Comparing sets in North by Northwest to modern movies? (cinema, films, Hollywood)
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Outside of the criminals everybody was well mannered, well spoken, and well dressed. Even the criminals were portrayed as being a cut above outside of their criminality.
Yet the insidious underbelly of Hollywood's seeming need to rip at our social fabric was already starting to manifest. Why the need for the hero to be supporting two ex-wives and a couple bartenders? In a similar vein to James Bond/ Daniel Craig saying that an affair with a beautiful woman was not desired because she was not married.
When a major movie super star says things like this it introduces a major coolness factor into it. In this case alcoholism (very commonly promoted), multiple divorces (just why?), and affairs with married people.
Sorry for the rant. Now back to the original point. The social contrast of the society depicted in North by Northwest is generally night and day with more modern depictions of society. The families are always dysfunctional now. The kids are always yelling and insulting their parents. Wardrobes? How does sweatpants and t-shirts sound? Haircuts? Forget about that - lets feature a grimy face. Classic cars? Nah - we'll go with beat up old trucks. The daughters are often slutty. The boys are often bums suffering from addictions and criminality.
Perhaps I am wrong but I don't think most people prefer to see dysfunction. They may laugh out of embarrassment. Many cringe at the questions their young children may ask. Others are so put off that they have boycotted television. A few will feel better because their own life is certainly no worse.
As for me? Outside of Star Trek, I quit following television series after the early 70's. The constant garbage show was my reasoning.
Perhaps I am completely wrong? After all, I have little experience after the early 70's. Sometimes I see portions at a friends house, at the bar or airport. The barrage of garbage is continually unsettling.
EDIT: A few subjects were broached here. Should have left out the word "sets" in the title.
Outside of the criminals everybody was well mannered, well spoken, and well dressed. Even the criminals were portrayed as being a cut above outside of their criminality.
Yet the insidious underbelly of Hollywood's seeming need to rip at our social fabric was already starting to manifest. Why the need for the hero to be supporting two ex-wives and a couple bartenders? In a similar vein to James Bond/ Daniel Craig saying that an affair with a beautiful woman was not desired because she was not married.
When a major movie super star says things like this it introduces a major coolness factor into it. In this case alcoholism (very commonly promoted), multiple divorces (just why?), and affairs with married people.
The contradiction between two of your threads is hilarious. Earlier today, you started the thread below and level this complaint:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ColoGuy
The PC Police destroy creative thought when they ordain what is socially acceptable to think. They outlawed creativity while enforcing conformity. But the human mind doesn't like to be caged. So the populace drowns itself in barbituates, opiods and and anti-depressants. Making pharmaceuticals a bigger American business than our oil and gas business.
Music sucks now. Health has gone down while obesity and diabetes have skyrocketed. Many of our political leaders have the IQ of a sack of potatoes. What did we expect to happen to movies?
Notwithstanding the fact that you apparently tried to pack every grievance you have into that post, let's just focus on that old boogeyman: political correctness.
Now let's go back to your problems with North By Northwest. Two ex-wives? So what? What's the problem? Here's the problem: it's politically incorrect, and you don't like it. Sure, it wasn't the norm. The divorce rate in 1959 was 9%. Most people weren't divorced. Probably only something like 2-3% of the populace had multiple divorces. But given that the country had 150,000,000 people then, that means there were millions of people who had been divorced two or more times.
You know what didn't happen to people in 1959? They weren't attacked by crop dusters! Like, not ever!
Yet you have no promise with that outlandish scene. But two ex-wives? You're offended. You think it's wrong for films to depict such things - along with infidelity and alcoholism - because it's offensive.
That is the very definition of political correctness.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ColoGuy
Sorry for the rant. Now back to the original point. The social contrast of the society depicted in North by Northwest is generally night and day with more modern depictions of society. The families are always dysfunctional now. The kids are always yelling and insulting their parents. Wardrobes? How does sweatpants and t-shirts sound? Haircuts? Forget about that - lets feature a grimy face. Classic cars? Nah - we'll go with beat up old trucks. The daughters are often slutty. The boys are often bums suffering from addictions and criminality.
Perhaps I am wrong but I don't think most people prefer to see dysfunction. They may laugh out of embarrassment. Many cringe at the questions their young children may ask. Others are so put off that they have boycotted television. A few will feel better because their own life is certainly no worse.
As for me? Outside of Star Trek, I quit following television series after the early 70's. The constant garbage show was my reasoning.
Perhaps I am completely wrong? After all, I have little experience after the early 70's. Sometimes I see portions at a friends house, at the bar or airport. The barrage of garbage is continually unsettling.
EDIT: A few subjects were broached here. Should have left out the word "sets" in the title.
You pine for the political correctness of what you consider the 'good old days'. On the other hand, somehow you think that political correctness is bad. You probably don't consider the political correctness that you like to be political correctness. That's how it is with most people. It's how they square their loathing of political correctness with the fact - the fact - that they uphold all manner of political correctness.
