Movies that have held up and those that don't

[CWSmith]

There are so many good films listed here that I never want to watch again. With all that's going on in the world, why would I want to watch a film about the mafia, or violent cops, or that sort of thing even if the film is still good. I just don't want to watch that sort of thing again.

To kill a Mockingbird, as good as the day to was released

Absolutely! And I'm thinking it may be just as relevant now as it was then, and that's what's sad about it.

[amish rob]

We just watched Planet of the Apes. Those masks were pretty damned good. It’s still a cool flick. You maniacs!

[Jim Mahan]

I was just thinking 'Deliverance' as I scrolled down...

Deer Hunter been mentioned?
or Midnight Cowboy?

This prompted me to remember Midnight Express.

[johnw]

It seems like all the films we can remember have held up, so I guess if we don't remember them, they didn't hold up.

[Paul Pless]

i watched rollerball on youtube at three a.m. this morning during a bout of insomnia

it was not as good as i recalled

[John B]

I watched McKennas Gold a while back, same thing , not as good as I remembered in nineteen seventy whatever. Even the amazing buzzard / helicopter fly over is less now with the growth of drone footage.
Little Big Man was though, you make some allowances.
Butch Cassidy.. unwatchable, I literally gave up.

[WI-Tom]

We just watched Planet of the Apes. Those masks were pretty damned good. It’s still a cool flick. You maniacs!

Wait--those weren't real apes!?!?!?!

Tom

[David G]

How does the WBF feel about Deliverance?



I think it holds up really well. I probably need to read more James Dickey.

Tom

Personally, I think the Bilge desperately NEEDS Deliverance... <G>

[DonH]

Marty

[John Smith]

”The Happening”

Yes. I remembered the name about 30 seconds before I clicked onto the bilge just now. I thought it a fun flick.

[John Smith]

"Harold Lloyd's Wide World of Comedy" was funny as hell.

Some of the old silent movies hold up.

Some Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello films hold up well.

[HRDavies]

Mask .... in certain types of roles, Cher is a pretty good actress. Not sure how she'd do as Marie Antoinette tho.

[Hugh MacD]

Does anybody recall "Sand Pebbles"? I enjoyed it when it came out, but haven't seen it since. Seems like that one could have "staying power", depressing though it is.

[WI-Tom]

One of the best adaptions from a stage play ever--no surprise, as it was handled by the play's author, Tom Stoppard (who also wrote "Shakespeare in Love").



Tom

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

One of the best adaptions from a stage play ever--no surprise, as it was handled by the play's author, Tom Stoppard (who also wrote "Shakespeare in Love").



Tom

Thank you!

I remember going to see the Old Vic production in 1967, with my best friend and a very pretty blonde girl whom we both fancied.

[Breakaway]

One that doesn't hold up is the Disney classic, Peter Pan.

The films Native Americans are called, Injuns. These characters are savage and mindless and all have heap big lines that reveal nothing but disdain by the screenwriters of the time. They get to say, How!, alot, also. These characters sing a song, titled, What Made the Red Man Red?

Why does he ask you, "How?"
Why does he ask you, "How?"
Once the Injun didn't know
All the things that he know now
But the Injun, he sure learn a lot
And it's all from asking, "How?"

Hana Mana Ganda
Hana Mana Ganda

We translate for you
Hana means what mana means
And ganda means that, too

When did he first say, "Ugh!"
When did he first say, "Ugh!"
In the Injun book it say
When first brave married squaw
He gave out with heap big ugh
When he saw his Mother-in-Law

What made the red man red?
What made the red man red?

Let's go back a million years
To the very first Injun prince
He kissed a maid and start to blush
And we've all been blushin' since

You've got it right from the headman
The real true story of the red man
No matter what's been written or said
Now you know why the red man's red!

Kevin

[John B]

I think one which will hold up is Once upon a time in Hollywood. As the title says, a reinvention of the loss of innocence which really took place.
Surprisingly less Tarantino than you'd expect, the violence is awful yet not gratuitous. I'd watch it again.

[WI-Tom]

Thank you!

I remember going to see the Old Vic production in 1967, with my best friend and a very pretty blonde girl whom we both fancied.

Stoppard is amazing, but I don't think he's ever gotten better than Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. I got to see a production of his "Arcadia" and it was good. But I guess I'm stuck on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Must be annoying to do something so good, so early in your career.

The film, with Tim Roth and Gary Oldman, is amazing. So is "Shakespeare in Love." So I guess Stoppard does OK with movies, too.

Tom

[Rigadog]

Bridge over The River Kwai

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

Walkabout

[Ralphie Boy]

I think one which will hold up is Once upon a time in Hollywood. As the title says, a reinvention of the loss of innocence which really took place.
Surprisingly less Tarantino than you'd expect, the violence is awful yet not gratuitous. I'd watch it again.

