I watched a biography show on Steven Spielberg that showed clips from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. How the world has changed! In 1977 there was no Internet. Computers were huge things that often used punch cards for programming. There were mobile phones, but mostly for the wealthy or government people; and they were installed in cars rather than being carried in a pocket.
Hospitals. Ever watch a scene that takes place in a hospital in the early-'70s?
Kids playing. When I was a kid we road bikes and skateboards. We built models. We built forts and played various active games. There are a few kids in my neighbourhood, mostly adolescents, and I never see them ‘playing’. I see them walking to someplace. Now that it’s Summer, I see them on skimmers when the tide is out, or I’ll see some families flying kites. And when I was a kid, kids went out and played. ‘Come home when the street lights come on.’ ISTM that nowadays letting kids roam on their own is practically a crime.
Travel and vehicles. I have The Long, Long Trailer on the DVR. I watched a little of it. Desi Arnaz picks up a 40-foot travel trailer, and the hitch guy is explaining to him about the trailer brakes and trailer directional indicators. Nowadays the brakes and lights would be integrated into the car’s system. In other movies, getting a flat tire or having some other car problem was a major device to strand someone. Now we have better tires and better roads and more reliable vehicles. Sure, flats and breakdowns still happen; but not as often as it would appear from films of the ‘50s. And speaking of ‘fifties’, 50 mph seemed to be a reasonable speed at one time. People would get nervous above that. Personal airplanes were rare, but ISTM that there were more of them in films from 50 or 60 years ago. Deriving numbers anally, ISTM that you could buy a new airplane for a year’s or two years’ salary. Today I think it would take four to seven years’ salary.
People were always running into hunters or others in the woods who were carrying a firearm. It was normal. Today I think a lot of people would be frightened.
The way women were treated decades ago is appalling. That just wouldn’t fly today. The same goes for non-Whites.
Things seemed to be more ‘quiet’ in old films. The TV wasn’t playing all the time, there were no computers occupying people’s time, if someone wasn’t home there was no way to reach them. An urgent message might take a day or two to reach someone by Western Union. No email!
Smoking was the norm.
Drinking and drunks were funny.
Hitting your wife and/or children was perfectly acceptable and often encouraged.
Any drug would make you insane (ever watch Refer Madness?),
But mail was delivered twice a day, or maybe even more often if Dickens can be believed. A character would “post” a letter and expect delivery in a couple of hours.
People would come for a party and stay for days, or weeks. The upper class dressed for dinner, and their homes were open for visitors on certain days of the week where you’d sit in the parlor and be served tea and gossip. Sundays meant getting out the horse and buggy, dressing up and riding up and down main street, nodding your head to some, snubbing others.
Milk and eggs were delivered at the servant’s entrance, and a tinker would come by to sharpen your knives.
Along those lines, it’s interesting to see photos of the late 1800’s early 1900’s when telephone poles in cities had to have like 5 or 6 or 10 crossbars to handle the limited capacity afforded by the wiring.
And how today we don’t really even notice the telephone poles every 100 feet or so along every street, but someday they’ll probably mostly be gone, maybe take 90% of them out and put a cell transmitter on every 10th one or something.
That reminds me of one of the Dark Tower books. Jake finds some sort of scientific outpost and is surprised when he presses a button and starts hearing a squeal. He’s from 1977 and had never heard a modem connecting. When I read that book, the modem gag was horribly out of date.
I just watched Mildred Pierce, in one scene, the young daughter (16ish maybe) pulled out a cigarette and asked her mom for a lighter, it went like this (paraphrased)
Daughter: Do you have a light?
Mom: When did you start smoking?
Daughter: Monte (mom’s boyfriend) gave me this (a cigarette case) for my birthday and I wouldn’t want to insult him by not using it.
Mom: Well, I guess you’re right.
