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Does it bother you if a movie "dates"?

Started by BJB, May 08, 2011, 06:21:21 PM

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Old Nehamkin


NoSleep

Atari was found amongst a number of trade names bought when a company changed hands and the Atari name was dusted off.

Santa's Boyfriend

Another film which to my mind has dated a surprising amount is Saving Private Ryan.  I never would have imagined that film dating, and of course the setting etc hasn't dated at all because it's a period drama, but the style of film-making seems to have dated.  The problem is that when Ryan came out, it broke the mould.  The film was so raw and visceral that it was the first time I think I really "got" the sense of chaos and the sheer cheapness of life in war.  The moment at the beginning when the ramp comes down and everyone in the boat is instantly killed really shocked me when I saw it in the cinema, and I think I remained shocked for most of the movie.  But the movie became a template, and every war movie ever since has used it (the Korean movie Brotherhood uses it to great effect.  Rambo 4?  Perhaps not so much...) to the point that in some ways Ryan seems a little overstated now - like Tom Hanks telling Private Ryan to "earn this".

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: wearyworld on May 09, 2011, 08:28:48 PM
That's not a valid criticism. Complaining that science fiction 'gets the future wrong' shows a lack of discernment.
What rot. I neither criticised or complained, just mentioned. Lack of bloody discernment? Think of the Simpsons quote about the EPCOT Centre - "it's what people from the 1960s thought life in the 1990s would be like". It still can be interesting and engaging (well, I don't know re: EPCOT, I've never been there) but you can't ignore the fact that the future portrayed in the thing, whatever it is, passed itself. And I was talking about sci-fi B-movies and not one of the 5 or so greatest novelists in history.

To return back to my original point, giving it more discussion time than it deserves, the reason I mentioned "Hackers" is because the time between the thing appearing and being proved "wrong" was almost instantaneous, and the thing took up so much of the film's running time.

Phil_A

Quote from: NoSleep on May 10, 2011, 08:07:26 AM
Atari was found amongst a number of trade names bought when a company changed hands and the Atari name was dusted off.

Yes, the Atari brand is now owned by the French software company Infogrames, oddly enough.

mr. logic

Quote from: Santa's Boyfriend on May 10, 2011, 08:59:50 AM
Another film which to my mind has dated a surprising amount is Saving Private Ryan.

Good post. Saving Private Ryan's invasion scene is now so aped that as serious a war piece as The Pacific actually felt comfortable parodying it, which is bizarre really.

AlkyBastard

I think one of the things that works in A Clockwork Orange's favour is that it's not explicitly stated at what point in the future it takes place. There's no caption saying "London 1995" (I remember reading somewhere that's roughly when they intended it to be set, but I can't find a source). That lets them get away with it, in my opinion. When I watch the film the "datedness" doesn't bother me because it doesn't look futuristic to my eyes in the first place. Instead it feels like it's set in the '70s, albeit some alternate, dystopian version, and I think that suits it quite well.

I remember someone trying to handwave the differences between the 2015 of Back to the Future Part II and what the real year will presumably look like by putting it down to the Doc's meddling in time. Do people really need such silly justifications for what was intended as a joke anyway? It really annoys me when people can't handle a film set in the future not looking exactly like that year when we pass it.

Brundle-Fly

Pacing can date some films because as we know, we've all been trained to have shorter attention spans.  I've been watching loads of 1950s Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Thriller and Hammer House Of Horror episodes recently and the one element that continually let's some of them down is how grindingly slow they are.  I'm not talking about tension mounting devices but scenes of dreary overwritten dialogue, statically shot, that impel the viewer to wearily gesture that wind up motion at the screen.

The House That Dripped Blood, a 1970 Amicus horror portmanteau, although great fun, really suffers from longueurs like this. And don't get me started on 1970s video nasties.

lipsink

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on May 10, 2011, 05:28:04 PM
Pacing can date some films because as we know, we've all been trained to have shorter attention spans.  I've been watching loads of 1950s Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Thriller and Hammer House Of Horror episodes recently and the one element that continually let's some of them down is how grindingly slow they are.  I'm not talking about tension mounting devices but scenes of dreary overwritten dialogue, statically shot, that impel the viewer to wearily gesture that wind up motion at the screen.

I found 'The Eye of the Beholder' of The Twilight Zone suffered in that the twist was unbearably obvious after the first minute or so. It's still a great idea though but I found a lot of the Season 2 episodes suffered from this (I loved the first Season and found it pretty much timeless). Would this have been obvious to the audience at the time or are we just so used to twists now?

Shoulders?-Stomach!

I think the problem is that on a design level we already manufacture contemporary items to be 'futuristic' in style and that's about the extent of where our imaginations go.

Objects, designs and idea that have focused on the function of items rather than the form have lasted longer.

One of the worst-guessed visions of the future I think has been travel. We had such high hopes, but it looks like walking around, getting the bus and driving a motor car with a shinier shell will be our lot for at least the next century.


Brundle-Fly

Quote from: lipsink on May 10, 2011, 06:11:11 PM
I found 'The Eye of the Beholder' of The Twilight Zone suffered in that the twist was unbearably obvious after the first minute or so. It's still a great idea though but I found a lot of the Season 2 episodes suffered from this (I loved the first Season and found it pretty much timeless). Would this have been obvious to the audience at the time or are we just so used to twists now?

I watched The Incredible World Of Horace Ford from Season Four of TZ last night.  The title held such promise but fuck me, it dragged on and on and on. 

Sometimes the irresistable allure of early Sixties b&w American sci-fi telly is utterly resistable.

I think you're correct about the expectation of a twist with more modern viewers. Roald Dahl's fault?

Santa's Boyfriend

Quote from: mr. logic on May 10, 2011, 12:29:35 PM
Good post. Saving Private Ryan's invasion scene is now so aped that as serious a war piece as The Pacific actually felt comfortable parodying it, which is bizarre really.

To be fair that was Spielberg again!  Not directing maybe, but still Spielberg.

Johnny Textface

Witness was on TV the other night. I'd say the film probably stood up pretty well, although was let down by the Maurice Jarre soundtrack..

Mind you, it probably sounded a bit out of place back then. Not the best idea to pop some synth noodling over a film that mostly concerns backward amish folk.

kidsick5000

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on May 10, 2011, 05:28:04 PM
The House That Dripped Blood, a 1970 Amicus horror portmanteau, although great fun, really suffers from longueurs like this. And don't get me started on 1970s video nasties.

It's that kind of thing that I think many people missed about Tarantino's Death Proof. It was too accurate for modern tastes and that these grindhouse/drive-in films often were acres of boring aimless dialogue with only the occasional burst of action