11 Reasons To Watch Old Movies
By: Hannah Muczynski
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
11 Reasons To Watch Old Movies
Why old movies become timeless with age.
Many of my friends refuse to watch classic movies because they were made before their birth, or even worse , are in black and white. They are seen as outdated, uninteresting and boring. But there are many reasons to watch classic movies because they remain timeless in an age of fast-paced change.
1. They are simple
Old movies are a beautiful reminder of a time when things were simpler. These movies don’t try to wow and shock viewers as the movies of today. Less is more, because the “less” that these movies offer is more meaningful due to the fact that they aren’t trying as hard.
2. Offer a refreshing contrast
Classic movies offer a refreshing contrast with today’s movies. With today’s economy, movies become completely about marketing and are driven by profits. Thus, the ultimate quality of every piece of the movie may not be as on par. However, to contrast, old movies are more about art and telling a story. Each old movie has something unique to offer and a unique way to of telling a story. And due to the lack of technology, old movies offer something refreshing when it comes to content. For example, they have the ability to be scary without being graphic, showing that true fright does not have anything to do with blood and gore.
3. Preserve antiquity and give us a window into the past
Although they are repetitively called outdated and uninteresting, classic movies are still required viewing for many film courses. This is because film instructors see the worth of these movies, and the example that they give. One aspect of this is the historical. For example, "It’s a Wonderful Life" is a movie about the 1940s, made in the 1940s, by people from the 1940s. Oftentimes, classic movies’ plots would be influenced by current events, and sometimes, movies would include news snippets. Classic movies are mini time capsules of the past, containing historical information, especially information about how people lived in a given time period.
4. Help us to learn from mistakes
Old movies help us to learn from the mistakes of the past by contrasting them with the reality of the future. For example, when there is obvious racism or sexism, it makes us uncomfortable, as it should, and we can therefore learn from that. Presenting these older stories are also reminders of the mistakes of the past and serve as lessons for the present and future
5. Generate nostalgia
There are two different aspects to nostalgia: the historical, or nostalgia for the past, and the autobiographical, or nostalgia for a specific, individual past. Due to the amount of history involved in these movies, they offer a sense of nostalgia of the past. But they can also be watched and rewatched by generations because they offer weight, value and emotion. Growing up, my family watched "The Sound of Music" every Easter, and now whenever I watch it, I am reminded of the traditions surrounding the holiday. This represents my individual nostalgia.
6. Present excellent acting
Due to lack of technology, all these movies had to work with and offer to the audience was the actors and the script. If the actors were awful, the movie itself was awful. Thus, the good movies of the past likewise had good actors and acting. One example of this is "Rear Window" with Jimmy Stewart. He is able to act as a man who has both legs broken, and the movie is incredible.
7. Charm us with scripts
The scripts themselves are works of art; the writing is intelligent, and the content is spectacular. Old movies have a large range of topics and styles, whether spectacular, honest and gritty, or even dirty and scandalous. The charm and wit offered by classic movies is unparalleled by modern-day films. Each dialogue is noteworthy! One example is "Arsenic and the Old Lace" with Cary Grant.
8. Offer us originality
The movies of this day and age could be referred to as “The Generation of the Sequel,” as there are numerous sequels and third movies, like "Toy Story 1," 2 and 3. Sequels have their place, but when every movie becomes turned into a sequel and a series, the originality diminishes. However, old movies rarely have sequels, and when they do it is a carefully plotted out affair, rather than just a movie franchise looking to make more money. These movies are original in the fact that they are stand-alone's: they don't need multiple copies to maintain a sense of importance.
9. Are classy
Classic movies are, by their nature, very classy. There are numerous classic icons who provide fashion inspiration for generations. Women wear hats, gloves, high heels and glamorous clothes and men wear suits, no matter what character they are playing. Some examples of these icons are Marilyn Monroe, whose blond hair and curves are iconic, and Audrey Hepburn who was the first to wear the “LBD,” or Little Black Dress, cat-eyeliner, the long cigarette holder and pointed sunglasses.