Look at any scene where a man takes his clothes (or just his shirt off) made before the 90s. Notice anything different? Male characters (even teenagers) could have age approriate body hair without it being a gag (though this is starting to change). Or look at men’s shorts; women can still get away with hotpants, but men are expected to keep their knees covered. Speedos are now considered “gay” and even vintage trunks would raise eyebrows (& lead to request to coverup or leave). Also for the most part Generation Y doesn’t take showers after gym class so any movie/TV that shows that is probally a little dated (even if it’s supposed to take place in present day).
What a coincidence! I came in here to mention Mildred Pierce which I also just saw. For those who don’t know it, the story of Mildred Pierce is basically that a woman (Joan Crawford in the title role) throws out her shiftless bum of a husband and has to go to work for a living. She works tirelessly to provide a good life for her spoiled, thankless daughter (Ann Blyth.) The daughter, perhaps the worst bad seed in movie history, reviles her mother for the unpardonable sin of working for a living. I mean, can you imagine anything more shameful - having a mother who holds a job?
More specifically is the moment when (SPOILERS!) Mildred’s younger tomboy daughter dies. The little girl cries out for “Mommy!” and Mildred, in the doorway, is about to rush to her side. But the doctor holds up one hand in an imperious manner and Mildred freezes, not daring to come near. Then the girl dies. I can’t believe a modern day doctor would ever dare to so imperiously dismiss a dying girls’ mother from the room like he did.
As for the cigarette scene, there’s an even better cigarette moment in Dark Victory. Bette Davis, dying of a brain tumor, is in the hospital waiting to have an operation in the morning. She’s terribly nervous, so her doctor lights a cigarette for her to help calm her nerves (in her hospital room!.)
And an early scene in the Shining seems ludicrous by today’s standards. Danny Torrance has a seizure and gets examined by a pediatrician. First of all, the doctor comes to the Torrances house - rather than Wendy taking the kid to an E.R. Then, after a cursory examination, the doctor blithely dismisses the episode saying “These episodes are usually never explained, but they’re very common and look a lot worse than they actually are!” Nowadays, Danny would be getting a CAT scan and probably a prescription to children’s strength lithium.
In fact, can you imagine the Shining set today? Jack might remove the batteries from the CB radio, but Wendy wouldn’t even know because she’d text the police via her iphone. Hell, Jack would never even had gotten the job at the Overlook Hotel, since he’d be in jail for abusing his son Danny (breaking his arm in an alcoholic episode.)
Or ruined. Or not so good, anyway. I just watched Niagara. Rose’s lover tells her that “their song” will play on the Bell Tower as a signal that he’s killed Rose’s husband. That was way better than Rose getting a text.
Although it’s a bit of a plot hole, since it didn’t turn out that way and the song still played. Hmmmm.
Another example that has turned hilarious when seen on TV nowadays:
From The day the Earth Stood Still - 1951
Two army doctors are in the hospital; the patient, Klaatu the extraterrestrial, is in the next room.
DOCTOR 1: How old do you think he is?
DOCTOR 2: Oh, I’d say 35, 38
DOCTOR 1: [shakes head] He told me this morning, when I was examining him. He’s 78.
DOCTOR 2: Well I don’t believe it!
DOCTOR 1: Life expectancy’s 130!
DOCTOR 2: Well how does he explain that?
DOCTOR 1: Says their medicine is that much more advanced. [Hands cigarette to DOCTOR 2.] He was very nice about it, but he made me feel like a third-class witch doctor.
[DOCTOR 1 and DOCTOR 2 light up and begin smoking inside the hospital] :smack:
Maybe you couldn’t hit your wife, but there are a lot of old movies where women get slapped around. The women were mostly “bad” women – tramps, golddiggers, drunks – but there was plenty of slapping.
I don’t know why there’s no sound, but here’s a scene from one of my favorite movies. Cary Grant knocks Catherine Hepburn flat on her ass. Well, it’s more of a push really.
Speaking of hitting wives, this isn’t a movie, but it was considered hilarious when Ralph Cramden (Jackie Gleason) regularly threatened to punch his wife on The Honeymooners. Everyone knew that he would never actually do it, but still.
