What's new

Classic Movies I’ve Never Seen and Will Not See (1 Viewer)

jcroy

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2011
Messages
7,916
Real Name
jr
Is there a precise "cutoff" date as to what can be considered a "classic" film?

Or are we just arbitrarily choosing whatever cutoff date (or no date) we want to use?
 

Colin Jacobson

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2000
Messages
13,328
Wow, "Gentlemen's Agreement" a stinker. Oh well, different strokes for different folks.

I wouldn't call it a "stinker", but it's so heavy-handed that it's a drag to watch.

Based on my movie-watching, I get the impression that the post-WWII period was one in which people started to pay more attention to social issues.

Look at the Best Picture winners from 1945-1947:

"Lost Weekend" - alcoholism
"Best Days of Our Lives" - post-war trauma
"Agreement" - bigotry

"Best Days" is good, but the other two lack subtlety and force their themes down the viewer's throat.

I appreciate Hollywood's "baby steps" toward social issues but the movies haven't aged well.

http://dvdmg.com/gentlemansagreementbr.shtml
 

Colin Jacobson

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2000
Messages
13,328
Is there a precise "cutoff" date as to what can be considered a "classic" film?

Or are we just arbitrarily choosing whatever cutoff date (or no date) we want to use?

I can see a desire to have some cutoff date to see how well a movie ages.

Lots of movies get tons of praise in their day but then don't hold up especially well.

Maybe 20 years is a good cutoff? Though even that's not always appropriate - for instance, it was clear "The Matrix" was a genre classic well before this year...
 

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,615
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
Is there a precise "cutoff" date as to what can be considered a "classic" film?

Or are we just arbitrarily choosing whatever cutoff date (or no date) we want to use?
I think there are times when you know a movie is going to be consider a classic right away without the passage of time. Take for instance, 1998, I knew right away that "Saving Private Ryan" would be long remembered than "Shakespeare in Love". What I didn't know is that "The Big Lebowski" would be too.:)
 

Winston T. Boogie

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 31, 2004
Messages
11,601
Location
Agua Verde
Real Name
Pike Bishop
Hell yeah! Surprised you've even asking!

Really, you have to ask that question knowing their history?????

I don't know what people's cutoff line is with "classic film" so that's why I ask. I mean I know they are well loved films but I don't know how people define "classic" so I did not want to "assume" they were.

I have E.T. on Blu-ray but so far have not made it all the way through the film. I think I just came to it way too late. I skipped it when it was released in the 1980s and did not attempt to really sit through it until sometime in the last 4 years or so. So, it has no "nostalgia" value for me because I did not see it way back when and it is not subject matter that really appeals to me. I will try again at some point.

Titanic I've tried a few times and fell asleep and on other occasions just shut it off because it just was not appealing to me. Not sure I'll try that one again as I tend not to like much of Cameron's work. Liked Terminator and the Abyss but beyond those it's been pretty much all miss for me.
 
Last edited:

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,615
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
I don't know what people's cutoff line is with "classic film" so that's why I ask. I mean I know they are well loved films but I don't know how people define "classic" so I did not want to "assume" they were.

I have E.T. on Blu-ray but so far have not made it all the way through the film. I think I just came to it way too late. I skipped it when it was released in the 1980s and did not attempt to really sit through it sometime in the last 4 years or so. So, it has no "nostalgia" value for me because I did not see it way back when and it is not subject matter that really appeals to me. I will try again at some point.

Titanic I've tried a few times and fell asleep and on other occasions just shut it off because it just was not appealing to me. Not sure I'll try that one again as I tend not to like much of Cameron's work. Liked Terminator and the Abyss but beyond those it's been pretty much all miss for me.
Whether I personally like a movie doesn't really matter, but I do know when a movie is going to be a classic whether I liked it or not.

By the way, I'm surprise you never saw E.T. Weren't you a kid during its release?
 

