Good movies becoming few, far between
Chris Hicks
I'm not really that finger-wagging guy who believes life isn't nearly as wonderful as it was when I was a kid — you know, when I trod to and from school in the snow uphill both ways, surrounded by butterflies, and there was no divorce or crime or strife of any kind.
I don't think I'm quite that deluded.
Besides, when I write about great old movies, it's often movies that were made well before I was born. So, did I grow up thinking life was better before I came along? Was I an old fogy at birth?
Well, maybe, but that's beside the point.
Every era has its ups and downs. Sure, some great films came out of the 1930s and '40s — but so did the Depression and World War II.
I also have a fondness for the movies, books and rock 'n' roll that came along when I was growing up in the 1960s, but I haven't forgotten Vietnam or the Kennedy assassination.
Today, as the 21st century races toward the end of its first decade, there are some very talented filmmakers and actors out there, and when my wife and I head for the movies each week, we always go in with optimism.
Having said that, I recognize that all of those things have more or less existed since the invention of film more than 100 years ago. But not to the degree — and the mass availability to young people — that pervades our culture today.
I've always had a love for old cinema. When I was a kid I was so enamored of and enthusiastic about all kinds of movies — dating back to the earliest silents — that my parents were often perplexed.
My eclectic taste led to an indiscriminate love for every genre — from low-brow B-Westerns to quirky enigmatic art films. I still feel that way ... albeit more discriminately.
I'm not sure where this came from. My parents loved movies, but they were much more traditional. As my taste blossomed in all directions, my father would often mutter, "What's wrong with you?" (His favorite phrase ... Come to think of it, my wife occasionally says that now.)
So, what's the point of all this autobiography?
I believe in a wide world experience, in sampling a variety, in getting out of your cinematic comfort zone.
But allowing oneself to be cinematically abused is another matter.
I've had to draw the line at the extremely sexual/vulgar and the extremely violent, which are all too prevalent now. I've never seen an "American Pie" or a Judd Apatow movie, nor the so-called torture-porn of the "Saw" and "Hostel" pictures, much less any of their many knock-offs.
Hey, call me a prude — and many of you do that on a regular basis — but when I'm being entertained by a movie I'd rather not suddenly feel the urge to run out of the auditorium.
Maybe theaters should consider providing airsickness bags.
E-mail: hicks@desnews.com
Recent comments
Sometimes I think old films are given a pass, while new films are...
The Authority | May 21, 2008 at 12:02 p.m.
You hit this one dead on. It was refreshing to see someone be vocal...
April | May 7, 2008 at 11:16 a.m.
Couldn't agree more. I have no interest in seeing at leat 90...
observer | May 2, 2008 at 9:43 a.m.
