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I'm "only" 40 and strongly prefer films made when they still shot and edited on film. The peak as far as visual quality and overall effect of film, for me, was

I'm "only" 40 and strongly prefer films made when they still shot and edited on film. The peak as far as visual quality and overall effect of film, for me, was probably the 60s through early 90s, though I love a bunch of films older or newer than that. The constraints of not being able to color-grade the whole film with a slider or two, of every cut in the edit taking time to do, and of effects that weren't in-camera being relatively expensive, tended to lead to better and more-interesting filmmaking, even in middling films. I appreciate what the right people can do with modern tools—I enjoy and even love plenty of newer films, and it's undeniably brought some cool stuff within reach of smaller, cheaper productions—but overall I see it as making cinema worse. "We did it in a computer" being the answer to every "how'd they do that?" isn't movie magic, it's boring as hell. It's why even a film that tries to avoid that to some degree, like the new Dune duology, is in some important respects—though setting aside overall quality of the film on some other dimensions—just less interesting than broadly similar films like Lawrence of Arabia or Star Wars (or even, if I may be so bold, David Lynch's Dune). I think this sort of opinion is fairly common among film-fans of all ages, due to interest in film making itself as much as output of the process per se. Not sure most movie watchers care, and they may well prefer the newer stuff because of the ultra-fast editing and tuned-to-be-cotton-candy-appealing color schemes and unconstrained video-game camera of fully CGI scenes and all that. > I prefer 1970s music. Autotune is for whippersnappers. Hard agree. I can't friggin' believe the heavy-handed autotune in children's media, especially (Daniel Tiger! Fred Rogers would be so unhappy with it). Let's teach them that natural human singing voices, like their own, sound wrong and bad. WTF.

