# How old are "old movies"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 4, 2011, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682 "2011-05-04T12:40:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/1 "2011-05-04T12:40:19Z")
Inspired by comments in **[Why are old movies good? Please help.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=607069)** How old does a movie have to be for you to think of it as 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:** [May 4, 2011, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/2 "2011-05-04T12:43:03Z")
For the OP in that thread it was 1980, which I find incredible for someone supposedly in their late forties. Obviously it’s age-dependent, but for me “old movies” are movies that are at least five years older than me. Anything else doesn’t feel “old” to me. (And by my standard that other guy’s “old” would be films from circa 1960) ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/3 "2011-05-04T12:49:06Z")
“Old” movies are ones that came out before I was allowed to go to see movies in the theater, so before I was 10 or so… ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/4 "2011-05-04T12:49:41Z")
An “old movie” must be older than I am. Luckily, that agrees pretty much to what I feel is a watershed point, where “method acting” and technological advances allowing more location shooting became more commonplace in popular movies, and so began the big switch from ‘stage-crafty/ theatrical’ films to more naturalistic movies. 1960 it is. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/5 "2011-05-04T13:21:35Z")
For myself, a movie _has_ to be made before 1970 to be considered “old”–which is not to say that _every_ movie of the '60s or before necessarily feels old. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/6 "2011-05-04T13:30:37Z")
Old movies are movies made before you were old enough to go to a theater and see them. They don’t have to be older than you (I’d consider **Rear Window** and old movie, and it came out after I was born), but they do have to be so old that you couldn’t have seen the original run in a theater. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/7 "2011-05-04T13:36:44Z")
Old movies are those that came out before I was a teenager. Thus, '70s movies aren’t old, but '60s movies are. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/8 "2011-05-04T13:38:14Z")
I voted 1980 because it’s slightly more true than 1970, but it’s really somewhere in between. A lot of the stuff in the 70s is only sort of old. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/9 "2011-05-04T13:41:52Z")
Everything before 1960 has that artificial Hayes Code patina that defines “old movie” to me. Between 1960 and 1970 there are some movies that look and feel old (Cleopatra 1965), others that look and feel new to me (any Bond film). ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/10 "2011-05-04T13:43:31Z")
Any movie that came out before I was born, in 1990, feels old to me. It should be noted that I never automatically equate “old” with “bad” and have many favourite films released way before the nineties. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/11 "2011-05-04T13:45:27Z")
For me, a movie isn’t “old” unless it’s at least 10 years older than me. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/12 "2011-05-04T13:57:35Z")
I chose “made before 1960” because I was born in the 1960s, and I figure anything from before the decade I was born in must be pretty old. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/13 "2011-05-04T14:01:51Z")
\*Godfather \*is not an old movie. _Easy Rider_ and \*Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, \*are. Therefore, the cutoff point - for me - is 1970 (four years before I was born). ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/14 "2011-05-04T14:05:54Z")
Before 1980, because as someone born in the late 70s I can’t remember seeing any movies before 1980 so they have to be pretty damn old. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2011, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/15 "2011-05-04T14:07:45Z")
Made before I was born, thus, pre-1960. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/16 "2011-05-04T15:12:38Z")
… I think we are getting a rough approximation of Doper age distribution here. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/17 "2011-05-04T15:47:38Z")
Movies are old if they have: a) smoking. b) good guys wearing suits. c) dialog you have to listen to. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/18 "2011-05-04T15:58:37Z")
I’m 54 and voted older than 1940. Before that, the sound was less than great. I think cinematography really came into its own about that time. I don’t think there’s much difference in a movie from 1940 than 1960, other than fashions and technologies portrayed. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/19 "2011-05-04T16:31:48Z")
I said before 1980, which is when I was 15. It’s really probably more like “pre-_Star Wars_,” because around 1977 is when I started watching movies not made by the Disney folks and when I became aware of movies that were not necessarily made for kids but were movies that I wanted to see: either fantasy stuff like _Star Wars_ and _Superman_ or movies with young actors that I could sorta relate to (Jodie Foster, Matthew Broderick). Also, a lot of '70s movies were really “gritty” and violent and had grown-up themes that I was not remotely interested in or emotionally ready for at the time. Of course, this was right around the time that Spielberg and Lucas arrived on the scene and changed moviemaking and movie _marketing_ forever. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682/20 "2011-05-04T16:50:59Z")
I voted for 1970 only because it was closest to my “old movie” demarcation year of 1967. That marks the last year of the Code, the releases of **Bonnie and Clyde** and **The Graduate** , and the departure of Jack Warner, one of the last remaining studio moguls, as head of Warner Brothers. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-are-old-movies/580682.md?page=2)