I was reminded of that movie recently when I saw this:

6DFC2D4B-86F4-46C1-BA2F-575135E4E930.jpg

[AndyG]

Some Laurel and Hardy...

Ah, now films before talkies had to appeal to international rules of comedy, in order to be popular almost everywhere = make money.

L&H and Chaplin got this. Therefore more bucks for slapstick than anything else.

Best L&H moment has to be in Way Out West where the deeds are being blown and chased around the room. With tickling. Slap stick? It's a freaking comedic pinnacle of us as a species.

Andy

[Bobcat]

I watched 12 Angry Men. It stands up to the passage of time with only a few anachronisms: All the jurors are men and most of them smoke in the jury room.

[Bob (oh, THAT Bob)]

I might like to watch the original movie version of M*A*S*H. I saw it in a theater with my older brother while we were on vacation together, when it came out. After the TV series became the then longest running show since Bonanza, tediously IMO, the striking affect of the movie has been diluted. I'm afraid if I spooled it up now it would come across as just another long episode instead of the impactful movie it was originally.

I remember seeing the movie Network, which came out in seventy-six, while I was single and stationed in Korea, and enjoyed it, but was wowed by the soliloquy given by Ned Beatty looking down at Howard at the end of the long mahogany conference table. "You have messed with the primal forces of nature! And I will not have it!" "I have seen the face of God..." I enjoyed William Holden as the craggy old news guy, Faye Dunaway not so much, IMO. But when we watched it a couple of months ago, it seemed very dated and less impactful than I remembered it.

The surgeons in MASH the movie were more styled after 1960s instead of 1950s, but it accurately depicted their arrogance, a behavior we've learned in recent decades that is too common.

Network is a towering moving, it just seems dated IMO because the production aesthetic is very 1970s television. But it is enormously prescient, we are living in the age it predicted, of network news departments run for profit. Ned Beatty should have won for supporting actor. Rocky won for best picture over both Network and Taxi Driver, the latter of which got much less exposure due to its very adult nature but towers over the others, to me, not as much a story of PTSD as many have said (usually PTSD sufferers are distressed by violence), but in my judgment, is a story of someone who is very socially isolated.

[Bob (oh, THAT Bob)]

I think one which will hold up is Once upon a time in Hollywood. As the title says, a reinvention of the loss of innocence which really took place.
Surprisingly less Tarantino than you'd expect, the violence is awful yet not gratuitous. I'd watch it again.

Great movie. A friend thought it was too long, but I responded that Tarantino was building the back story for the crescendo. But I saw it at a home online, I had the benefits of bathroom breaks. Two things stuck with me:
1) I thought Tarantino was *sensitive* with regard to the ending, not a word usually associated with him, but even with all the action, I think it was with regard to those still alive who had been traumatized, and
2) A love letter to a time and place that no longer exists in the same way.

[SKIP KILPATRICK]

Miracle on 34th Street.

Natalie Wood

Still wonderful, we watched it this morning.

[Bob (oh, THAT Bob)]

And now, for the bad, films that don't hold up.

Top Gun. Jumps the shark big in that he swings the wings on the F-14 out in a fraction of a second, rather than the 6-7 seconds that it actually takes. The instruction has zero emphasis on team tactics rather than just solo air combat maneuvering. Online there is a youtube where a lawyer and former JAG officer details all the ways that the character would have been prosecuted for the many, many ways he violated the UCMJ.

Breakfast At Tiffany's: "Yellowface"; Blake Edwards thought it was funny to cast Mickey Rooney as a Japanese male. Unwatchable.

Big Jim McClain, 1951: John Wayne as someone in authority firing people from jobs just because he thought they were communists. I think that was at the beginning. Couldn't watch any more.

An Officer and a Gentleman: The opening with the drill instructor ranting about queers and if you are too weak to "drob bombs on babies", he'll find out and wash you out of the program. Pretty realistic for the time, actually. The rest of the movie is not bad, except, again in the beginning, he says he's disappointed that the navy has stooped to these "college" recruits (vs the academy) but these folks don't look like they graduated college. The main character doesn't look like he's succeeded at anything in life due to a bad upbringing. Number two in the plot says that he used to work at JC Penny's, that doesn't sound like a college grad. And a bachelors degree is a requirement to go to flight school. It can be anything from engineering to the humanities. But they need to know you have some smarts, and determination to finish something.


POSITIVES:

West Side Story. It holds up. I've seen clips from the newer version, doesn't grab me as much, not sure why as the performances seem good. One dance clip was in the streets in really bright sunlight, very different from the mood of the 1961 version, maybe that's it.

The Cowboys: I'm not a fan of John Wayne but I think it was one of his better films, although I am biased because I love the score by John Williams in his early days working in Hollywood.

