# Do we just expect more out of movies today?



## Abd_Yesua_alMasih (Feb 25, 2009)

I was just watching Dr No and Goldfinger. It got me thinking. While the stories might be good, a lot of what happens inside just doesn't feel real. The fights scenes are faked and the cinematography is often cheesy. I feel in some scenes they hadn't thought through exactly what was happening.

Now it would be somewhat irrational to conclude that people back then didn't have the same acting/film skills that we have now. They obviously were still humans and the actors had high levels of skills. Was it then that people had different expectations from what they watched? Today it appears everything has to be realistic. People demand it. If a director can't make something look real then more often than not it is not put into the film.

Does anyone have experience with this? I must confess I am not a film buff, but could someone who does watch a lot of movies, works in the industry or maybe studied it in university comment on this?

Or am I just a young guy that just doesn't get "it"


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## LawrenceU (Feb 25, 2009)

No, you are spot on. Frankly, I prefer the older movies. They are less draining to watch and in reality the acting was what held you, not the 'action'.


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## No Longer A Libertine (Feb 25, 2009)

Special effects have evolved tremendously over the decades but a new retardation of creativity threatens the industry, movie magic ceases to exist because of CGI.

No longer do audiences marvel at a cinematic spectacle and think "I wonder how they did that?" instead the default answer is it was computer generated or enhanced.

So many F/X shots now are done with green screens or with the intent of adding the bulk of stunts and explosions in post production that the wonder and improvisational creativity of merely 20 years ago is gone.

What a challenge and joy it once was for film makers to devise a way to blow a bridge in a single shot, to literally burn a backlot to recreate the burning of Atlanta for 'Gone with the Wind' to have Steve McQueen leap a barbed wire fence with a Harley Davidson, for Harrison Ford to out run an 800 pound paper mache boulder because if it weighed any less it wouldn't roll correctly.

Now the wonder is gone, the craft is diminished, the computer animator takes all the glory and the creativity is not challenged.


Now in regards to acting styles of another era, keep in mind that gritty realism is a modern inclination, one first started in 1969 with films such as 'Bonnie & Clyde' and "Easy Rider", this ushered in cynicism and vulgarity and graphic violence that had previously been taboo in American film making.


One must remember when watching early Hollywood films that most of these pictures were shot like plays on screen, the actors behaving little different than as if performing in a theater, once the forum was mastered the techniques and expectations changed as well.

Still escapism was the predominant fair seen in a Hollywood movie, the bleakness didn't arrive until the Hippies came to Hollywood and that's the honest truth.


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## Abd_Yesua_alMasih (Feb 25, 2009)

That is interesting about the creativity. So it seems that where once it was an art, now that almost everything is possible it has become more of a science?

Maybe you said it and I missed it, but to what extent is it a changing attitude? In the past people wanted entertainment while now we want to escape reality?


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## No Longer A Libertine (Feb 25, 2009)

Abd_Yesua_alMasih said:


> That is interesting about the creativity. So it seems that where once it was an art, now that almost everything is possible it has become more of a science?
> 
> Maybe you said it and I missed it, but to what extent is it a changing attitude? In the past people wanted entertainment while now we want to escape reality?


Well you'll notice that the action-adventure and comedy, romance and swashbuckling fanfare are the ingredients the mega summer blockbusters still employ because people still want to be entertained and treated to escapist fun; it is the pretentious elite the that run the Academy that like to scoff at the populist demands and declare their self important films to be award worthy and usually peddling a social agenda of some fashion.

I don't know that audiences have changed all that much apart from attention spans, cutting styles in the MTV generation are a mile a minute.

While I was in film school we diagnosed this and analyzed it, we watched a few scenes of the classic "Casablanca" and noted 7 cut in the span of a two minute scene, then we watched a clip of "Bourne Identity' and noted 36 cuts in the same increment of time.

There is a restless since of instant gratification that makes pacing of film a much more hurried event, one can argue that some stories require breathing room that the modern summer blockbuster does not accommodate.


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## charliejunfan (Feb 25, 2009)

After the Matrix and the LOTR Trilogy everything was useless pretty much, batman is good!


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## Kim G (Feb 26, 2009)

No Longer A Libertine said:


> While I was in film school we diagnosed this and analyzed it, we watched a few scenes of the classic "Casablanca" and noted 7 cut in the span of a two minute scene, then we watched a clip of "Bourne Identity' and noted 36 cuts in the same increment of time.
> 
> There is a restless since of instant gratification that makes pacing of film a much more hurried event, one can argue that some stories require breathing room that the modern summer blockbuster does not accommodate.



I'm sure this is true, but I wonder if comparing two minutes of Casablanca with two minutes of Bourne is a fair comparison. They are two very different films, and the Bourne films are cut that way to give you that feeling of barely staying one step ahead of the bad guys.

Take a look at some of M. Night Shyamalan's films. He does a lot of long scenes without cuts. I always find it fascinating.

Perhaps this is also why we are seeing a boost in independent films. People are wanting to see fresh cinematic ideas rather than CGI and big-name actors.


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## LawrenceU (Feb 26, 2009)

Did anyone else find the film 'Bella' refreshing? Not only in the plot, but in how it was filmed and edited?


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## Theogenes (Feb 26, 2009)

We are jaded, my friend, jaded....


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## No Longer A Libertine (Feb 26, 2009)

Kim G said:


> No Longer A Libertine said:
> 
> 
> > While I was in film school we diagnosed this and analyzed it, we watched a few scenes of the classic "Casablanca" and noted 7 cut in the span of a two minute scene, then we watched a clip of "Bourne Identity' and noted 36 cuts in the same increment of time.
> ...


The Bourne cutting is an industry standard for action films, the only difference between Bourne and Transformers was hand held sequencing.

Shamalyan's career is all but dead in the water so he might not be the best teaching tool.


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## Kim G (Feb 26, 2009)

No Longer A Libertine said:


> The Bourne cutting is an industry standard for action films, the only difference between Bourne and Transformers was hand held sequencing.
> 
> Shamalyan's career is all but dead in the water so he might not be the best teaching tool.



Yes, the Bourne cutting is standard for ACTION films, in ACTION sequences. You don't find the same type of intense cutting in slower-paced, romantic films or comedies. And regardless of Shyamalan's nearly-dead career (which makes me ), he has a couple of masterpieces.

For what it's worth, I agree with you.  I just think that comparing an intense action flick with Casablanca is not quite right.


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## Abd_Yesua_alMasih (Feb 26, 2009)

But don't most independent films suffer for their independence? And I don't think that is just from a lack of support.


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## Theognome (Feb 26, 2009)

As a culture degrades, it's art forms do likewise. This is seen throughout history in all art mediums. Francis Schaeffer wrote quite a bit about this phenomenon. 

Theognome


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## Edward (Feb 26, 2009)

No Longer A Libertine said:


> to have Steve McQueen leap a barbed wire fence with a Harley Davidson,



It wasn't a Harley. It was a Triumph.


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## No Longer A Libertine (Feb 28, 2009)

Edward said:


> No Longer A Libertine said:
> 
> 
> > to have Steve McQueen leap a barbed wire fence with a Harley Davidson,
> ...


Well no wonder he couldn't make his escape.


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