Worst decade for movies?

[JaseSF]

I sometimes think society is stuck in a fast food mentality. Instant gratification, instant satisfaction which means films full of flash and FX but with little plot and characterization, music that is soulless and pointless but constantly references sex and violence and/or plays up to pop culture expectation, TV that is full of shock 'em to get a reaction because it's all about ratings, money and not art. To me, everything has gone downhill since the 1990s came. I do remember the late 80s being very hopeful for a brighter tomorrow (Jesus Jones' "Right Here, Right Now" comes to mind) that didn't ever come to pass in reality and then the 90s despair (Grunge rock gets its start, eventually Nu-Metal appears) set in. It hasn't really changed since then too much I think. There is still great stuff out there but the mass of stuff that gets the most advertising and attention is the stuff that seeks attention by delivering upon expectation of shocks, sex, violence and FX.

But you know when you really think about it and look back, I wonder what moviegoers of the 1930-50s, which I personally consider the best period for movies in history, thought of the shock and exploitation films of the 60s and 70s? I'm sure some film fans of the 30s and 40s probably didn't even think much of some of the drive-in fare of the 1950s either.

[Allhallowsday]

Eh, I can't analyze it that much.  I'd have to go through various 5 year periods and count up how much stuff I liked and how much I hated.  Were the Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls really worse than Lady Gaga and the Jonas Brothers?  When I look back over pop culture of any era, it looks to me like it shakes out about 90-95% crap and 5-10% decent stuff.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. 

Not only do I agree with you, but were BACKSTREET BOYS and SPICE GIRLS any worse than THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY and SHAUN CASSIDY?   

[Rev. Powell]

Eh, I can't analyze it that much.  I'd have to go through various 5 year periods and count up how much stuff I liked and how much I hated.  Were the Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls really worse than Lady Gaga and the Jonas Brothers?  When I look back over pop culture of any era, it looks to me like it shakes out about 90-95% crap and 5-10% decent stuff.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. 

Not only do I agree with you, but were BACKSTREET BOYS and SPICE GIRLS any worse than THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY and SHAUN CASSIDY?   

My point exactly: same sh*t, different decade. 

I also think Jase makes good points above.  I think part of the reason the 30-50s produced movies with a "classic" feel may have been, ironically, the Hays Code. Without the freedom to sprinkle in liberal sex and violence throughout the picture, filmmakers were forced to rely instead on backups like plot and dialogue.

[Psycho Circus]

I would gladly take Shaun Cassidy over Lady Gag Gag or the Backpassage Boys anyday.

[JaseSF]

Rev., you may have a point about the Hays Code. While I've never liked censorship myself and when younger was a person who couldn't be more against it, these days it seems like all that's on TV is sex and violence. The cartoons are almost all offensive, the reality shows are filled with people engaging or wanting to engage in sexual or violent acts, TV shows highlighting criminal mayhem and carnage, it's like the media is stuck in an obsession with endless sex and violence because it sells, it brings in ratings. Blood and guts and sex and shock. Deliver that and you draw a crowd. Like the Roman Gladiators and the Colosseum, TV has now become a largely perverse diversion from the mundaneness of everyday reality. But it's perhaps gone a bit too far, become a bit too much to the point nothing shocks anymore, very little gets one to care or have any reaction anymore. Eventually they'll have to probably try and actually tell a story again because there'll be little left shockwise for people to see. Scary what may be around the corner otherwise...death game shows like THE RUNNING MAN?

[mich3l]

Even the s**ttiest celebrity/movie/song from the 70's, 80's, 90's and early 00's is better than the current top hits. I mean Lady GaGa? I know some say she's the new Madonna. No, she's not!

[Flick James]

Music, movies, pop-culture in general does not have same impact as it once did simply because it does not hold the same value. Think about it. Music and movies are simply an electonic files now, whereas once upon a time the music and the movie resided on a tape, or an LP. If you wanted to steal music from an artist, you had to walk into the local music store, look around to see that nobody was looking, stuff the item in your pants, and get out the door without anybody catching you. There was no instant gratification there, and a criminal record and public humiliation if you got caught. Even if you got away with it, you carried guilt. These things carry value. Now, if you could easily acquire music for free off the Internet, would you feel the same sense of value or guilt about having stolen from the artist.