In Harm's Way, 1965, directed by Otto Preminger: WWII flick staring John Wayne and a host of other great actors and actresses of the time; Realistic, losses along with the victories, personal issues of charactors, I thought a good film. Brandon De Wilde in that reminds me of...

Hud: Paul Newman plays an arrogant and selfish charactor, and he was surprised after the film that so many *admired* the charactor, which shows how people are often attracted to power and people that act like they know more than they do. Which brings me to...

A Face In The Crowd: Andy Griffith plays a baddie, before the days of his TV Mayberry. Another masterpiece by Elia Kazan. Which reminds me of...

On The Waterfront: Elia Kazan at his finest, a host of great acting talent, and Leonard Bernstein providing "mere movie music" according to his critics.

The Magnificent Seven: Mentioned above but I also think it holds up, and the score by Elmer Bernstein is one of the finest ever in the mythical old-west genre. I was concerned about the newer version of the film, but I'll tell ya, I think it holds its own, different story. I can't find now but the bad guy in that one has a line equating capitalism with god that was priceless.

Tombstone: Kurt Russell is just superb as Wyatt Earp, and a host of other towering acting talent.

True Grit (the newer remake): Had my doubts but gotta admit it was better than the version with Wayne and Campbell. More true to the book, including the terrain, and every actor held their own against iconic performances in the earlier version, including Dakin Matthews in place of Strother Martin as the horsetrader.

[akers]

Great movie! I just rewatch it and liked it even more than the first time. I always use Firestick to watch movies, but recently it hasn't work properly. I found this article, followed the guide and fixed my problem.

[Landrith]

And now, for the bad, films that don't hold up.


Breakfast At Tiffany's:

I just watched Breakfast at Tiffany's. The color, the city, the fashion holds up, just not the social mores. In the early 1990's I tried to make the argument that George Preppard always dressed in classic conservative mainstays and achieved a timeless fashion. Sort of an OG GQ. Truman Capote doesn't hold up.

[Bob (oh, THAT Bob)]

I just watched Breakfast at Tiffany's. The color, the city, the fashion holds up, just not the social mores. In the early 1990's I tried to make the argument that George Preppard always dressed in classic conservative mainstays and achieved a timeless fashion. Sort of an OG GQ. Truman Capote doesn't hold up.

Peppard was dashing in his day. I may have to watch it again for the fashions, though liberal, I'm a huge fan of what might be referred to as classic prep; Herringbone and other tweed jackets, oxford cloth shirts, charcoal slacks and suits, a fabulous italian double breast, charcoal, in faint chalk stripes of copper and silver. None of which fit me any more, I need to lose weight. Dressy now is "19th century sportsman dressy", a white oxford and blue silk tie under an olive oilskin jacket.

[WI-Tom]

After last night, I can report that the 1980 "Popeye" musical starring Robin Williams holds up, if "holds up" means it's as weird, uneven, and outlandishly uneventful as it was in 1980. What a weird, weird, weird, weird, weird movie.



(This may have been my first time watching it. And I only watched it because I've just gotten back from Malta, where it was filmed).

[Bobcat]

Recently I watched the Hustler and followed it up with the Color of Money

Both stand the test of time.

It's fun to watch Paul Newman revisit the role of Fast Eddie twenty five years later.

[Bob (oh, THAT Bob)]

After last night, I can report that the 1980 "Popeye" musical starring Robin Williams holds up, if "holds up" means it's as weird, uneven, and outlandishly uneventful as it was in 1980. What a weird, weird, weird, weird, weird movie.



(This may have been my first time watching it. And I only watched it because I've just gotten back from Malta, where it was filmed).

Williams lamented at an interview, not sure if joking or not, he or someone else said sarcastically with regard to the writing, "Why don't you make him walk on water!" and someone was like "YES! YES!" and then he facepalms. Don't know if true but good story many years after filming. Good acting, bad writing. Robert Altman could be hit-or-miss. But for years after, me and my college roomie were like, "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today!"

[mike9199]

Blade Runner. Still pretty good.

One of my favorites! Going to install kodi on my FireStick https://www.firesticktricks.com/inst...firestick.html and rewatch it again.
At the moment we are still having cable and I finally realized it is time to quit it forever. The quality of the picture is often horrible and the streaming choice is very limited too.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

« A Man For All Seasons ».

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Man_...ns_(1966_film)

has held up, I think.

Concerning all the films of Stanley Kubrick, I go with the late Prime Minister of China, Zhou EnLai, who, when asked if the French Revolution had been a success, replied,“It’s too early to tell”. I think we are looking at a cellar full of premier cru Burgundy; we must wait and see.

[Rigadog]

Just watched "Inherit the Wind", Tracy is wonderful in it. Great depiction of small mindedness.