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Commentary: Oldies vs. newies: which is better?
Commentary by Joe McWilliams
for Smoky River Express
It’s tough to tell whether movie-making is getting better or worse.
Hollywood is getting very good at some things, but perhaps not any better at others
But perceptions are inevitably skewed, and objective fact, in such situations, probably doesn’t even exist.
Nevertheless, it’s fun to talk about and speculate about movies, because in spite of everything, they remain as popular as ever.
So, to the point: There’s a re-make of Ben Hur currently showing on CBC television. It’s a two-parter that started on April. 4 and concluded on April 11.
Is it better than the original?
You would think that with 50 years to improve on filmmaking techniques, it would have to be better. I watched part of the first episode, and it certainly looked good.
As for the acting – my opinion is that generally acting has become better since the 1950s.
I know there are ‘oldie’ aficionados who dispute this. To them, the old black and whites were superior in every way. They decry the modern emphasis on special effects and claim the essential humanity of the earlier movies has been lost or forgotten.
Well…there may be something to that argument. A good oldie is no doubt superior to a lousy modern picture, and there are plenty to choose from.
And I would also concede that many modern films use relentless action to obscure the fact that there isn’t much of a credible story at all. Start a movie off with a car chase and you’ll have hooked the short attention span crowd without even having to shell out for a decent script writer.
Watching the old movies that don’t have much in the way of action (and let’s face it, what they do have often looks pretty stagy) or special effects take patience. That’s something that is in short supply – especially when flashier stuff is available at the flick of a button. For those patient enough, the payoff can come in a good drama about people that you come to care about, or at least find interesting.
I acknowledge all of that – but I still have a problem with most of the acting in the older films. It seems forced – unnatural, somehow. Even the greats – such as Laurence Olivier – don’t come across as people you can believe would really exist in the real world. Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Kate Hepburn – almost any name I can think of – they all seemed to be ‘acting’ as opposed to just ‘being’ the characters they were supposed to be.
Then along came Brando, and DeNiro and Pacino and a host of new directors who valued a new style of realistic performances and the whole thing changed, and very much for the better, in my opinion.
There’s still lousy acting, of course. Most of those rappers who for reasons mysterious to me have crossed over into acting can’t really do it. But in general, I think movie acting nowadays is much more authentic than it used to be. So chalk at least one up for the modern movie. On the negative side, there is that unfortunate tendency to rely too heavily on ‘look’ and not nearly enough on substance.
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