The Decline and Fall of Hollywood
The Decline and Fall of Hollywood
View of the Hollywood sign, damaged and in badly need of repairs. August 8, 1978. (Photo by Ken Papaleo/Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection)
I just read an article that referred to the fact that Hollywood has lost a lot of its lustre lately, and it struck a chord. Although I will not have access to the book that was mentioned: ”The 50 Year Decline And Fall Of Hollywood” By Ezra Goodman, I can guess what some of its contents might be combined with the more recent Hollywood movies that I've been watching here, my opinion of Hollywood movies definitely matches that of what must be Goodman's. The book was written in 1962, but movies were not so bad around that time, so I'm not so sure of Goodman's premise, but if you look back from now, it seems like more of a reasonable description. So many of the recent movies I've seen would have been in the old days "Drive-in fare" or just plain "B" movies, using "B" actors, or even worse.
For many years, both on NV and then here on NT I administered a group named "Classic Cinema". In it I posted many articles about classic movies, classic actors, and classic movie fare such as movie posters or movie magazines. However, after a while the membership, although it had good numbers, started ignoring the articles and I was left on my own, and I believe at least one reason for that would be that the membership was younger and did not have knowledge of the days when movies and actors were not just good, but great. In fact I did a number of quizzes and many members had no knowledge of the movies the questions referred to although they were mostly classic award-winning films. It just wasn't worth my time to be almost the sole contributor.
Who remembers actors like Paul Muni who deserved more best actor Oscars than the one he received, or Louise Rainer. the first to win back-to-back best actress Oscars? Think of great Oscar-winning actors like Charles Laughton, who also was the superb director of the highly acclaimed "Noir" film: "Night of the Hunter". Think of Edward G. Robinson, a great actor unrecognized by the Academy until they finally gave him an Honourary Award, and he also got the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award. What about Bette Davis, whose superb acting lasted for many decades. How many people have songs named about their eyes? Orson Welles - I don't have words enough to describe how accomplished he was.
Think back to movies like Ben Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, On the Waterfront, From Here to Eternity, Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, and so many more, but they were long ago and each year so many great movies competed with other great films to win the Best Picture Oscar. I'm not saying that there have been no good movies since. After all, there have been many, such as The Godfather, Schindler's List, Titanic, The King's Speech, Lord of the Rings, but they are few and far between. One of the differences is that when I watch Colin Firth playing King George VI, I am watching Colin Firth act, but when I watched Paul Muni playing Zola in The Life of Emile Zola, I saw Zola, not Muni. Violence plays a big part in many movies now, and perhaps that induces some to do the tragic things that are happening these days. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies took the cake - turning both movies AND literature into garbage. I've watched so many crazy car chases in the past month in the movies it's as if it's become a necessary aspect for a film.
Anyway, it was once said (or maybe many more times) that "Everybody Loves the Movies", and good or bad, they still entertain us and/or create fantasies and dreams for us.
Does anyone else have an opinion about the movies?
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Does anyone have an opinion about the recent movies as compared to classic films? I know that the advances in movie technology have made a big difference, especially visually. But are the movies really as good as they used to be?
Although I love many of the movies every decade produces, my heart will always be with the classics, especially the black and whites. These are a few of my favorites.
The Canterville Ghost (Charles Laughten/Robert Young/Margaret O'Brien) - The remake with Patrick Stewart is also very good.
Citizen Kane (Orson Wells/Joseph Cotton)
The Ghost And Mrs Muir (Gene Tierney/Rex Harrison/George Sanders)
Wuthering Heights (Merle Oberon/Sir Laurence Olivier/David Niven)
Sunset Blvd (Gloria Swanson/William Holden)
Strangers On A Train (Farley Granger/Robert Walker)
All The Kings Men (Broderick Crawford/Joanna Drew/John Ireland)
There are many more but I would be here all night.
All great movies. I would add Casablanca and Goodbye Mr. Chips to that list, if not about 50 more. LOL
I love that movie!
I never watched it until Perrie told me about it - she really likes that movie. I enjoyed it as well, and I love the cottage.
Rex Harrison was at his best when he was being a smartass.
I always cry when they both leave the cottage as ghosts.
I love this movie. It really is such a great production and story.
Me, too. And I loved her interactions with her late husband's family.
I'm not embarrassed to admit that tears came to my eyes as well, but then I tear up in lots of movies - it doesn't take much, it could even have been when Darth Vader died, once he had become good again and wanted to see his son Luke with his own eyes. Of course movies have a big effect on me - I become part of the movie, and even relive them sometimes as if I were part of the story, or one of the principal actors.
I cried when they left as ghosts, too. They were both finally happy.
Anymore, for good acting, I end up watching television shows rather than movies. I don't watch much American TV, though. I generally watch British TV on Netflix or PBS. I'm currently hooked on "The Crown" and "Call the Midwife". I'm struck by how much more subtle the acting is than is typical of American actors. I don't feel like I'm being bashed over the head with the message of a scene.