10. Form the basis of movie culture
Some of the greatest movies of today take their ideas from a classic movies from the past. Certain genres were founded in classic movies, and so as the first of their genre, these classic movies did something that other movies had not. One example is "It Happened One Night" which was the first “rom-com.” Another is "Psycho," which was a thriller, and now remains a Halloween favorite.
11. Present timelessness
Even though they are dated by speech, dress and general style, old movies remain timeless because of their value. While current movies are created to wow and shock, classic, older movies offer a emotional depth and value in script, plot, acting and actors’ persona. Although technology has its advantages, sometimes it can get in the way of true art. Classic movies are a prime example of timeless and seemingly effortless beauty, and something well worth “enduring.”
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Classic Movies were always my first love. On NV I started a Classic Movie group, and when I joined NT the first thing I did was create the Classic Cinema group, which has morphed into the present Movies & TV - Classic to Current. I've watched most of the movies referred to above, which of course includes my most favourite movie of all time - Casablanca.
Different movie article authors have different opinions about what can be called a classic movie, and some indicate different dates they were produced, but a classic movie is one with higher quality than just a movie made many years ago, it needs to be special to be considered a classic movie.
The definition that makes the most sense to me is this:
There are other movie lovers on NT, and I would like to know what their favourite classic movie might be.
Probably the three movies I love the most are, (in order) Shane, The Searchers and The Quiet Man....
There are other movies I like a lot, a great many, but those three I can watch anytime anywhere, they never lose their draw for me...
Ah, your preference is classic Westerns. I think I'd choose High Noon as my favourite classic Western.
If we took a poll, I think most would choose High Noon as the classic western. That genre has mirrored our culture through the decades.
As in the quoted opinion I stated, "acting, music and dialogue" I think the music "Do not forsake me..." really helped make that movie great.
You are correct. Everything was right in that movie. There are various interpretations as to the meaning of the story.
Do you agree with me that Will Kane was a tragic hero?
No. Will Kane was a real hero, and ended up being a better man than most.
This is the definition of a tragic hero: "the central character of a play, film, etc., depicted as a noble figure who experiences a tragic downfall:"
I don't think Will Kane experienced a tragic downfall at all. In fact he was victorious. What he experienced was a huge disappointment with a whole community, and showed his disgust by dropping his Marshall's star in the dirt. The former Marshall had good reason to not join him and couldn't be faulted, the only person at the end that Kane showed respect for was the kid who brought the wagon there, and had earlier begged Kane to allow him to stand with him,
Sorry brother, High Noon is a great picture, but historically, in every rating service available more than 90% consider The Searchers as the greatest western ever made... (and John Wayne's bestest best performance) That is the pic he should have won an oscar for... (came in second)
Unforgiven and Once Upon a Time in the West...my two favorites.
Charles Bronson as ''Harmonica'' leaves an impression with his performance.
Charles Bronson was one of my favorite actors. IMO, his best movie and performance was ''Hard Times'' a 1930s period piece in which he played Chaney who fought in ''smokers'' during the depression years.
That one and Death Wish, the first one, (the sequels were all poorly written garbage) Bronson at his best....
To the me The Searchers is a close second.
My favorite classic western is The Rare Breed with Maureen O'Hara. I prefer movies with a strong female lead.
Stella Dallas still brings tears to my eyes as I remember the sacrifice of a loving mother who could never fit in or get it right in the accepted, conservative society she had somehow married into.
And Topper Returns is one of my all-time favorite comedies.
I recently purchased Arsenic and Old Lace from Prime Video.
In the 1980s, my daughters and I used to watch old black and white movies on PBS on Saturday nights.
One Halloween, PBS had the old black and white Dracula. I don't know if it was because the weather was conducive to creating the creepy atmosphere, but that night that old black and white movie had more horror than I would have exposed my grade schoolers to. I may have wound up sleeping with them that night.
Good post. I guess you would also like movies like Julie & Julia, and The Devil Wears Prada wherein Meryl Streep is not only a strong lead but really displays the characteristics of the protagonist.
