Light On Dark Water

Classic Cinema and Our Future (?)

Everything in the title above except the question mark is in the title of this piece at Front Porch Republic. I'm not so sure that movies of the 1930s and '40s show us the less-affluent life that's coming our way, but be that as it may, I like the reflections on the quality of those movies. 

American films have never been more well-written or resonant than in the 1930s and 40s, because they have never been more gently and consciously populist.

I don't really agree with the "because" part of that sentence, and I would add the 1950s, but our culture has certainly declined in many respects since then. The average movie may be superficially more, but fundamentally less, realistic than it was then. And it is disheartening to think that the average person no longer recognizes Groucho Marx. Personally I think the Marx Brothers movies are the pinnacle of comedy.

Maclin Horton

12 responses to “Classic Cinema and Our Future (?)”

  1. Craig

    Well, I’ve never seen a Marx brothers film. Recommendation?

    Reply
  2. Mac

    I really remember scenes rather than whole movies, but you couldn’t go wrong with Duck Soup, if you’re going to like the MB at all. Monkey Business has the customs scene, one of the funniest of all.
    Hail, Freedonia!

    Reply
  3. Craig

    Onto my list they go!

    Reply
  4. Paul

    I find it very hard (well, frankly, impossible) to believe that the average person does not recognise Groucho Marx.

    Reply
  5. Louise on the iPod

    The average person under 30 perhaps?

    Reply
  6. Mac

    Or perhaps even under 40. When you think about it, what occasion would they have to encounter the Marx Bros.? If their movies are on TV at all, it’s on something like Turner Classic Movies, which I don’t think many young people watch. (I would probably watch it for several hours a day if I had nothing else to do.)

    Reply
  7. Mac

    I’ve corrected it now, but did nobody notice I had written “our culture has certainly decline in many respects” above? If you noticed it, I don’t know how you resisted razzing me.

    Reply
  8. Janet

    Some of us are above that sort of thing. 🙂
    AMDG

    Reply
  9. Mac

    Yes, and of course I am, too.:-) But it’s one thing to ignore the random meaningless typo or misspelling, another to ignore an ironic one like this. “It’s to bad people don’t know the difference between ‘too’ and ‘to’ anymore.” Admirable restraint.

    Reply
  10. Janet

    It is when I am making observations about other people’s grammatical errors that I am almost bound to make one.
    AMDG

    Reply
  11. Mac

    Naturally.

    Reply
  12. watch movies

    People under 30 who did not study film, can’t know the Marx Brothers movies, since it’s not aired on tv or in movie theaters.
    It’s all about the new and shiny now. advertisers has no intrest in movies from the 40’s. [unfortunately]

    Reply

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