We will just have to face what the problem is...how about the talent of the actors. Who in todays line up of talent come close to the actors in our parents and grandparents time? I will admit there are a few good ones today, but not like years ago. The Oscars are a joke, the people acting today are not in the same league as the actors and actresses years ago. The Oscars that were won for the best movies years ago are the ones people remember. I can't remember what movie won last year or the year before. I haven't been to a movie in about 2 or 3 years. Oh, that is right we were locked down due to COVID. Geez...
Yup. Can you imagine a motion picture hero like Jimmy Cagney accepting an Oscar by running into the camera, throwing up two middle fingers and shouting "F--- the President!" as one recent recipient did?
Truly ... truly sad what happened to the Oscars { Academy Awards Night } It eventually became a sickening display of Politics run amuck. I'm really no fan of Chevy Chase { a known Liberal who despised John Belushi }.But Chase hosted one of the funniest Academy Awards ever. The part where the Camera was displaying those in the audience and then panned over to the Host { Chase }.Who was caught picking his nose as if no biggie was truly funny. I used to wait with bated breath all week for Oscar night.I made plans as to what to eat and drink that night.I didn't want to miss a minute. The last 5 years all that changed.This past year I never even tuned-in. Last year,just barely.The year before not much more. The Oscars Suck ... entirely because Hollywood Sucks. No use even explaining.What is ... IS.
The reason is now simple and Obvious as to what changed.It's been taught.Nurtured into our kids in Public School.Starting in the 70's when Radicals from the 60's started taking over Universities.First with Affirmative Action then on to tenureship among Professors. The best example is 60's Radical Bill Ayers and his wifey { Berdardine Dohrn } They needed to spend their life behind bars.For what they did and inspired with their Weather Underground. They got off scot-free because of some Wire-tapping technicality. Both went on to be lauded Professors in Chicago.Every once in awhile they gave away their agenda.To make sure Kids are taught at the earliest age about things that have nothing to do with kids.In short to Indoctrinate. With wild Radical notions on how to Dislike this Country. Only trust in one party.Them Democrats.We know now why.
Hollywood needs to clean up the bones around their door because they are the cause of that behavior. Some people thought that was a classy act it was rude and tasteless. When it is done to them or their political stance the media covers for them.. "Lets Go Brandon." How long will that phrase be used in polite company..LOL Thank you liberal media..lol.
My 2-cents: The Revenent with DiCaprio was actually pretty good - fantastic cinematography. The Jeff Bridges version of True Grit was great - Bridges was much better than Wayne in my humble opinion, but times were different. Robert Duval as Captain Augustus McCrae in Lonesome Dove - incredible - no one could ever have played it better. Do not miss Comanche Moon for the back story - Val Kilmer was great! Duval was darned good in Open Range too and that movie also has fantastic scenery / cinematography. How about Ed Harris in Appaloosa - seriously good story and Ed surprised me in that one! No Country For Old Men - watch it. I will always love The French Connection. And I just watched Deliverence, yesterday. Geez what a chilling story... Best old time movie for me is Citizen Kane and I also treasure my copy of 1984.
So true. When I was growing and you watched a movie it wold probably be an historically accurate movies about a real hero like Dr Ehrich (w/Edward G. robinson) who cured rabies... or Louis Pasteur or Madame Curie. Maybe it would be Spencer Tracy searching Africa for Dr Livingston. Or possibly a true story from history about the ancient Egypt, or the French Dreyfus affair. Usually it was about the victory of good over evil or the triumph of freedom. Now its criminals overcoming jail time to have sex, pole dancers overcoming whatever it is they need to overcome, etc. Hollywood is, in many ways, leading the American nosedive.
I turned on the TV today and ended up watching an old classic: "Jim Thorpe: All American". A true story about a real American hero who came from humble beginnings, faced racism and adversity and became a roll model to millions, Imagine that.
