I’m usually not one to say much about films, unless they are classic movies, which are the staple of my collection. But having seen numerous discussions online about the content of modern films, I have to wonder what brand of handcart our society is going to hell in, and how quickly.
Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but there are others who feel as I do. The modern movies being made today just plain suck. I can’t help but shake my head at what passes for cinema today. “Art films” have taken off into a bizarre stratosphere that only rabid film buffs can appreciate, or even understand. For the general public, though, most of it is complete and utter garbage. And the public is accepting it as the norm. This disgusts me no end.
Do filmgoers have to endure endless streams of profanity? If I want that, I’ll hop into a time machine and go back to high school, where I can cuss up a storm to “be tough” just like the other kids in the locker room. I outgrew it once I left school; I’m surprised grown adults have to lock into that childish mentality to get a point across or, worse, appeal to the lowest common denominator by writing them into modern films.
Do we all need to see splattering blood, bloody entrails or other senseless blood and gore? Realism is one thing, but puhleeze: we get enough of that in real life.
Do films have to be a constant barrage of double-entendres and crotch jokes? Grow the hell up, people: life itself is not one constant crotch joke or double-entendre. Again, I’ll go back to high school if I want to relive adolescence.
And if I want porn (which I don’t), well…I’ll just hop online and find all sorts of bizarre and strange carnal acts. If I want them in my own home, I’ll drop a few bucks with Adam & Eve and have the pleasure of multiple camera angles and crystal-clear still frames for the money shots. But no…all I have to do is locate any recent R or PG-13 rated film to get practically the same thing and, therefore, not be labeled a “dirty old man.”
Today’s movie-going audience has no morals whatsoever to tolerate this garbage.
The question is…why? A couple of reasons. First of all, these so-called actors and actresses today just can’t act! They are nothing but “pretty faces” (and bodies) that are manufactured to look good on the screen; I can’t tell one from the other. Classic actors of the past can act circles around them.
Second, just about all the films today have weak or non-existent plots. Screenwriting is a business today; in the past, it was an art. Most films today are predictable as hell, and have to use the constant profanity, nudity, crotch-jokes and soft-core porn to hold the audience’s attention. Intelligent. Really intelligent. We no longer have to use our brains to analyze and understand a movie: the writing is so poor that we either have the plot completely dumbed down, or filled in with all the “garbage” to fill the constant lulls.
Finally, a lot of it is the moviegoing public. Many, especially women, just have to have the soft-core porn, or at least a lot of naked skin, in order to make a movie worthwhile. Others need to see blood splattering, or hear constant f-bombs to be able to “relate to” whatever is happening on the screen. The audience itself has dumbed down considerably; I bet few of the younger moviegoers could ever understand a good Hitchcock film inside and out.
In short, the whole trend of these modern films is dumbing down. We’re no longer given the chance to use our imaginations. When a bad guy is shot in an old movie, we see the gunshot and imagine the bullet hitting the bad guy, dropping him to the ground. Today, we need to see blood and flesh splattering. In Gone With The Wind, when Rhett picks up Scarlett and carries her upstairs, we know what will happen behind closed doors…with our imagination. Nowadays, moviegoers are too stupid to figure that out on their own, so we cue up the porn that they can relate to. And since we’re also too stupid to figure out clever jokes and witticism, all we can laugh at are crotch jokes.
Get a clue, Hollywood. You haven’t turned out a decent film in decades. I’ve already voted with my wallet and own very few movies made past 1980, and refuse to watch just about anything made since then. Why waste my time when there is so much better film out there? Films made decades ago were art; today’s films are only made to ring up the box-office and DVD-release profits. I’m not feeding the monster, thank you very much!