Hollywood films have helped shape America, and Americans, on everything from patriotism and stubborn self-reliance to gender roles and ugly racial stereotypes. You can’t understand the “lost cause” myth that still persists in much of the South? Check out “Gone With the Wind” again. You want a feel for America’s non-interventionist stance pre-Pearl Harbor? Look to Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca.” You want a sense of the macho bravado that often drives America’s foreign policy? Watch some John Wayne. They provided cautionary tales, moral lessons, national symbols, cultural archetypes. They were a common cultural touchstone, and a way of explaining the land we lived in, and the people we met here. No, in America, the movies are our mythology, or used to be. The few we used to have - the adventures of Paul Bunyan, say, or the tale of Johnny Appleseed - faded away long ago. We don’t have a wealth of stirring stories passed down from generation to generation. In other countries, many children still grow up on ancient folktales - Norse sagas, Greek myths, Arthurian romances. This isn’t just frustrating to movie lovers, though. Only now, it’s more like 1557 channels, most showing nothing but ever-changing, ever-disposable “content.” But it’s hard not to flip through the channels and hear “57 Channels (and Nothin’ On)” playing in your head. But a classic film? That takes some doing.
It’s easy to find any of a hundred new horror films or slapstick farces on Netflix right now. Apart from an occasional, seasonal tradition - “The Ten Commandments,” or “It’s a Wonderful Life” - the networks don’t run older movies at all, while the rest of the stations and streamers promote their own content. Today, though, we have hundreds of channels - and most of them only want to present something new and exclusive. And they were simply part of the programming, seamlessly integrated with the new. Because there was no cable then - never mind videos or DVDs - most of these were older movies, from decades past. But the thing was, every one of them programmed movies, every day. Seven choices - and that was considered a lot.
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When I was growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, our TV options consisted of Channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13. Oddly, it’s a problem that stems, I think, not from lack of access to media, but from too much. I’ve taught film students - many of whom want to make their own movies - who seem to think cinema started with “Pulp Fiction.” Silent films? Are you kidding? And I’m not even talking about teenagers, or casual fans.
When it comes to the movies, though, many people feel comfortable ignoring anything made before they were born. They’re not simply written off as old, and true aficionados appreciate them on their own terms. In other disciplines, works that have come before - whether it’s Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Dickens’ “Great Expectations,” Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue or Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World” - are seen as classics, as part of a continuum. It also seems to disproportionately apply to cinema. It’s an annoying prejudice in day-to-day life. That’s why we’re awash in businesspeople promising to “reinvent” their industries, of politicians with “fresh” ideas. Calling something old is the new way of dismissing it, of brushing it off as out-of-date and ultimately inconsequential. When I first heard that, I sort of wondered what he meant, or why the phrase bothered him. “There are only movies you haven’t seen before.” “There are no old movies,” he liked to say. Peter Bogdanovich, the late director (and journalist, and occasional “Sopranos” cast member) hated that term. (For me, the honor roll would have to start with “The Awful Truth.”)īut what I would like to question - and, honestly, attack - is the idea of “old” movies. You probably could easily come up with a dozen of your own faves. I don’t need to repeat their efforts here. Since then, some writers have responded with their own lists, listing favorite romantic comedies from the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. Sort of the modern version of the kid who would say something idiotic in third grade and then, when you glanced up, chortle “Ha ha - made ya look!” (Which is why I won’t link to the site here and give them even more clicks.
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