There are some good things about the way things are now. Artists can market themselves and their music on their own now, and some have done so successfully. But, to me the greatest downfall in this age is the value of the artform in the minds of the public. I'm sure some of my fellow geezers will back me up on this, but back in the day holding an LP in your hands carried with it a sense of fulfillment, a sense of holding something that someone created. It had almost a magical sense to it, like holding Excalibur. If you have any old LP's, go now and pick one up and hold it. How does that affect you as opposed to opening up iTunes?

[Psycho Circus]

Music, movies, pop-culture in general does not have same impact as it once did simply because it does not hold the same value. Think about it. Music and movies are simply an electonic files now, whereas once upon a time the music and the movie resided on a tape, or an LP. If you wanted to steal music from an artist, you had to walk into the local music store, look around to see that nobody was looking, stuff the item in your pants, and get out the door without anybody catching you. There was no instant gratification there, and a criminal record and public humiliation if you got caught. Even if you got away with it, you carried guilt. These things carry value. Now, if you could easily acquire music for free off the Internet, would you feel the same sense of value or guilt about having stolen from the artist.

There are some good things about the way things are now. Artists can market themselves and their music on their own now, and some have done so successfully. But, to me the greatest downfall in this age is the value of the artform in the minds of the public. I'm sure some of my fellow geezers will back me up on this, but back in the day holding an LP in your hands carried with it a sense of fulfillment, a sense of holding something that someone created. It had almost a magical sense to it, like holding Excalibur. If you have any old LP's, go now and pick one up and hold it. How does that affect you as opposed to opening up iTunes?

I'm 23 years old, and I wholeheartedly agree with everything you just said. It's completely true, especially with records. You can get a real good whiff (albeit a musty one) of decades gone by through sleeve of an vinyl LP, a sleeve that will usually feature brilliant artwork and contain a big black disc full of crackly magic. It's like being a parent, watching your collection grow, being able to touch it all, clean it all, play it all and treasure it all forever. I can safely say I am the father to 500+ big black babies...

[Flick James]

That's awesome. I think I have a couple hundred. I would have more if my cursed ex hadn't confiscated them. Old LP's sometimes even carry bonus vibe or an imprint of past owners. I have a copy of The Beatles' "Rubber Soul" that I bought at a vinyl store that must have originally been purchased in the 60's because the inside sleeve had all kinds of writings of admiration that clearly came from a young girl in the throws of a crush on Paul McCartney. Real mushy stuff, too. Also interesting are the albums I have from right around the time when LP's were getting phased out but some artists were still pushing out some vinyl, stuff that you usually associate with the CD age. I have an LP copy of Alice in Chains' "Facelift" as well as Soul Asylum's "Let Your Dim Light Shine," who were still pushing out a bit of vinyl as late as 1995.

[Jim H]

It depends on what you want out of movies.  Maybe I'm just pragmatic or optimistic, but I don't remember thinking ANY decade for movies in my lifetime has sucked.  I loved the 80s movies growing up, but also enjoyed a number of classics, from nearly every decade.  And I still like a lot of current movies.  If all you look at is mainstream Hollywood, a lot of crap is coming out now.  But that's always been true.  But there's still a lot of good coming out each year.  More and more independent stuff is worth watching, numerous foreign films are great, and way more stuff is available to all thanks to wide DVD availability and the internet.

Relatively recent films I've liked a lot: How To Train Your Dragon, Avatar, Black Dynamite, Coraline, District 9, Fantastic Mister Fox, Moon, Princess and the Frog, This Is It, Up, and Up In The Air.

You might notice that, aside from Up In The Air, all of these films are basically genre works.  I believe Hollywood is still making very good genre films every year.  In that sense, the 2000s is kind of like the 80s all over again.

