Are you sick of old films and music getting ALL the credit?

Question

I am. Sure there are some great old movies and music but I'm getting sick of the way they are always being regarded over anything that's new. They may have influenced the way things are done but it's no reason to keep putting them up on a pedestal and praising to the high heavens over and over again. By the time it's the year 3000 when film making and music is vastly different should 'Citizen Kane' still be praised and called the greatest movie ever made? I think not. I'm also sick of all this film snobbery where films these days are criticized and always being said to just be lots of special effects and explosions and then this elitist attitude that every film should be in Black and White, contain lots of witty dialogue and force you to think to be any good. It's the same thing with music. Anything that's fast or noisy is considered bad. It's just getting ridiculous that anything that's 'cool' is considered to be inferior. One more thing is that please don't flame me for this!

Answer 1

With all the remakes there are these days, or movies about decades old cartoons as though all the good ideas have been taken and the old ones need regurgitating, it's no wonder today's hollywood films get no credit. I don't believe they deserve any. But thankfully, there are great foreign and indy films, so we don't have to totally rely on the past. Citizen Kane isn't my favorite all time film, but it (and the dense film Birth of a Nation) will always be listed at the top for being so different from the films that came before it. Who knows when, if ever, hollywood will stop making cookie cutter films and make something unique again.

Similarly with music, american pop music used to change decade by decade, now we have rock being regurgitated for 40 years and rap for 30....

Hope you don't consider this flaming, I just feel passionately that creativity is gone in american pop culture.

Answer 2

The old films are praised because they are original. There are some good fmils that are current. But most films are based all or in part on other films. They are not original, entertaining .... yes. But not original.

As for music. If it is noisy it IS bad. By very definiation noise is bad. Not to be confused with loud. Loud is good. Noise is bad.

I think the beef with music is that. It used to be a person had to study for years to be considered an artist.. This is not always the case these days.

Answer 3

To each their own, I am one of those people who prefer the older movies and music. To follow up on what you said about special effects, they are good sometimes but when your critiquing movies and about the acting a movie that has more acting and less special effects will always get higher praise.

About the music, how much of today's music will be remember 30, 40 or 50 years from now. How much of it will still get playing time. If people did not like the "old" music why is it still getting playing time?

Peace be with you

Answer 4

If you rate films for varied criteria, many old films win hands down.

Unfortunately, the modern emphasis on profit (even worse than it was in the past), globalization, and special effects have decreased the quality of photographic technique and most tragically acting.

I agree with you though that some modern films are not given credit for increasing the scope of film though.

I think that most critics began by watching old films and are nostalgic for them and don't give new films any kudos.

I wish there would be the overall quality of the past combined with the technology of today.

And I wish talent affected casting more than box office or acting and that more books were well adapted for the screen (in the manner of The Godfather)