unyttigfjelltol 1y ago
> The peak as far as visual quality and overall effect of film, for me, was probably the 60s through early 90s, though I love a bunch of films older or newer than that. Those movies were real. The stories were made up, scenes were sets, but ... the images are of real people in meat-world locations, standing near other people, speaking things they mostly really spoke, doing things they mostly really did. It's jarring by juxtaposition just how ... fake modern hyperreal CGI appears on screen.
- aaronbaugher 1y ago
  I get vertigo from heights very easily, so much so that I even have to look away from movie scenes where a camera looks straight down, like the scene at the beginning of The Matrix where Neo is on the ledge and drops his phone and the camera follows it down. A couple years ago, some friends got me to go along to one of the Spiderman movies. Early on, there's a big fight scene on a bridge, and heroes and villains are flipping around in the air, falling off towers and things, and I realized it wasn't bothering me at all. None of it had any weight, or whatever it is about heights that usually makes me feel sick even when I know it's fake.
  - WalterBright 1y ago
    A fun scene is when Hans Gruber falls in Die Hard. The panic on his face is real as the director tricked him into it.
- lesuorac 1y ago
  Older movies are like actually real. Like if there's a coffee shop scene you can look out the window and see like a postman deliver mail or a somebody walk a dog. Stuff that isn't between the main characters happens. The newer trend of blurring everything that isn't a main character is really annoying to me. Real life isn't blurred ...
WalterBright 1y ago
> "We did it in a computer" being the answer to every "how'd they do that?" isn't movie magic, it's boring as hell. True. I lost all interest in "making of" documentaries due to that.
- BizarroLand 1y ago
  For comparison, go watch the 1975 Escape to Witch Mountain movie. The practical effects are whimsical but are so close to realistic that it's quite jarring for people who have only seen digital FX, it evokes that wonder of, "how did they do that" when you suddenly realize that it's not perfect but it wasn't done with a computer and you can't clearly identify what isn't perfect about it. It's charming and it will make you lament the lack of practical special effects in modern movies. Disney used to be the equivalent of watching a magician perform an amazing stage play live. Now it's a prerecorded bus stop ad designed to distract you from the burning air and dirty seats until you step onto the next leg of your journey between work and the office.
- tass 1y ago
  If you haven’t seen it, check out the 1990 Total Recall making of especially for how they built and filmed the Mars models. It was the peak era of practical special effects, and hugely expensive to do something that now can be done with only a couple of people and a cheap computer.
WalterBright 1y ago
> heavy-handed autotune Anyone who doesn't understand this should listen to a Karen Carpenter song, and compare it with a modern pop singer.
- wwweston 1y ago
  Every sha-la-la-la, every whoa-e-whoa, still shines…
  - WalterBright 1y ago
    What was funny about the 70s was everyone was nostalgic for the 50s. (eg Happy Days) Now everyone is nostalgic for the 70s!
khazhoux 1y ago
This is a tired argument. I can easily rattle off movies and music from the last decade that hit as hard as anything from the 70s. Selective memory. Go listen to all the actual Billboard hits from the 70s. Even before autotune, there was no shortage of ways to make terrible music.
- WalterBright 1y ago
  > Go listen to all the actual Billboard hits from the 70s I have the set of Billboard hits CDs. > hit as hard I like a lot of music made since the 70's. But one thing is gone - quality singing.
- Retric 1y ago
  Really? I can’t make a top 20 movies from the last decade without including crap. There’s several years where I can’t even recommend a single movie.
  - alabastervlog 1y ago
    This perception is an effect of what gets promoted, which is mostly hot garbage. I watch a lot of movies and can't keep up with the likely-to-be-good ones every year. There are north of 500 US & Canadian films released per year. Add in foreign (edit: I mean, even more foreign than Canada) cinema, and it's solidly in the four figures. How many movies were you aware of last year? Ten? A couple dozen? Maybe as many as fifty? Drop in the bucket, regardless. I'm sure there hasn't been a year in the 2000s in which there weren't at least 20 movies released that were worth your time (for those with all but the stingiest and harshest take on "worth my time", and probably also coupled with narrow taste to get the list down under 20). And I write this as the person who has been perceived as disliking modern movies, from my post a couple steps up this thread! (I don't dislike modern movies! They're just almost-all, for reasons of technology-related changes in production processes, missing certain qualities that I appreciated a bunch in film-era movies)
    - Retric 1y ago
      Let’s be real, the overwhelming majority of those 500 are straight up terrible. Netflix alone has produced well over 100 movies, and IMO at best some of them are worth finishing not that I can think of any off the top of my head. Now I’m sure you’ve looked forward to many movies but off the top of your head list stuff you’ve either seen more than once and or actually recommend to someone that came our in the last 10 years vs… (78) The Deer Hunter, Superman, National Lampoon's Animal House, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (79) Apocalypse Now, Alien, Life of Brian, Mad Max, Escape from Alcatraz (80) The Shining, Star Wars: Episode V, Airplane!, The Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, The Elephant Man (81) Raiders of the Lost Ark, Das Boot, The Evil Dead, Mad Max 2, Escape from New York, Time Bandits (82) Blade Runner, The Thing, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Poltergeist, Conan the Barbarian, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Tron (83) Scarface, WarGames, Star Wars: Episode VI, Trading Places, The Evil Dead Obviously not all great movies but that’s ~30 classic movies in just 6 years and I’m sure I’ve missed a few as kids movies are largely missing from that list.
WalterBright 1y ago
I like aviation movies. Consider: 1. The Blue Max 2. Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines The special effects in them were - they built flying replicas of the airplanes used in the films! Can you imagine that happening today? Two great and very special movies. Both made in the 1960s. A special mention for Battle of Britain - they didn't build replicas, but dredged up the last remaining flying Me-109s and Spits and, well, seeing and hearing them fly is glorious.
- alabastervlog 1y ago
  Battle of Britain isn't the best from a narrative perspective, but damn is it a fun watch anyway. My other favorite air war movies I've made it to so far are Twelve O'Clock High with its beautiful flying fortresses (they belly landed one of them! For the movie! For real!), extremely well-integrated war footage, and clear action (compare to the muddled, ugly mess that is The Dambusters); and Wings—how, how on Earth did they get such good aerial photography that early? And the miniature work isn't bad, either. I've somehow heard of neither of your first two mentions, but will be checking them both out soon.
  - WalterBright 1y ago
    > I've somehow heard of neither of your first two mentions, but will be checking them both out soon. I envy you! I wish I could see them again for the first time! Based on your remarks, I bet you would love "The War Lover", 1963. They used 3 real B-17s for the movie. Very realistic. I know this because my dad flew 32 missions in a B-17, and was assigned by the Air Force to them as a consultant for accuracy for the movie. He made the mission map used in the briefing. He was also responsible for the "cutting the grass sequence". The director was just going to use models because it was too dangerous, but my dad showed them how to do it safely. The sequence is just terrific. The AF was mad at him for recommending it, but the sequence was very popular with the critics and he was forgiven. P.S. How to do it safely: do it at dawn when the air is still. Station people at various locations around the flight path in continuous communication with the pilot telling him his altitude. Fly the route again and again, each time slightly lower.

