is about a society stricken with fear by Communism. Up to 11 people could be completely brainwashed in a mere 3 days to become secret killing machines, giving up our free will for the machinations of the Red State. We, as the audience, aren’t even supposed to question that it’s possible for this to occur. We accept it because it’s our worst fear come to life. Except I live in a world where the Cold War has ended and such a thing as was presented wouldn’t be possible in 300 days of captivity, let alone just 3. I’m not going to accept the premise and I truly cannot understand the world as was presented in 1953 (when the film took place) or 1962 (date of release). I didn’t live it and I think you really need to to understand the film. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/52 "2010-09-08T15:06:13Z")
Somebody mentioned _Easy Rider_. I’d say anything with hippies, assuming we’re meant to think the hippies are cool. Get a job, you slackers! And get off my lawn! ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/53 "2010-09-08T15:09:54Z")
I’m going to make a bold statement based on personal experience: If you see a movie for the first time that was made before you were born, no matter how “great” it may have been for earlier generations, it will not have “stood the test of time.” Further, if you saw it before your “age of reason” kicked in, same story. If you can locate a counter-example, it is indeed a “great movie.” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/54 "2010-09-08T15:18:28Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m going to make a bold statement based on personal experience: > > If you see a movie for the first time that was made before you were born, no matter how “great” it may have been for earlier generations, it will not have “stood the test of time.” Sorry – too many counter-examples for me. I love plenty of films made before I was born, many of which I saw before my “age of reason”. Many of these continue to be watched and loved: **King Kong Wizard of Oz Gone with the Wind Casablanca The General . . .** I know that MilliCal, born in 1997, loves plenty of flicks from before she was around. Especially Disney films like **Mary Poppins** and most of the cartoons. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/55 "2010-09-08T15:22:20Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > I’m going to make a bold statement based on personal experience: > > > > If you see a movie for the first time that was made before you were born, no matter how “great” it may have been for earlier generations, it will not have “stood the test of time.” > > Sorry – too many counter-examples for me. I love plenty of films made before I was born, many of which I saw before my “age of reason”. > Many of these continue to be watched and loved: > > **King Kong > Wizard of Oz > Gone with the Wind > Casablanca > The General > . > . > .** > I know that MilliCal, born in 1997, loves plenty of flicks from before she was around. Especially Disney films like **Mary Poppins** and most of the cartoons. I do believe you have made my major point: these are among the “great movies.” Otherwise, it’s just an “old movie.” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/56 "2010-09-08T15:30:14Z")
> [@](#): > > I do believe you have made my major point: these are among the “great movies.” How many exceptions do you need before your “rule” isn’t valid anymore? I don’t accept your hypothesis, and am simply choosing the most obvious examples.I’m not about to make a full list of the movies I like from before I was born, but it’s long. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/57 "2010-09-08T15:43:39Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Further, if you saw it before your “age of reason” kicked in, same story. > > If you can locate a counter-example, it is indeed a “great movie.” I still find _Transformers: The Movie_ great fun, and I doubt that’s what you had in mind as a “great movie”. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/58 "2010-09-08T15:49:51Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > I do believe you have made my major point: these are among the “great movies.” > > How many exceptions do you need before your “rule” isn’t valid anymore? > > I don’t accept your hypothesis, and am simply choosing the most obvious examples.I’m not about to make a full list of the movies I like from before I was born, but it’s long. My point was and is that “old movies” (before you were born or before your reasoning abilities were well-formed) are just “old movies” and not “great movies.” The fact that movie historians may label them as “great movies” doesn’t make them “great movies” at your own personal level. Movies made during your lifetime, and which you saw before your critical faculties were well developed have a good chance of not “standing the test of time” as far as your own tastes go when you see them again decades later. The “boldness” of my statement (not a hypothesis for you to shoot down) is that that’s the way I see the issue. If it’s not the way you see the issue, make your own bold statement. I won’t attempt to shoot it down. I will see it as your way of dealing with the issue. I was under the impression that this was Cafe Society and not Great Debates. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/59 "2010-09-08T15:59:10Z")
> [@](#): > > I was under the impression that this was Cafe Society and not Great Debates. I can challenge a statement anywhere. Your Bold Statement doesn’t hold true in my case, or for lots of folks I know. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936/60 "2010-09-08T15:59:35Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > I like “The Graduate,” but it’s one that I don’t think has aged well. We watched it the other night on TMC, and I was struck in some places by how contemporary it looked–airports haven’t changed much except for the security 🙂 Also, Benjamin’s “lost young man” thing probably strikes a more profound chord today than it did in 1967. On the other hand, kids watching it today are probably struck by how completely the women’s lives can be controlled by their families–or by how (relatively) lightly Mrs. Robinson’s allegations of rape are taken by Emily. She is angry, but not in the same way that a young woman today would be calling for Benjamin’s head. If a young person has been watching \*Mad Men \*and getting used to 1960s middle-class culture in that context, I don’t think they’d find _The Graduate_ too out of line. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-have-not-stood-the-test-of-time/552936.md?page=4)