How much of “why modern X sucks” is attributable to survivorship bias? There were plenty of horrible movies/music/art/etc. made in years past; today, we only watch and remember the ones that were good enough to survive the test of time.
Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]
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Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]
#92Knew this was Critical Drinker before I clicked on it. Mate introduced me to it and he is absolutely spot on for the most part. Modern movies (and TV for that matter) have become so commercialized and expensive that the series they are now rehashing (Star Wars for instance) wouldn't be possible to create today. George Lucas definitely didn't have the name or history necessary when Alan Ladd gave the go ahead to make…
> George Lucas definitely didn't have the name or history necessary when Alan Ladd gave the go ahead to make Star Wars that you would need these days for a comparably ambitious film. I don't know if that's entirely true. George Lucas had come off the back of American Graffiti, which was an incredible commercial success. It had made 50x its budget, and in 1977 was the 13th highest grossing film of all time . The quest…
True, American Graffiti was pivotal in him getting the shot he did. What I am saying is I don't think that plays out the same way today given movie budgets, you can't just have one person like one film you made and force through the production budget of a AAA film anymore.
Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]
#93Knew this was Critical Drinker before I clicked on it. Mate introduced me to it and he is absolutely spot on for the most part. Modern movies (and TV for that matter) have become so commercialized and expensive that the series they are now rehashing (Star Wars for instance) wouldn't be possible to create today. George Lucas definitely didn't have the name or history necessary when Alan Ladd gave the go ahead to make…
I agree with the box office movie theater experience, and yet movies as a whole still allow the offshoots. You cant find them in theaters, but you can fine them on streaming services.
Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]
#94I worked for a while with a guy who'd worked at the BBC for many years. His reasoning for why movies are more boring was simple: money. A production team is looking to distribute their movie in as many channels as possible, and with the broadest appeal possible. As a result, you see a film made with the broad strokes but lacking in subtlety. If a film might be challenging because of the subject matter, the complexity…
Money has always been there, I think it’s really more about connectedness. Audience sizes have exploded as population has grown and cultures have become more connected due to globalization and the Internet, so the TAM has exploded and led to the watering down of…everything, from movies to games to news & politics.
Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]
#95Another enormous gripe I have with modern movies, other than the (lack of) interesting moral lessons from OP, is the sound design. Loud explosions and music, with quiet, mumbled lines[1]. I'm forced to watch every movie with subtitles on, or to miss a good chunk of the dialogue. And I'd go beyond that, and blame the mumbled lines for our lack of interesting quotes. It's a lot harder to have unexpected turns of phrase…
Gameplay and enunciation look quite standardized in modern movies. I remember a quote from a vietnamese director who said he cannot stand movies where you do not see people breath. Look at blockbusters: you never see people breath. When you do see them breath it is very much overplayed.
Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]
#96I think the video doesn't go deep enough: the problem is not that movies teach the wrong lessons, but rather that the movies are so hyper-optimized for engagement and ROI that there's no room for nuance. He may not like the newest Star Wars trilogy, but it nonetheless made a lot of money. That said, I think the author (and also me in the previous paragraph) uses the term "movies" to refer to "big budget movies", whic…
Check out non-US filmmakers, there are some incredible films outside the Hollywood/Netflix cabal. For example, if you want nuance, check out "I am not an easy man", a French film, on Netflix at the moment, where a male chauvinist is transported to a world where females are the dominant gender, and he's forced into a frivolous, weak and sensitive male stereotype. That's just the setup, and it is multiple view worthy f…
I enjoy watching French comedy dramas becuase the humour is incredibly subtle, unlike the majority of Hollywood films that are the exact opposite. I'll tolerate Jeniffer Aniston though.
Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." -- Yoda These are all 'natural things', doesn't mean we should rush to embrace them and the people who use them to manipulate us.
Do you know what fascist means? Or are we just going to use that word for everything that we find unappealing now? Would love for you to define it, and explain how it applies to American nostalgia for older classic movies that are a foundation of our pop culture.
> The core mobilizing myth of fascism which conditions its ideology, propaganda, style of politics and actions is the vision of the nation's imminent rebirth from decadence.
Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]
#98[deleted]
Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]
#99Knew this was Critical Drinker before I clicked on it. Mate introduced me to it and he is absolutely spot on for the most part. Modern movies (and TV for that matter) have become so commercialized and expensive that the series they are now rehashing (Star Wars for instance) wouldn't be possible to create today. George Lucas definitely didn't have the name or history necessary when Alan Ladd gave the go ahead to make…
The biggest problem with movies is none of the labor has been automated much. You still need an entire film and sound crew. You still need a cast of actors and a director and a screenwriter and a composer. You still need to raise money, producers, etc. Sure, video & sound editing have had a lot of automation improvements via software - but that's pretty much it. One person can make a game with a bunch of cheap pre-ma…
There are many examples of making a film on a budget of almost nothing. Clerks, Evil Dead, the Sweding movement, most all of Tik Tok…
You can make a compelling story via flip book.
Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]
#100One thing I've noticed is that is seems more recent movies lack character observations. Everything is done is in service of the plot. I think it was in Doctor No there was a conversation between Q, M and Bond. Bond's favourite weapon was the Beretta, and Q explained their downsides. Bond was ordered to use the Walther (IIRC) as a replacement. It was in a box. At the end of the scene, Bond picks up the box, surreptiti…
I call that sort of "good" plots "character-oriented plot".
One best example is Breaking Bad, which is not movie, but it is a great show anyway. The episode of Fly is a good example how well BB portrayed character's personality.
with character-oriented plot, we have character first, and let them play drama. It is like having initial condition and seeing how things evolve in Ordinary Differential Equation. Everything seems natural. I don't think screen play is not that simple, but good plot makes people think in that way.
On the other hand, with plot for the sake of plot, there is a predetermined plot at the outset, and as the show progresses, the actions and personalities of the characters are adjusted accordingly. There is no real personality there, just a cog in the wheel.