I watched The Devil Wears Prada. I don't remember liking it. I like women with strong personalities who are not cruel to others.
I may have heard of Julie and Julia.
I really don't watch much television. I prefer reading or listening to music. Sometimes, I spend hours ruminating on what a wondrous (and often confusing) experience life is and has been.
As long as we are conflating John Wayne and High Noon, does everyone know that John Wayne, and Howard Hawks, hated High Noon so much it became the reason they made Rio Bravo? Wayne was incensed that High Noon made Americans look cowardly (the townsmen that refused to help Gary Cooper), and he wanted to make a film that showed a beleaguered sheriff getting help from people in the town , which of course is the plot of Rio Bravo when the sheriff John Chance gets help from a drunk, an old coot, a lady gambler, and a hotshot gunhand (Ricky Nelson).
Awww. High Noon pictured ordinary Americans look like cowards. Well, that's fiction for you, eh? I'm sure John Wayne would have LOVED The Patriot, and most other WWII Hollywood war movies. That's John Wayne for you, tell the story that makes all Americans great heroes, not one that makes an American hero look even greater by contrasting him with cowards, not one that reflects reality (and I'm not saying that Americans are cowards with that statement - what I'm saying is that in reality there are heroes AND cowards. What do right-wingers call Vietnam draft-dodgers? What do I call a person who gets out of being drafted with a bullshit story about bone spurs?)
Well, for better or worse, I guess we can't expect all towns to be like Coffeyville, Kansas.
Then you didn't like Streep because she was mean and pushed people around, taking advantage of her position - VERY different than she was in Sophie's Choice, VERY different than she was in Julie & Julia, which is the point I've been making that she portrays different characters not just the same the same the same like so many of today's actors do.
I generally agree with the seeded article, but disagree completely that the acting was better back then. Acting today, and in recent years, is the best it has ever been.
Back in the day there were better movie stars, but the acting wasnt better. When you think about it, being a movie star and being convincing playing a character that is supposed to approximate reality are two different things.
My favorite black and white movie is Casablanca. I dont think there is a wasted line in that film.
The Best Years Of Our Lives is up there too. The movie won a slew of Oscars, but I still think it is underrated.
The Apartment with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Some Like It Hot is considered to be Billy Wilders best movie from that time period, but I think The Apartment is better.
I think we need give credit to the various acting schools that came later, starting with the legendary Actor's Studio.
Give the old timers credit as well: They learned as they went along.
I am pretty familiar with all the major female stars from the "classic era". None of them were as good an actress as Frances McDormand is today.
They were better at being movie stars though.
In all the movies I've seen Frances McDormand in she appears to have a very similar personality - maybe that's why she's chosen for the parts she played. I think of a great actor as being one that virtually lives the character they are playing rather than fitting the character to the actor, which is why I consider Paul Muni to be my favourite actor of all time.
I can't agree with that. Put McDormand next to Marlene Dietrich in any script and McDormand comes out looking like a church mouse.
I'm not sure I agree with your comparison, but Frances McDormand is great at what she does. I just don't agree with John's opinion about her.
What does that have to do with acting? Watch Olive Kitteridge and tell me McDormand isnt the best actress alive.
I thought you preferred Meryl Streep. Of course I can't get to see the Olive Kitteridge TV series, but I watched the trailer, and McDormand is good, but personally I still think that Meryl Streep is the better actress.
Of course I like Meryl Streep and her overall body of work is better than McDormand's. McDormand is the now actress though, and she is great. She does play people that are more troubled than heroic, but I think she could play any kind of part. She is a great actress.
Olive Kitteridge is one of the greatest acting performances of all time in my opinion. She plays a mentally ill crank who annoys and insults almost everyone she meets in the course of the four hour movie until in the end she is left alone and suicidal. It is a very challenging role and McDormand is great in it.
And she plays an obsessed person who does weird things in Three Billboards in Hibbing, Missouri as well - she characterizes it well. And Meryl Streep was hilarious in Julie & Julia, but a very different person in Sophie's Choice and a very different person again in The Devil Wears Prada.
Oh comom Buzz.