Overall, I feel acting today is more "natural" than acting during Hollywood's golden age. I enjoy older movies, but sometimes the acting comes across as a bit stilted - possibly the consequence of less sensitive microphones, but also, I think, the consequence of movie studios' grooming of their stars. They all seem to have the same semi-British, semi-American accent, which doesn't really exist in real life. It seems to me that started changing in the 60s or so, that actors started sounding to me like I imagine their characters would sound, if they were real.
I think the time of the sweeping epic, like "Gone With the Wind", is probably past. The last movie anything like that was "Titanic", which I thought was overrated, even though I love both Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
I've noticed in a few British movies recently that their accent was so strong I had trouble understanding what they were saying. I think I prefer more of a mix with American/Canadian accents.
English accents aren't a problem for me. Scottish accents sometimes throw me, though.
If the Brits can understand us, I am unsure why it's a problem the other way around.
Och Iye
Exactly.
I visited Scotland a few years ago, and while most people were easy to understand, there was this one cashier at a Tesco who had to slow down his speech before any of us could understand a word he said. Then we got to talking, and he was hilarious. "No wonder Americans are so fat. You even have drive-in chemists!" I was the only one in our group who knew that a chemist was a pharmacist. And yeah, he was probably right.
I recently watched Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. It is the story of a woman who is obsessed with the aftermath of the rape and murder of her teenage daughter and goes on somewhat of a rampage around town as a way to keep interest in finding her daughters killer alive.
The movie is both relentlessly depressing and funny, and features one of the best American actresses, if not the best, Frances McDormand. (I would also highly recommend people stream "Olive Kitteridge" which was a two part HBO movie a few years ago about a woman who has severe trouble relating to other human beings and McDormand is even more brilliant in that than she is in Two Billboards).
Yet while watching Two Billboards I got a vague feeling that something was wrong here, the movie is so relentless in portraying a certain low life aspect of rural Missouri townfolk that any chance for any of the characters to redeem themselves is lost. Movies used to require that either the bad guys would change or get punished. In movies today that requirement has gone by the boards. So movies have lost , in many instances, the ability to model moral behavior. But that I think is the society more than something the movies have chose to do. These are much more cynical times.
I have to disagree with you about the actors though, Buzz. Generally, and when done by good actors, portrayals are more realistic today than they were in the 30's and 40's and 50's and 60's even. It is widely known in film history that method acting , as popularized by Marlon Brando and others in the 50's and beyond, changed the style and effect of movie acting from the more formal, line based performances of the early decades of talking films ( think of Cagney or Bogart or Cary Grant) to the more natural , introspective acting of a Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman or DeNiro) When you watch DeNiro in Goodfellas you feel more like you are seeing a real person doing real things than you did watching Edward G Robinson play his gangster parts.
Although I like science fiction, I am not a fan at all of super hero movies. When they were once in a while it was allright, but now they have taken over Hollywood. The last great western I can think of was Open Range with Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall and I would rather watch that than any superhero movie.
Absolutely agree with you about Francis McDormand. She won my respect with Fargo. As for the acting today, I have noticed that notwithstanding the "method" acting there's too damn much mumbling. It's a good thing some movies here have subtitles in English as well as Chinese. Sometimes the clear diction from the days gone by make a movie more appreciated by me, but maybe it's just that I'm losing my hearing due to old age.
A relatively recent movie that didn't have all the technical sensationalism and was a really quiet, sensitive movie that I enjoyed was Tender Mercies. Duvall's acting was understated, he did his own singing, and he had a lot to do with the story.
That gets me as well. The music and noise can be so loud it is hard to get all the dialog.
A pet peeve of mine. Why does the soundtrack have to be so loud when there's dialog?
Yes Hollywood has declined, IMO. How many Batman movies can be made? There are no Clark Gables and Betty Davis's anymore. I rarely go to the theatre anymore. Only just to take my grandchildren. Last movie I saw was Peter Rabbit and it was poorly written. Used to be good actors...Tom Hanks was great and made excellent movies...Big, Apollo 13, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, etc.
...Sleepless in Seattle, Sully....
I agree Hollywood is turning out junk these days and it’s rare to find a movie made in the last twenty years worth watching. It’s not just the quality of the movies but also the movie theaters. The drive-ins are gone and the walk in theaters are horrible in comparison to the theaters of the past.
Yes, the older movie theatres were palaces compared to the stripped down barren multi-room theatres of today. But going to the movies back then was an "event". Today, the theatres are just a place to pay 3 times the regular price of popcorn and soda/pop.
I have only been to one movie theatre in Canada for almost 15 years, and that is when I went home for a week about 10 or 11 years ago for my son's wedding, and my brother and sister-in law and I took in a movie at the little old neighbourhood theatre where we all grew up - it was to see a replay of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. in the almost 12 years I've been here I was in a movie theatre only once - one of those new multi-screen complexes where I watched the final Hobbit film in 4-D. I watched 3-D movies years ago when they were released - House of Wax with Vincent Price, and Bwana Devil. But that 4-D movie was the only one for me where the seat punched me in the back, bounced me up and down, and had my face sprayed with mist. LOL. Anyway, my HDTV has a screen about 4 feet wide, and I sit around 10 feet from it, so I don't need a theatre to see a good image. The sound leaves something to be desired, though.