Winston T. Boogie

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 31, 2004
Messages
11,601
Location
Agua Verde
Real Name
Pike Bishop
Wow, "Gentlemen's Agreement" a stinker. Oh well, different strokes for different folks.

Trust me, I was shocked I felt that way but I had to force myself to sit through the whole thing. I kept thinking "This has to get better." and I like the director and actors involved. Then I reached the end and thought, "Oh my god, that was awful."

It's probably that the material and approach to it was so dated and I think the only way to watch it is with the understanding that it is very much "of it's time" and that there were reasons why they approached it the way they did...but wow, I could not find a way into it.
 

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,615
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
Trust me, I was shocked I felt that way but I had to force myself to sit through the whole thing. I kept thinking "This has to get better." and I like the director and actors involved. Then I reached the end and thought, "Oh my god, that was awful."

It's probably that the material and approach to it was so dated and I think the only way to watch it is with the understanding that it is very much "of it's time" and that there were reasons why they approached it the way they did...but wow, I could not find a way into it.
It was a very different time in 1947, and you need to watch these movies filmed in a different era with that clearly in mind. I've heard stories from my grandfather that would make your hair stand up and some of those stories involved white people suffering retributions because of their religion and/or ethnicity.
 
Last edited:

Worth

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
5,230
Real Name
Nick Dobbs
Sometimes, part of the problem is that certain films are so influential that they're endlessly copied and ripped off, to the point where the original no longer seems that impressive. I remember being mostly unimpressed by Psycho when I saw it for the first time - but I was already familiar with the shower scene and the twists in the film. To an audience seeing that for the first time in 1960, it must have been shocking, but seeing it in the early-80s after already seeing numerous rip-offs left me cold.

I would think someone coming to something like Blade Runner today would feel the same way. I was totally blown away by that movie when it came out - I had never seen anything like it. But it's been copied so many times over the years that its power seems diluted now.
 

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,615
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
Sometimes, part of the problem is that certain films are so influential that they're endlessly copied and ripped off, to the point where the original no longer seems that impressive. I remember being mostly unimpressed by Psycho when I saw it for the first time - but I was already familiar with the shower scene and the twists in the film. To an audience seeing that for the first time in 1960, it must have been shocking, but seeing it in the early-80s after already seeing numerous rip-offs left me cold.

I would think someone coming to something like Blade Runner today would feel the same way. I was totally blown away by that movie when it came out - I had never seen anything like it. But it's been copied so many times over the years that its power seems diluted now.
Excellent point, many of the movies we're discussing, I first saw as a child during the 1960's so I have a different outlook on them than somebody that might see it today for the first time as an adult. There is a sequence in "Lost Weekend" that scared the crap out of me when I first viewed it in the mid-60's before my teenage years.
 

Colin Jacobson

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2000
Messages
13,328
I think there are times when you know a movie is going to be consider a classic right away without the passage of time. Take for instance, 1998, I knew right away that "Saving Private Ryan" would be long remembered than "Shakespeare in Love". What I didn't know is that "The Big Lebowski" would be too.:)

"Lebowski" was definitely a left-field "classic". On the heels of the well-regarded "Fargo", I think it was viewed as a letdown.

I saw it early in its run with my then-girlfriend. Neither of us loved "Fargo" but we were still interested to see the follow-up.

We left "Lebowski" with a "geez, that sucked!" impression.

I appreciate the movie more now than then, but I admit I don't get its popularity.

I just don't like the Coens' brand of humor for the most part. I like their dramatic movies - "Miller's Crossing" is great - but their comedies feel forced to me, like they're some college professor's idea of what comedy should be rather than actual comedy...
 

Winston T. Boogie

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 31, 2004
Messages
11,601
Location
Agua Verde
Real Name
Pike Bishop
Whether I personally like a movie doesn't really matter, but I do know when a movie is going to be a classic whether I liked it or not.