I'm not sure what I think is the worst decade though..  Hard for me to say.  I'm not sure if it is fair to count it, but I'd say the teens.  I enjoy a number of silent films from the late silent era (especially 1925-28), but most of the earlier ones I find too slow and dull to be looked at as more than interesting stepping stones in film development.  Outside of that era...  For Hollywood film production, I think the 60s was weak.  There are huge milestones in that era as the studio system broke down, but there are a great many snoozers as well.  Most of my favorite films from that decade are either foreign (Japanese, Chinese) or co-productions (Spaghetti westerns).  Looking at ALL industries though..  I think the 30s might be the most boring decade.  The lockdown we got as sound recording became important caused movies to lose a lot of grace they'd gained in the late silent era.  Many films from that era also suffer from poorly recorded audio that is difficult to understand.  But, of course, there are some real gems as well.

So yeah, it's a tossup for me.

[mich3l]

Oh, what I miss about albums/CDs is cover art. mp3s don't have one.
However, I still prefer watching TV to YouTube, I don't like that most PC screens are so small.
I'm only 21, I know something about tech, but I'm not very fond of it.

[mich3l]

No current pop song is a match for I Should Be So Lucky, let alone some more serious stuff like Run To You, I Know What Boys Want, Steppin' Out, Jessie's Girl and many more.

[BoyScoutKevin]

If I restrict myself to horror films and sci fi films . . .

I checked two books out from the local library, "101 Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die" and "101 Sci Fi Movies You Must See Before You Die," if only because both books are divided by decade.

The horror book covering the decades 1910s to 2000s, and the sci fi book covering the decades 1900s to 2000s. And for some reason, the decade of the 1940s is excluded entirely from the sci fi book. If any sci fi films were made in those ten years, obviously the authors didn't think any of them well worth seeing.

Now, the authors think the best decade for horror films was the 1970's, as they picked 22 horror films from that decade. I on the other hand, taking the % of films seen + the % of films I liked, came up with a total score of 43% for the 1970's. Which would make that the worst decade for horror films for me. That is out of a total score of 100% seen + 100% liked = 200%.

As for sci fi films, the authors think the best decade was the 1980s, as they picked 30 sci fi films from that decade. I on the other other hand, taking the % of films seen + the % of films I liked, came up with a total score of 7% for the 1990s. Which would make that the worst decade for sci fi films for me. Again that is out of a total score of 100% + 100% liked = 200%.

[Ozzymandias]

Ozzymandias speaks: I think Rev. Powell was sort of on to what I was discribing that I noticed in my research. There were many movies that were heavily promoted in the 50s as "big extravaganzas" that also played it safe with the production code. Yet films that are remembered well from that era managed to get around the restrictions. Think about the Creature From The Black Lagoon watching Julie Adams in her white bathing suit or Marilyn Monroe's dress blowing up.

I had the day off so I went to the library and checked a microfilm of newspapers for October of 1958. I wrote down the names of the films at the local theaters. I also made note of the ones with heavy press kit material reprinted by the paper. Here's a list of those:

Harry Black and the Tiger (There was a heavy build up and press for this film - I've never heard of it)
Odongo
Andy Hardy Comes Home
The Little Hut
Windjammer
Elephant Walk
Barbarian and the Geisha
Fastest Gun Alive
Iron Petticoat
Imitation General
Naked Earth
A Certain Smile
Indian Fighter
Onionhead
Bullwhip
Merry Andrew
Enemy Below
Joe Butterfly
Day of the Badman
The Bravados

The only heavily promoted films that I recognized as classics were Cat On a Hot Tin Rooof and Damn Yankees.
Of the less promoted films were:
Desk Set (a surprise considering this is a Spenser Tracy and Kathreen Hepburn film)
Voodoo Woman
The Undead
Hot Rod Gang
High School Hellcats
And God Created Woman

What is interesting is that many of the films that were heavily promoted had big stars in them, such as John Wayne, Danny Kaye, Bob Hope etc., yet the titles don't ring a bell with me.  I have seen Onionhead. It is a WW2 comedy with Andy Griffith and Joey Bishop. It has moments but not great.

Ozzymandias has spoken!!!




 

[The Gravekeeper]

Sturgeon's Law: 90% of anything is crap. Combine that with the good ol' nostalgia filter we all carry and it simply looks like what we have today is worse than what came out before. It's just that we're seeing all the crap that nostalgia filters will push out of our memories in 10-20 years. Rest assured that there are gems coming out now, but it does take some digging to find them under all the uninspired crud that gets churned out with it!