unyttigfjelltol 1y ago

> The peak as far as visual quality and overall effect of film, for me, was probably the 60s through early 90s, though I love a bunch of films older or newer than that. Those movies were real. The stories were made up, scenes were sets, but ... the images are of real people in meat-world locations, standing near other people, speaking things they mostly really spoke, doing things they mostly really did. It's jarring by juxtaposition just how ... fake modern hyperreal CGI appears on screen.

aaronbaugher 1y ago
I get vertigo from heights very easily, so much so that I even have to look away from movie scenes where a camera looks straight down, like the scene at the beginning of The Matrix where Neo is on the ledge and drops his phone and the camera follows it down. A couple years ago, some friends got me to go along to one of the Spiderman movies. Early on, there's a big fight scene on a bridge, and heroes and villains are flipping around in the air, falling off towers and things, and I realized it wasn't bothering me at all. None of it had any weight, or whatever it is about heights that usually makes me feel sick even when I know it's fake.
- WalterBright 1y ago
  A fun scene is when Hans Gruber falls in Die Hard. The panic on his face is real as the director tricked him into it.
lesuorac 1y ago
Older movies are like actually real. Like if there's a coffee shop scene you can look out the window and see like a postman deliver mail or a somebody walk a dog. Stuff that isn't between the main characters happens. The newer trend of blurring everything that isn't a main character is really annoying to me. Real life isn't blurred ...

WalterBright 1y ago

> "We did it in a computer" being the answer to every "how'd they do that?" isn't movie magic, it's boring as hell. True. I lost all interest in "making of" documentaries due to that.

BizarroLand 1y ago
For comparison, go watch the 1975 Escape to Witch Mountain movie. The practical effects are whimsical but are so close to realistic that it's quite jarring for people who have only seen digital FX, it evokes that wonder of, "how did they do that" when you suddenly realize that it's not perfect but it wasn't done with a computer and you can't clearly identify what isn't perfect about it. It's charming and it will make you lament the lack of practical special effects in modern movies. Disney used to be the equivalent of watching a magician perform an amazing stage play live. Now it's a prerecorded bus stop ad designed to distract you from the burning air and dirty seats until you step onto the next leg of your journey between work and the office.
tass 1y ago
If you haven’t seen it, check out the 1990 Total Recall making of especially for how they built and filmed the Mars models. It was the peak era of practical special effects, and hugely expensive to do something that now can be done with only a couple of people and a cheap computer.

WalterBright 1y ago

> heavy-handed autotune Anyone who doesn't understand this should listen to a Karen Carpenter song, and compare it with a modern pop singer.

wwweston 1y ago
Every sha-la-la-la, every whoa-e-whoa, still shines…
- WalterBright 1y ago
  What was funny about the 70s was everyone was nostalgic for the 50s. (eg Happy Days) Now everyone is nostalgic for the 70s!

khazhoux 1y ago

This is a tired argument. I can easily rattle off movies and music from the last decade that hit as hard as anything from the 70s. Selective memory. Go listen to all the actual Billboard hits from the 70s. Even before autotune, there was no shortage of ways to make terrible music.