I would say I am definitely not able to do this. Most of the time I think I have no idea if something will be a "classic" or not. I mean, there are films that are "classics" to me because I have seen and enjoyed them so many times but I think to others would likely not be considered classics.

By the way, I'm surprise you never saw E.T. Weren't you a kid during its release?

I was in High School in 1982, a freshman. At that point I was sort of already being very selective about what I watched. So, I skipped E.T. and Conan the Barbarian back then because at the time they just did not seem like stuff I wanted to watch. I recall a group of friends going to see Conan and coming back telling me it was "The greatest movie of all time." which I was skeptical of. I only saw it on blu-ray many years later...and I loved it. My brother had pushed it at me for years and I just kept avoiding it, I guess because I thought it was some goofy "dungeons and dragons" thing. He kept saying "No, it's Milius man, it's amazing!"

I should have listened. With E.T. I can only recall the girls in High School talking about it and I think I sort of percieved it as some sort of children's or chick flick. It just was not on my radar.

There were three films I kept going back to the cinema to see that year, Blade Runner, The Thing, and Poltergeist.

High School boys, you know, that kind of thing was what I was into, ha.
 

Colin Jacobson

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2000
Messages
13,328
I would say I am definitely not able to do this. Most of the time I think I have no idea if something will be a "classic" or not. I mean, there are films that are "classics" to me because I have seen and enjoyed them so many times but I think to others would likely not be considered classics.



I was in High School in 1982, a freshman. At that point I was sort of already being very selective about what I watched. So, I skipped E.T. and Conan the Barbarian back then because at the time they just did not seem like stuff I wanted to watch. I recall a group of friends going to see Conan and coming back telling me it was "The greatest movie of all time." which I was skeptical of. I only saw it on blu-ray many years later...and I loved it. My brother had pushed it at me for years and I just kept avoiding it, I guess because I thought it was some goofy "dungeons and dragons" thing. He kept saying "No, it's Milius man, it's amazing!"

I should have listened. With E.T. I can only recall the girls in High School talking about it and I think I sort of percieved it as some sort of children's or chick flick. It just was not on my radar.

There were three films I kept going back to the cinema to see that year, Blade Runner, The Thing, and Poltergeist.

High School boys, you know, that kind of thing was what I was into, ha.

We're virtually the same age and I don't recall any "it's a girls movie" or "it's a kiddie movie" attitude about "ET".

Seems like everybody saw it!
 

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,615
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
A Spielberg movie from that time period didn't have any designations to them as being a kid's or a woman's movie.
 

Winston T. Boogie

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 31, 2004
Messages
11,601
Location
Agua Verde
Real Name
Pike Bishop
We're virtually the same age and I don't recall any "it's a girls movie" or "it's a kiddie movie" attitude about "ET".

Seems like everybody saw it!

A Spielberg movie from that time period didn't have any designations to them as being a kid's or a woman's movie.

You guys are obviously right, in that E.T. is a hugely loved picture and it seems most people have seen it. It is one of those films during a discussion if somebody says "What's a film people would be surprised you have not seen?" that I always mention. So, I am well aware of how popular it was.

In the little world I was in, the guys I was hanging out with, it just never came up much. At that point what I recall them all having a huge hunger for was slasher films, most any kind of horror, and oddball comedies, particularly those 1980s High School comedies like, from the same year, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and also Last American Virgin, which was also popular in the crowd I ran with.

I recall hearing so many Jeff Spicoli impersonations in High School it was maddening.

So, I admit my perception at the time was very much based on what I and all the people I was spending time with were focused on. I did not know Blade Runner and The Thing were flops back then as we could not get enough of them and just thought they were some of the greatest movies ever made. So, I was insulated from what the world thought about them.

No internet, no being subjected to all kinds of reviews. I mean you had to go buy a newspaper if you wanted to read a review so, if we thought it was great, it was just great. There was no raging debate or internet troll farm pumping out fury over what they did to the Star Wars universe or whatever.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,818
Messages
5,123,899
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top