I’ve trying to round out my teenage son’s education with some great movies from days past.
I’ve had very mixed success.
For many of my favourite movies (to kill a mocking bird, cool hand luke), he shrugs or says “meh”. He has absolutely loved others (saving private ryan, platoon, first blood, porky’s, life of brian).
Ok, i can understand that. I have a pretty good feel now for what he would like and not like now.
A couple of weeks ago he had a girl friend over and we had them watch - after a robust sales job to overcome their scepticism - Thelma and Louise. They both were amazed at how great it was.
She visited again last night and, thinking I was on a roll, i suggested that they try Bonnie and Clyde. “if you liked T&L…”
Even i was very disappointed by it.
I found the acting heavy handed, the plot silly, the characters cartoony and the whole thing a little over-baked. It was like a cartoon strip made into an action movie.
Why did i have such a high opinion of the movie before? Why is it considered such a great?
Was the movie really great? Have my tastes changed? Or did i misremember?
According to Warren Beatty, when they were trying to sell the idea to Jack Warner, they told him that it would be an homage to the old gangster films. Warner then replied, “Great! Great!. . . . What’s an o-MAAAAHZH?”
B&C was considered extremely violent for its time - today, not so much. Plus, B&C had the whole counter-culture backdrop to boost its popularity (those crazy mixed up kids!).
I can still watch it, but it hasn’t aged very well. Gene Hackman is probably its sole remaining grace.
When i first announced my quest to a friend, the first movie that he suggested was The Princess Bride and so we watched it. I honestly don’t get why it’s on anyone’s list of favourite movies,
I’ve never seen Swingers but I refuse to hijack my own thread (anymore)
Not to turn this into a movie recommendation thread and honestly the only thing that made this jump into my head was that you listed two other movies with two names in the title, but, you might try Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
I think Bonnie and Clyde is considered great in part for reasons that don’t age well: it was groundbreaking and highly influential. It was released in the last years of the old Production Code, and Bonnie and Clyde is also known as one of the movies that helped to finally kill the Code.
I wasn’t around in 1967, but it’s my understanding that Bonnie and Clyde was considered shocking/novel at the time of its release due to the glorification of criminals, graphic violence, and frank depiction of sexual themes. All of this would be an old hat to anyone who grew up on more recent movies, but it was extreme at the time. Actually, I think the ending would still be considered edgy even for a modern movie.
Bonnie and Clyde was not a critical success at the time of its release, but did do very well at the box office. Roger Ebert was one of the few critics in 1967 who praised it – you can read his original 1967 review here, and the 1998 essay from his “Great Movies” series here.
The reality of the violence and the sex is still somewhat shocking and, now that he mentions it, i think the unreal, cartoony feel of the rest of the move only serves to highlight the very real violence. Reminds a bit of 300 in that regard.
I really wanted to love the movie still and i wish for a switch that would put me back into the frame of mind where it was new for me.
I can do that for some movies… Mockingbird, cool hand luke, first blood… And overlook some of the technical aspects that dont compare well to modern techniques. But for others… Anything by hitchcock for example, i just can’t seem to suspend my disbelief enough to lose myself in the experience. Sadly, B&C fell into that category.
Oddly enough, i was worried that I (and the kids) wouldn’t enjoy Thelma and Louise for that same reason but it wasn’t a problem at all.
Unrelated point: i had forgotten the brutal rape scene in T&L and I squirmed a little that I was showing it to 15 yr old girl that I barely know. I almost reached for the off switch on the remote but I am glad I did not.
I love that movie, but I have mentally filed that under movies my son will say “meh” to
We have done well with war movies and I wonder how we would do with some older english movies like Bridge Over the River Kwai or The Great Escape would fare under my son’s sceptical gaze. I think I have to earn back some credibility before I try something too radical again.
I’m sure he would enjoy the Godfather movies but I need to work on my sales pitch a little first.
Yep. Easy Rider sprang to my mind too as an example of, my, how things have changed. anything with James Dean in it has suffered in a similar way. His rebel without a cause probably wouldn’t even end up in detention these days.
Maybe! Actually the thing that started this exercise was coming back for inglorious basterds - the first serious movie that he enjoyed - and deciding to find more important movies that he would like.
Ok, so we relaxed the definition of important for Porky’s and Rambo.
M.A.S.H was a great success along with most of the Vietnam movies.