WalterBright 1y ago
> Go listen to all the actual Billboard hits from the 70s I have the set of Billboard hits CDs. > hit as hard I like a lot of music made since the 70's. But one thing is gone - quality singing.
Retric 1y ago
Really? I can’t make a top 20 movies from the last decade without including crap. There’s several years where I can’t even recommend a single movie.
- alabastervlog 1y ago
  This perception is an effect of what gets promoted, which is mostly hot garbage. I watch a lot of movies and can't keep up with the likely-to-be-good ones every year. There are north of 500 US & Canadian films released per year. Add in foreign (edit: I mean, even more foreign than Canada) cinema, and it's solidly in the four figures. How many movies were you aware of last year? Ten? A couple dozen? Maybe as many as fifty? Drop in the bucket, regardless. I'm sure there hasn't been a year in the 2000s in which there weren't at least 20 movies released that were worth your time (for those with all but the stingiest and harshest take on "worth my time", and probably also coupled with narrow taste to get the list down under 20). And I write this as the person who has been perceived as disliking modern movies, from my post a couple steps up this thread! (I don't dislike modern movies! They're just almost-all, for reasons of technology-related changes in production processes, missing certain qualities that I appreciated a bunch in film-era movies)
  - Retric 1y ago
    Let’s be real, the overwhelming majority of those 500 are straight up terrible. Netflix alone has produced well over 100 movies, and IMO at best some of them are worth finishing not that I can think of any off the top of my head. Now I’m sure you’ve looked forward to many movies but off the top of your head list stuff you’ve either seen more than once and or actually recommend to someone that came our in the last 10 years vs… (78) The Deer Hunter, Superman, National Lampoon's Animal House, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (79) Apocalypse Now, Alien, Life of Brian, Mad Max, Escape from Alcatraz (80) The Shining, Star Wars: Episode V, Airplane!, The Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, The Elephant Man (81) Raiders of the Lost Ark, Das Boot, The Evil Dead, Mad Max 2, Escape from New York, Time Bandits (82) Blade Runner, The Thing, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Poltergeist, Conan the Barbarian, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Tron (83) Scarface, WarGames, Star Wars: Episode VI, Trading Places, The Evil Dead Obviously not all great movies but that’s ~30 classic movies in just 6 years and I’m sure I’ve missed a few as kids movies are largely missing from that list.

WalterBright 1y ago

I like aviation movies. Consider: 1. The Blue Max 2. Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines The special effects in them were - they built flying replicas of the airplanes used in the films! Can you imagine that happening today? Two great and very special movies. Both made in the 1960s. A special mention for Battle of Britain - they didn't build replicas, but dredged up the last remaining flying Me-109s and Spits and, well, seeing and hearing them fly is glorious.

alabastervlog 1y ago
Battle of Britain isn't the best from a narrative perspective, but damn is it a fun watch anyway. My other favorite air war movies I've made it to so far are Twelve O'Clock High with its beautiful flying fortresses (they belly landed one of them! For the movie! For real!), extremely well-integrated war footage, and clear action (compare to the muddled, ugly mess that is The Dambusters); and Wings—how, how on Earth did they get such good aerial photography that early? And the miniature work isn't bad, either. I've somehow heard of neither of your first two mentions, but will be checking them both out soon.
- WalterBright 1y ago
  > I've somehow heard of neither of your first two mentions, but will be checking them both out soon. I envy you! I wish I could see them again for the first time! Based on your remarks, I bet you would love "The War Lover", 1963. They used 3 real B-17s for the movie. Very realistic. I know this because my dad flew 32 missions in a B-17, and was assigned by the Air Force to them as a consultant for accuracy for the movie. He made the mission map used in the briefing. He was also responsible for the "cutting the grass sequence". The director was just going to use models because it was too dangerous, but my dad showed them how to do it safely. The sequence is just terrific. The AF was mad at him for recommending it, but the sequence was very popular with the critics and he was forgiven. P.S. How to do it safely: do it at dawn when the air is still. Station people at various locations around the flight path in continuous communication with the pilot telling him his altitude. Fly the route again and again, each time slightly lower.