You included a lot in your OP, so I cut it here, just before you start going into modern actors, which is really just more of your post's thematic element; that is, your sentimental attachment to things from a certain age, I would guess, of your youth/prime. When you try to tie it in to politics & "wokeness," is where, for me, your post goes off the rails.There were good films, and good actors both in the past, as well as now, and lots of the bad, in both categories. One thing you excluded from your post, however, was the way that many old films are treated deferentially just because of their age (like anything starring Bette Davis-- I'm more of a Barbara Stanwyck fan). The other given, with films (as with any other art), is that taste plays a big part in what will appeal to any individual. We each like what we like. It is kind of silly to act like that makes it objectively "better," than films which are not to our own particular taste. Now, to get to some particulars. It's a Wonderful Life was a great film, but that doesn't go for all of Capra's or Stewart's movies. I am a big fan of yesteryear's Clark Gable. But Dustin Hoffman was/is also a great actor. So is Brad Pitt, today. There are some ways that my opinion will match your own; for instance, I cannot watch the modern butchering of such classic films as Planet of the Apes, or any of the films in which Adam Sandler tries to fill the shoes of, for instance, a Burt Reynolds, in The Longest Yard. I just re-watched 1978's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, though I had only intended to watch a little of it, but it was just too good of a film to turn off. The star of that film, Donald Sutherland, is/was also a fine actor. The later versions cannot compete. But I never saw the original, which I just found out, had been directed by Don Siegel (who has a bit part, as a cab driver, in Kauffman's '78 remake). Siegel is probably best known for his Dirty Harry series of films, w/ actor Clint Eastwood, but those movies never had any appeal for me. An earlier film that he did with Eastwood-- The Beguiled-- I would rate as one of the top film masterpieces; clearly, any modern remake is going to pale, by comparison (yet I have seen a review of that film that got fewer stars than the Clint Eastwood vehicles, which co-starred an orangutan). But great films are still being made, such as M. Night Shaman's The Village, or 1999's Fight Club. Another favorite film of mine is Identity, which is one of the few films (like The Graduate) which I can watch again, and again. My classic horror pick, though, goes back to the early 1970s: Polanski's Rosemary' Baby (I am underwhelmed, like you, by all the C.G.I. stuff). Yet, ironically, you cite the old director (from the 1960s) George Romero, as someone you can't watch. I generally find the glut of zombie movies & t.v. shows of today to be pretty stupid, but there are exceptions. There was a good remake of Night of the Living Dead, that I think was called Dawn of the Dead. I still have yet to watch a newer zombie film, that I taped, starring Bill Murray, who used to do a lot of good films, before he tried to become a "serious" actor. But none of his later stuff measures up to the hilarious & inventive Groundhog Day, or The Man Who Knew Too Little (not to mention, Scrooged) Miscellaneous odds & ends: I used to love Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, as a teen, but but there doesn't seem a whole lot to it, looking at it now. Like you, I have noticed the obsession with Super Heroes, which I am, also, not into. It is remarkable that for any "A-list" actor, these days, that role is almost obligatory, regardless of how far out of your wheelhouse, it appears. Hence, we get Paul Rudd as Ant Man, and happy-go lucky comedic actor turned romantic leading man, takes turns as Deadpool. "Serious actors," like Edward Norton, become the Hulk, Ben Affleck becomes Daredevil, and, going way back, a young Liam Neeson dons the cape of Darkman. Plus, that guy who plays Wolverine (oh yeah, Hugh Jackman). But, apparently, that is where the money is. Still, we can't blame this on our current times, because nearly all these comic book characters come from days past (sometimes long past) when they were very popular, adult entertainment. I actually have a theory that this intrinsic appeal of supernatural saviors comes to us as a buried communal memory, of when our ancient ancestors were visited by extra-terrestrials, but going into that, would be taking a big detour from the thread. A modern actor, who I very much like, and rate highly, is Sam Rockwell. So what I'm saying is, I think there is worthwhile stuff out there, for people who are open to it. Just don't give me Ben Stiller, updating a role played by Al Pacino-- that's what I would call a real Dog Day Afternoon.
