1. I don't know. That doesn't sound like such a bad thing. I think maybe people want that. Thrilling suspense, that is.
2. There's definitely something to this. Not that I'm against action flicks. I love action flicks. I love action-adventure flicks even more. But yeah, the formulaic-must-follow-the-BS2 stuff is getting stale.
Then again, someone posted
this (goodinaroom.com, article by Stephanie Palmer) elsewhere, and it presents an interesting rebuttal to
that Slate article. I'm pretty sure someone made a thread for
that Slate article somewhere here. And maybe someone posted this too. Anyway, this is pretty interesting. In particular, I like Stephanie Palmer's idea that a film is really a small business. Wow. That puts the enterprise of making a film in an interesting light, doesn't it? A film is a small business venture. And sometimes maybe not so small.
3. I think that is simply false. Of course I don't mean that in a combative way. We're just having a conversation here. We don't have to agree on everything, or anything, for that matter. And of course, if you feel that there should be no sex in films generally, then I suppose it
is true for you. I don't know how old you are. I'm not assuming anything either way. But if I had to guess, I'd guess that you're younger. If you were older, like I am, getting a bit long in the tooth over here, then you might have a better perspective on how, comparatively speaking, there is little sex in current movies. Was a time, the early nineties, say, in which it seemed that every film, R-rated films, anyway, had to have the obligatory simulated sex scene. That
did become tiresome, tell the truth. Now, R-rated films themselves are few and far between. Hollywood has become quite chaste, actually. Obviously, there are exceptions...some recent raunchy comedies in particular. But even in those, how much is sex or actually portrayed sex, and how much of them are really innuendo, language, and adult (or raunchy) themes?
And let's not forget that Hollywood's "golden oldies" were actually censored. That is to say, those films were created under or within a regime of censorship. The Motion Picture Production Code and The Catholic Legion of Decency determined what films and what content could be produced by Hollywood. I don't know how it was for the UK or for the Australian film industries and markets. But if you want me to mourn for, or lament the loss of the bad old days of such, or, more outright censorship, forget about it. Would I like to turn the clock back to pre-sexual revolution, pre-counter culture, or for that matter, pre-Civil Rights Movement II times? Hell no. Needless to say, there have been and are those who are working for just that. I am not among them. In fact, contrary to all the complaining about such content that seems to carry on and on, the rules have been tightening again in my lifetime. Actually, there's little nudity. Sex, simulated or otherwise, is almost absent in mainstream films. (Obviously, I'm not talking about the stellar premium cable content being made, such as
Game of Thrones. This discussion is about the box office, right?) And the strict constraints on language are an absurdity. Violence is something else. Bloody, more realistic violence is much curbed. Bloodless, cartoony violence has a green light.
4. I'm sure I disagree with this. I believe the science and technology of cinematography have made great advances. And I like them.
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One thing that might be missing is that clever, witty banter some of those old films had. Watching them, you sometimes get the feeling their audiences were better read, more erudite, even, than we are today. Could that be? Nah. I'm sure their characters were far more chic, far more cosmopolitan than most of the audiences of the day. But the fantasy they presented does have its charm. =)