I read this article titled “Life Should be Like Old Movies.” I had to think about why I watched classic film. It’s funny, but each time I watch a classic it’s like a ritual for me. I set time aside so as not to miss anything and watch the movie as if it were a poem come to life. I don’t just watch a movie, I analyze everything about it.
I like all the warm and fuzzy feelings I get when I watch these movies. I had to think after reading this article about why these films do this to me. Like the writer of this article, I love these films not so much because they’re old movies, I love them because of where they take me. They take me to a “gentler” time. A time of no cell phones, computers, and voices beckoning “a million smart, enticing, empty theories on what the good life really is…” To a time when kids were kids playing stick ball, marbles, just being kids. And parents were sort of in the shadows, but always “steadily there, always watching,” they loved their kids, but knew that kids had their world and needed their space.
Classic film takes me to a time when family meant something. Random acts of kindness were widespread. They take me to time when America was strong and united. They take me to a time when integrity, decency, and honor were attributes of a great person, a hero.
“ Movies have always been a large-screen mirror that reflects our society back to us –gentle society, gentle movies.” “Crass society, crass movies.” Just watch today’s movies and you get the point. Classic film portrayed society as it was with a few exceptions. Of course, we know that Hollywood will embellish for the sake of drama or to just push their agenda. However, old Hollywood did things a lot differently back in the day. When they made films there was a sense of duty and responsibility to society. Classic Hollywood worked very hard to portray life as it was at the time. And if you do some research on the generations of those days, I would say it portrayed it quite accurately.
So when I watch classic film, I too “long for the lost society they portray.” Why do you love classic film?
2 Responses to “Why Do You Watch Classic Film?”
My love of classic films began when I was a very young child and discovered with that startling and humbling epiphany that the world did not begin when I did. There was a great past that had nothing to do with me, but from which I could learn.
I would not say it was an idyllic past by any means. There are many aspects of life in America as depicted in old movies which I find offensive.
But what keeps me riveted on an old film, beyond the lessons learned from the past, is the delight in being told a story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The storytelling was done with an ease and panache that is sometimes lacking in modern films, though certainly not all. There are very good films made today. Perhaps there are not enough of them.
I find it interesting that someone will pay for a DVD of a film from the 1930s. How many people 70 years from now will pay for a copy of film made in 2008, so they can play it over and over again?
Thanks for dropping by Jacqueline! I totally agree with you. I’ve often thought about your last question. I have to guess that very little films made today will ever have the same impact classic films has for us today. The movies today, with a few exceptions, just do not measure.
In fact, I think that many people 70 years from now will still buy Hollywood’s golden age movies.
I can’t see why they would settle for less. Thanks again Jacqueline.