That stern, delicious German face was timeless!!
I don't know what all this is about McDormand. How many roles has she played?
Frances McDormand has WON four Academy Awards, and you doubt she is a great actress?
Ok John, point well taken.
I never said Frances McDormand wasn't a good actress - as I've said many times on this site: Chacun a son gout.
Bien dit!
My recollection was that The Best Years of Our Lives was your favourite of that era, rather than Casablanca. Did you change your mind? What made Casablanca stand out for me was the repartee between Bogart and Rains, although there is another aspect that really impressed me, and that was that the movie was made during WW2 and some of the actors were actual refugees from Europe, and their emotions were not acting, but real. A prime example was when Yvonne, who was in real life French, was seen crying during the playing and singing The Marseillaise they didn't need to eyedrop water on her cheeks.
It's true - both men and women - of all ages. Things have gotten very relaxed here.
Okay, that's news to me.
Good article, Buzz! I agree with all of the points you made about classic movies.
I have far too many favorite classic movies! Here are 10 (not in a particular order) that I never tire of watching ...
One more ... It Happened One Night
I won't even TRY to create a list.
LOL - those 11 were just the first ones I thought of. After I posted, I thought of 11 more!
My mother before she died spent most of her time watching old movies (that is when she wasn't nose deep in a new book) and her major complain about new movies is that the shots were all so tight and dark. Dark backgrounds, low and aimed lighting, all to prevent from seeing that the sets where small. She loved the grand wide backgrounds that the older movies gave. You would never see Cleopatra entering Rome the same way that Elizabeth Taylor did in '63, they just couldn't have that big of a set due to the costs. Watch Ben-Hur with Charlton Heston and then compare to the 2016 remake and you will see there are way fewer big scenes and the majority of camera angles are tighter and closer. There are some movies that still have big scenes but the majority do not have the big sets to go with it. That may change in the future with the growth of CGI and AI systems in film making.
I won't make a favorite list as there are too many that I love to re-watch.
I didn't ask for a list - just a favourite. I'm with your mother on the movies being too dark now - I just turn them off because I have no patience to watch a movie when I can't see what's happening.
I don't like the dark and tight look at all
If I'm going to list a favorite, it would be a genre. I would watch a musical over any other type of movie. Can't help myself, I love musicals. I watch them all, from Stormy Weather to An American in Paris to Show Boat to Top Hat to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
I own most of them on DVD. I recently had my step-daughter move back in with me along with her 1yo daughter. So I'm busy molding the brain of my granddaughter by playing these old moves for her enjoyment. Isn't the mantra 'Warp their brains early and you have them for life' ?
I agree. Another thing that irks me about newer movies (and even commercials) is that they seem to change frames faster than my eyes/brain can process the action and message. I'm not that old and don't have cognitive disabilities.
I have too many to list, but a few are:
My Fair Lady with Audrey Hepburn
Philadelphia Story with Katharine Hepburn & Cary Grant
Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland
White Christmas with Bing Crosby
Sabrina with Humphrey Bogart & Audrey Hepburn
African Queen with Humphrey Bogard & Katharine Hepburn
Gigi with Leslie Caron & Louis Jordan
They make my list, too!
Okay, keep it going. Now that it's 11 pm I'm turning off the computer for the night.
What do I learn from old classic films?
IMO how people behaved back then - very different from now, which is probably one of the reasons I wish Scotty were still around to beam me back to the early 1950s when I was a teenager.
Yes, indeed. I wasn't a teen in the 1950s, but I do know that the manners and polite behavior I was taught back then are often missing today. Remember when even young boys held doors open for a woman? I even remember men tipping their hats. Very different world today.
It proves one thing, everyone has their own likes and dislikes, modern movies are now going thru a technological revolution CGI is getting powerful enough to where they don't need sets anymore and the experiments in animation are getting to where it is difficult sometimes to tell the difference between a live person and an animation...
Soon, (30 years est.) actual actors will not be needed...
At that point, it is not entertainment anymore, it becomes propaganda...
I agree absolutely, Nowhere Man.