Have the classics lost their effectiveness?

[realdealblues]

I'll go with a more arcane answer. Most people especially these days don't think, and have little imagination. It takes a certain amount of intelligence and cognition to watch a film that doesn't give you every answer and has lots of talking without all the special effects of today's cinema. A good 50% of the people in my local area would only be able to watch "The Dukes Of Hazzard" if I stayed around afterwards to explain it to them.

I remember interviews with John Carpenter talking about how it was scarier to him not to show everything. Hitchcock didn't need to show the knife stab Janet Leigh in Psycho because he let peoples' own imaginations take over. Now if you don't show the knife hack in and get stuck in a bone with an artery squirting across the camera nobody wants to see it.

When I was growing up as a little kid I lived in a small town in the country that had 4 or 5 TV Stations that might come in on a good day. I had a sandbox and had to use my imagination. I read books. Went out into the woods with friends and had to come up with games to play. I fixed my bike chain when it fell off because it didn't fix itself. I would see something like Mr. Wizard and want to know how things worked and why. I had to research at a library and then physically try things out in order to figure them out. There was no internet where you could get your answer in 10 seconds from google.

Now with Technology, everyone wants instant gratification. They don't need to imagine anything because they're using an Ipad to watch cartoons at age 2. They don't call or stop by somewhere just to say hello. They facebook or text. They don't even e-mail anymore. The majority of people want nothing more than to go home, kick back, eat, watch tv, and go to sleep because they have to get up early and go to work tomorrow. They don't want to think about the TV show they watch, they want mindless entertainment because using your brain takes energy and who wants to use up any more of that? We work more, and make less and have kids, bills, more bills, tests, self image, the cute boy or girl next to you, more bills to think about. We just want to shut the brain off.

This isn't meant to be an anti-technology rant or anything of the like. It's just that times, people, society have changed. The only people I know that can watch a classic movie and enjoy it are those with imagination. Those with intelligence who can use their brain for more than just day to day routines. Those who experience things because they want to know what it feels like, rather than just read about it on their tablet or smart phone.

[hammerfan]

Originally Posted by realdealblues

I'll go with a more arcane answer. Most people especially these days don't think, and have little imagination. It takes a certain amount of intelligence and cognition to watch a film that doesn't give you every answer and has lots of talking without all the special effects of today's cinema. A good 50% of the people in my local area would only be able to watch "The Dukes Of Hazzard" if I stayed around afterwards to explain it to them.

I remember interviews with John Carpenter talking about how it was scarier to him not to show everything. Hitchcock didn't need to show the knife stab Janet Leigh in Psycho because he let peoples' own imaginations take over. Now if you don't show the knife hack in and get stuck in a bone with an artery squirting across the camera nobody wants to see it.

When I was growing up as a little kid I lived in a small town in the country that had 4 or 5 TV Stations that might come in on a good day. I had a sandbox and had to use my imagination. I read books. Went out into the woods with friends and had to come up with games to play. I fixed my bike chain when it fell off because it didn't fix itself. I would see something like Mr. Wizard and want to know how things worked and why. I had to research at a library and then physically try things out in order to figure them out. There was no internet where you could get your answer in 10 seconds from google.

Now with Technology, everyone wants instant gratification. They don't need to imagine anything because they're using an Ipad to watch cartoons at age 2. They don't call or stop by somewhere just to say hello. They facebook or text. They don't even e-mail anymore. The majority of people want nothing more than to go home, kick back, eat, watch tv, and go to sleep because they have to get up early and go to work tomorrow. They don't want to think about the TV show they watch, they want mindless entertainment because using your brain takes energy and who wants to use up any more of that? We work more, and make less and have kids, bills, more bills, tests, self image, the cute boy or girl next to you, more bills to think about. We just want to shut the brain off.

This isn't meant to be an anti-technology rant or anything of the like. It's just that times, people, society have changed. The only people I know that can watch a classic movie and enjoy it are those with imagination. Those with intelligence who can use their brain for more than just day to day routines. Those who experience things because they want to know what it feels like, rather than just read about it on their tablet or smart phone.

Very well said. And I couldn't agree more. That's why I really don't like most of the horror movies that are made these days. I don't want to see all the gore, I want the scares. I also don't see the need for all the nudity. And - in my opinion - it's the reason I'm one of the few people that liked Blair Witch Project. I thought it was brilliant that they didn't show the villain.

[Sentinel65]

I agree that implied things can be just as scary, if not scarier, than the showing of a whole event. Especially when it comes to villains in certain movies. For example in Insidious I found it creepier when I wasn't sure what Face of Fire looked like, and just saw quick bits of him. When I actually saw him in detail I just thought he looked stupid. There doesn't need to be some graphically disgusting villain for it to be scary. H.P. Lovecraft says my point very well "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."

[chrisii2012]

I wouldnt say they have. I still find the original friday the 13th and halloween more scarier and intense than the remakes

[wizard of gore]

Originally Posted by Sentinel65

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."

Yeah its like the old movies where you would just see a silhouette of someone holding up a knife,then a scream,then a trickle of blood.
these days you see every detail..leaves nothing to the imagination.

[neverending]

Originally Posted by realdealblues

I'll go with a more arcane answer. Most people especially these days don't think, and have little imagination. It takes a certain amount of intelligence and cognition to watch a film that doesn't give you every answer and has lots of talking without all the special effects of today's cinema. A good 50% of the people in my local area would only be able to watch "The Dukes Of Hazzard" if I stayed around afterwards to explain it to them.

I remember interviews with John Carpenter talking about how it was scarier to him not to show everything. Hitchcock didn't need to show the knife stab Janet Leigh in Psycho because he let peoples' own imaginations take over. Now if you don't show the knife hack in and get stuck in a bone with an artery squirting across the camera nobody wants to see it.

When I was growing up as a little kid I lived in a small town in the country that had 4 or 5 TV Stations that might come in on a good day. I had a sandbox and had to use my imagination. I read books. Went out into the woods with friends and had to come up with games to play. I fixed my bike chain when it fell off because it didn't fix itself. I would see something like Mr. Wizard and want to know how things worked and why. I had to research at a library and then physically try things out in order to figure them out. There was no internet where you could get your answer in 10 seconds from google.

Now with Technology, everyone wants instant gratification. They don't need to imagine anything because they're using an Ipad to watch cartoons at age 2. They don't call or stop by somewhere just to say hello. They facebook or text. They don't even e-mail anymore. The majority of people want nothing more than to go home, kick back, eat, watch tv, and go to sleep because they have to get up early and go to work tomorrow. They don't want to think about the TV show they watch, they want mindless entertainment because using your brain takes energy and who wants to use up any more of that? We work more, and make less and have kids, bills, more bills, tests, self image, the cute boy or girl next to you, more bills to think about. We just want to shut the brain off.

This isn't meant to be an anti-technology rant or anything of the like. It's just that times, people, society have changed. The only people I know that can watch a classic movie and enjoy it are those with imagination. Those with intelligence who can use their brain for more than just day to day routines. Those who experience things because they want to know what it feels like, rather than just read about it on their tablet or smart phone.

Pretty much the same experience for me, except there were only 3 stations when I was young, and then after a while "National Educational Television" was created.
This is pretty much what I was trying to say in my early response in this thread, except to add I think a lot of people are incapable of the span of attention required to watch an older film, because of the frenetic, fractured, multi-tasked life many lead.

[roshiq]

Hands down for realdealblues! :cool: