As opposed to the movies of 30 years ago.
Posted on 09/03/2006 9:16:47 PM PDT by sonsofliberty2000
It's true there's a lot of crap being made, but there's a lot of good stuff still being made too. You want epics? Lord of the Rings... You want quotables? Look to any Coen brothers film :~) There's just more choices.
I don't think it's the really ~good~ stuff that's being sent straight to DVD :~)
Hollywood is going through the same kind of glut that the music industry is going through: the fact that it is easier to make and distribute the media means that more mediocre productions will saturate the market.
Simply put: it's easier for people with little skill or talent to produce a CD or a movie. That leads to more crap being produced.
But that doesn't mean there aren't gems being made.
Dirty Rotten Scondrels with Steve Martin was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.
If you all would like a great movie... quirky.. see "Saint Ralph"... pretty good actually
Let us hope for the day when talented pro-American writers can make movies cheaply and bypass the studios entirely.
Years after he did Jaws 4, he admitted that at the time he knew the movie was a piece of crap. But he said that the money he got for appearing in it paid for his new house.
As opposed to the movies of 30 years ago.
We may be able to get to cheaper film production soon as movies are shot digitally (even if the resulting footage is still processed with effects to "look" like film).
Raw film stock, plus processing, plus printing makes it impossible to make a "cheap" film these days. You are talking millions of dollars of investment, much of it just in materials.
Even Desparado (which was shot in 16mm) was designed to be watched at home (and much of that rumored $35,000 cost was blown away by the STUDIO money that was used in editing the film, blowing it up to 35mm, striking prints, advertising, etc. In the end it was NOT a cheap film. Cheap by Hollywood's standards but then you could make a film for what Hollywood has been known to spend just in advertising.
The same amount of raunchy crap seems to always have been produced (going back to the 1930s). And that is true of music, films, and comics.
HOWEVER, it wasn't the industry establishment that was marketing the biggest trash.
The idea of "standards and practices" went out the window as the anti-establishment baby boomers came to power in corporate America. So now we have "Holy SH*T" ad campaigns from Volkswagon and mutilated nipples as the half time show at the Super Bowl.
Well Chalie Sheen thought he watched a snuff film and went out with girls from the Hollywood madame. The morals are just as bad as ever.
Some say that Fatty Arbuckle got a bum rapp.
And it is the Hollywood of today that CELERBATED Bob Crane's addiction to pornography and whitewashed it. One of his sons came forward during the hype for the film to say that his father showed him pornographic videos he had shot of himself with different women.
And today you can BUY some of that video (I think from another of Crane's sons).
I remember catching a line from some pro-abort film critic or columnist about Cider House Rules. His point was that "those who oppose abortion should not criticize this film because of that element of the plot because abortion is legal and you just have to accept it."
In the time frame presented in the film, it was a criminal act. And the immorality of an act does not depend on its legality or illegality.
Slavery was legal. Nazi Germany reduced the Jews to second class citizens under the law.
Adultery is now legal in many states. As is same sex sodomy. And bestiality (few places ever made it criminal, except in public).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.