Earlier this year we read an article that compared 2017 Oscar nominated films with classic movies. A sort of “if you liked this, watch this” kind of thing.
The Shape of Water –– see 1954’s Creature From the Black Lagoon.
Lady Bird — see 1937’s Stella Dallas.
Phantom Thread — see 1940’s Rebecca.
We agree. See all those old films. Now where does Dark Victory fit in? That 1939 tearjerker which starred Bette Davis, George Brent and Geraldine Fitzgerald, and featured Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan in supporting roles, was a huge hit at the time.
And now there’s a current release, Midnight Sun, which can be called this year’s Dark Victory.
The film which is based on a Japanese film stars Bella Thorne and Patrick Schwarzenegger (yes, Arnold and Maria’s kid). It was directed by Scott Speer and written by Eric Kirsten.
The film’s received harsh reviews, perhaps because critics can’t conceive of a romantic tale between teenagers without sex, violence and foul language. This is an old fashioned love story and, like Dark Victory, the audience knows from the start there will be a sad ending.
The film is currently in general release and we wish it well. Perhaps it will prove, as the classics did, that we don’t need car crashes, special effects, mythical monsters, explicit sex and random violence to make a film worth seeing.
Well MIDNIGHT SUN and those other “Oscar nominated” movies… I must confess I haven’t seen any of them. And to be equally honest, I don’t care to.
Comparing them to the old classics, or even any “old movie” i.e. anything before 1978 say… Well, it’s really kind of pointless. Like comparing the year 1978, when food and energy were cheap, jobs were full-time with benefits, people read books and wrote letters… well you get my point.
There are some very good actors, writers, directors today, but they’re the exception not the rule, compared to the times of those old movies mentioned.
Young people, the vast majority that make up movie audiences today, raised on texting,video games, celebrity worship, political correctness,porn and tatoo’s… how can you expect the majority of them to appreciate movies and TV shows that don’t have “car crashes, special effects, mythical monsters, explicit sex and random violence to make a film worth seeing.”
To borrow from a real classic -INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS the original 1956 version that is… “Wilma Lentz: There’s no emotion. None. Just the pretense of it. The words, the gesture, the tone of voice, everything else is the same, but not the feeling.”
In short, the feeling isn’t the same with life today, let alone movies.
The way it’s going, you won’t have to wait for decades, as they’ll be calling MIDNIGHT SUN a classic, simply because the standards for what determines one, have fallen so low.