PS - In 1959, the Hays Code still dominated the American film industry. You know what that was, right? It was an enormous list of things films couldn't depict, lest people be offended. It was codified, institutional political correctness. And you lament its demise. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...es/TheHaysCode
^^A justified counter attack. What seems black and white to me is clearly various shades of gray with many people. I see political correctness through a different lens than many others.
Much of what I say is offensive to others as well. I question the 9/11 narrative. The surveillance society. The need for 75,000 laws. 80,000 SWAT raids. Never ending wars. Unquestioned servitude to aggressive Zionism. The democrat/republican duality. Divorce laws. Vaccinations. GMOs. Re-introducing wolves. Selling public land to privateers. The budget deficit. Civil asset forfeiture. Many code laws. Many consider me a heretic. A danger. A nuisance.
Its fine - I can do without them. They can do without me.
The question of what happened to movie creativity remains. It is a haunting one. It is a reflection of a larger social problem. Either fewer people are able to conjure up interesting story lines and plots? Or fewer people are interested in viewing such? Perhaps it simply costs too much money to take big chances with the unproven. That is what many will counter with. The numbers would seem to back them up.
"The Code was a set of rules governing American filmmaking that shaped—and in many ways stifled—American cinema for over three decades. It also happened to completely overlap with The Golden Age of Hollywood."
" The '60s became unprofitable thanks to the failures of Cleopatra and Hello, Dolly! while there are additional factors that have nothing to do with the importance of censorshipnote It's also pointed out that, while the attendance of motion pictures did drop significantly,"
Hollywood was more successful when it produced broadly acceptable material. It is unfortunate that the Hays Code was needed for them to create socially acceptable and popular material.
While a staunch supporter of civil liberties that have no victims - it seems that Hollywood is doing itself a disservice when they insist on broadly offensive material. For example, I groan with almost every film when the hero and heroine meet, have a bite to eat then quickly jump into bed. Just why?
After reading about the Hays Code I have concluded that it shares little with modern political correctness abd the censorship of the human mind. Your analogy is essentially false.
"The Code was a set of rules governing American filmmaking that shaped—and in many ways stifled—American cinema for over three decades. It also happened to completely overlap with The Golden Age of Hollywood."
" The '60s became unprofitable thanks to the failures of Cleopatra and Hello, Dolly! while there are additional factors that have nothing to do with the importance of censorshipnote It's also pointed out that, while the attendance of motion pictures did drop significantly,"
Hollywood was more successful when it produced broadly acceptable material. It is unfortunate that the Hays Code was needed for them to create socially acceptable and popular material.
While a staunch supporter of civil liberties that have no victims - it seems that Hollywood is doing itself a disservice when they insist on broadly offensive material. For example, I groan with almost every film when the hero and heroine meet, have a bite to eat then quickly jump into bed. Just why?
After reading about the Hays Code I have concluded that it shares little with modern political correctness abd the censorship of the human mind. Your analogy is essentially false.
Oh. For. Pete's. Sake.
Posts by someone who admittedly has almost no experience with movies or television, pronouncing everything bad with an "example" that is stunningly out-of-touch with real movies... and then a take on the Hayes Code and the problems of movies in the 1960s that has as much logic as a claim of cat litter being the cause of WW II. <checking to make sure this isn't Facebook...>
Posts by someone who admittedly has almost no experience with movies or television, pronouncing everything bad with an "example" that is stunningly out-of-touch with real movies... and then a take on the Hayes Code and the problems of movies in the 1960s that has as much logic as a claim of cat litter being the cause of WW II. <checking to make sure this isn't Facebook...>
When one lacks a factual argument it is always best to attack then?
I own tens of hundreds of movies on DVD, I wouldn't say that I have no movie experience. I could point out dozens of older films juxtaposed against the prevailing dysfunction portrayed in modern movies. Imagine a 50's kid mounting off to their parents like they usually do now - for example. Some people decry events because they care enough to think about it, to write about it. Others keep themselves busy *bruising their gherkin*.
When one lacks a factual argument it is always best to attack then?
I own tens of hundreds of movies on DVD, I wouldn't say that I have no movie experience. I could point out dozens of older films juxtaposed against the prevailing dysfunction portrayed in modern movies. Imagine a 50's kid mounting off to their parents like they usually do now - for example. Some people decry events because they care enough to think about it, to write about it. Others keep themselves busy *bruising their gherkin*.
I can thank AFEKRT whatever for that analogy.
When one lacks a factual argument it is always best to attack then? -
That appears to be exactly what you have done. The documentation of the effects of television on the studios is amply documented as the major impact during the 50s and 60s. To claim otherwise to support a questionable argument doesn't pass a sniff test.
I thought Cary Grant was excellent in that movie, and didn't find his statements about his marriages or drinking a bid deal. This was the "Mad Men" era and he WAS and advertising exec for goodness sake. He was portraying exactly that, and did it well.
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