Have you tried a sound bar? My hearing isn't to the point of needing that yet, but the demos at Best Buy were pretty tempting, anyway.
They're worth it. I have to yell at Mr Giggles to turn the volume down when I go to bed
Yeah really, there rarely is a good original idea coming out of Hollywood. I wasn't really into the older classics like you were. My time was more from the mid 60's to the mid 90's. A lot of good movies made in that time. Not so much since.
I'm not real picky, easily entertained so i still enjoy some of the new stuff but really ..... how many comic books and comic characters can you make movies and sequels about? Antman? Antman and the Wasp?
Really?
....Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Transformers.......
I know .... its crazy. Like a said i do enjoy some of that stuff but Godfather or Raging Bull they are not.
So you are saying we have to sift through the garbage to find the rare gem.
I enjoyed Wonder Woman, although the big battle at the end got boring in a hurry.
I liked it, too. So long as you go in without any expectations of seeing something Oscar-worthy, it's pretty entertaining. It's like bubble gum pop; it doesn't ask much of the viewer. And there's the nostalgia factor - I grew up on the Justice League on Saturday mornings, and Lynda Carter as WW.
The best superhero movie will always be Superman (with Christopher Reeve, not Henry Cavill, ugh).
I remember Lynda Carter's performances as WW as well, and I agree that the Chris Reeves Superman was the best of its genre.
Sorry to do this, especially since everyone is being civil and posting good comments, but it's now almost 10:30 pm where I am and I'm going to sleep, so because I'm concerned that there are some members who might post politics or religion or casting couch comments that I will not be able to moderate (as they have done before on articles that had nothing to do with those things), so I'm locking this article for overnight - open for business again in about 10 or 11 hours.
Although I have just unlocked the article, it will be for only a half hour because I am planning on going out for an hour or two.
I guess most of you are asleep by now, but I've reopened this article for comments, waiting for your morning.
I enjoyed a lot of older movies. I loved movies like Philadelphia story (with Katharine Hepburn) and Arsenic and Old Lace.
It is almost getting to the point that every story has been told.
Lately though I find that I watch a lot of indie films. Not so much main stream movies.
And in quite a few cases, over and over again. I've watched 6 different versions of Pride and Prejudice over the years.
They should have stopped after the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version. It was perfection.
And leave the damn zombies out of it.
Yes, the Firth/Ehle BBC miniseries was the most accurate rendition of the novel. That novel was the reason I majored in English Lit for my B.A. I wrote an article for my Classic Cinema group on the many movies made from that novel, but since I deleted the group, it's gone forever.
I missed that article. I like other versions of P&P well enough, but that's the best one.
And then there's "Bridget Jones' Diary".
I thought the Kiera Knightly version had more physically attractive actors, but it left out too much from the novel. If you can believe it I thought the Bollywood version Bride and Prejudice was quite entertaining and colourful, as most Indian movies are.
LOL - had to smile when Bridget got to marry Colin.
I preferred the BBC version because it was more faithful to the book and the customs of the time, and I never swooned over Matthew McFayden (sp?) like I do over Colin Firth. Keira Knightley is more attractive than Jennifer Ehle, and I like her in general, but she wasn't Lizzie Bennett.
Another favorite of mine.
I like for movies to be entertaining with some action and some comedy.
I love Bringing Up Baby with Hepburn, the Rare Breed with Jimmy Stewart.
The last good western that I have watched was "Last of the Dogmen" with Berenger.
"Secondhand Lions" is my go to film when I want to watch something that is funny, heartwarming and a little bittersweet.
Loved that movie and so did my girls.
Agreed, a very good movie.
Robert Duvall is one of my all time favorite actors. He's also the subject of one of my go to trivia questions most people can't get.
He was Frank Burns in the MASH movie. Another good flick.
There is a new modern day western movie out. I haven't seen it yet but it looks good. It was an indie film trying to break big. The woman that made the film used regular people and not professional actors. The man plays himself in the film as do his friends and relatives. Featuring a lot of the Lakota tribe.
Sorry about the vid Buzz. I know you probably can't see it. The woman that made the move is originally from China.
If Sixpick is around he can put the trailer into a format I can watch.
I just watched Julie & Julia, a 2009 Nora Ephron film, and I haven't laughed so hard in a movie for as long as I can remember. Meryl Streep, who was absolutely hilarious playing Julia Child, may not have received the Oscar she was nominated for, but she won a pile of awards including the Golden Globe best actress award and lots of positive critical review. Her record proves she is a truly amazing actress.
If she wins any more acting awards, she'll have to buy a house just to store the trophies. All completely deserved, of course.