Hmmm. I must be oversensitized because I find most of the older movies (yahn) mostly boring. But there are a few...
Oh yes, there are quite a few!
It's more like desensitized actually. Especially American audiences. Started happening in the late 70's. Spectacle over quality.
"Me like things blow up. Me like pithy, stupid catchphrases (make my day, I'm too old for this shit, etc.). Me like fast MTV editing that makes things look like they are "happening". Me like.... Look!!! Something shiny over there!!!"
Short attention spans and plot lines that spell it all out for you. No ambiguous endings. Lots of special effects! Woo hoo!
That's why "showbiz" has devolved into "reality" shows and their "stars". Talentless, ugly humans and their shallow, vacuous pursuits. Lots of celebrities, not too many actors.
You see the results of the dumb-ing down of American audiences on Netflix reviews. Someone accidentally gets an artistic film, like say a Fellini film, and decides to review it: "This thing sucked! The first twenty minutes were so slow I fast forwarded through it. And it was in Italian! Why can't they make it in "American"? The chick was hot though!" Sigh. I wish they would just go and play Halo and leave film appreciation to the adults.
Two of my favorite films from the 70's still hold up quite well and blow most new stuff out of the water. 'Clockwork Orange' and 'Eraserhead'. Two recent films that are very much in the same vein of great 70's film making that I would recommend are: 'No Country For Old Men' and 'There Will Be Blood'. Amazing films and great art too. See, that didn't hurt at all.
In fact, PT Anderson is probably the best American director of his (mine) generation. I really believe he is our next Scorcese/Kubrick.
Also check out the works of Darren Aronofsky. These guys are old school and modern at the same time and are keeping the flame of artistic film making alive and well in these dark times of "technological wow" movies without story, acting or any artistic nonsense getting in the way of the explosions/car crashes/shiny cgi stuff. Hey the movie sucks, but did you hear the sub bass?
Speaking of car chases, just compare say, 'The Fast And The Furious' car chases to the one in 'Bullitt' (1968). The one in 'Bullitt' is real. The one(s) in F&F is done using the lamest, dated computer technology and sucks balls compared to the real thing. But hey, that sh*tty hip-hop soundtrack sounds bitching in DTS!
Old movies rule. You can throw all the wiz-bang techno advances and effects into a modern film but you will still never even come close to making a great "movie" like Hitchcock did. You need more than slick technology to make a film imho. You need story, acting and a directors sure hand. Technology serves that, not the other way around.
