Quote: (01-16-2017 09:54 AM)Robert High Hawk Wrote:
My (admittedly poorly stated) point was that simply due to the fact that interests, tastes, and art were incredibly less globalized than today, talent, creation, production, and distribution was performed by and catered to distinctly less diverse America, with less foreigners involved. And it is my contention the art of those earlier (let's say up until the 70s), was at the very least as good, or better, than the filth that comes out today.
Merryl Streep said without diversity there would be no good American art, and my argument is back when there was less diversity, the art was as good or better than today, so her statement is wrong. Admittedly my knowledge of historical Hollywood is weak at best, so apologies if this wildly ignorant or inaccurate.
Streep's comment is moronic. However, I would argue that diversity was not a major factor in the quality of movies, one way or the other.
There are so many points that could be brought up, and so many moving parts, who can really say. I'll attempt a few brief ones.
- 70s American cinema (my favorite American cinema) is the first generation of film school students really coming of age. Often, the first wave of anything that harshly rejects the previous wave contains some great stuff. It has the craft and tradition of the old wave, with the vitality of the fresh ideas that haven't become completely dislocated and decadent. It is also the initial full flowering of "show whatever you want on screen" cinema. So you can have sex and violence and nudity, finally, but since it is the first bit of complete openness, it hasn't yet become heavy handed.
- 30's-50s is the golden age of the sound era (with '39 considered the apogee of the classical style). But you have the Hayes code restricting what can be on screen. Partially it is helpful, because filmmakers have to be inventive to show "adult" situations, leading to greater creativity. But on the other hand it is censorship, and the films seems more naive because of it. You also still have the guild system, and there is no such thing as "film school" (there were a few programs, but I wouldn't call them creative type programs).
- the studio system giving way to antitrust laws (bullshit state interference), changing who controlled the distribution of pictures. This coincided with a massive counter-culture shift, resulting in the old guard of Hollywood admitting they did not know what audiences wanted anymore, and handing over the keys to the kingdom to a bunch of hippies (late 60s)
- the rise of the "event film" in the late 70s-early 80s (Spielberg, Lucas, Simpson-Bruckheimer)... ugh
- any art form, in its infancy, goes through the growing pains of being cumbersome and inauthentic. Then it reaches a level of realistic representation (the apex). Then it begins its steady slide down into navel gazing and mummification. Once middle class kids start to study something in university, you can pronounce it irrelevant. See jazz (sadly).
- the little bump of decent films we saw in the 90s may have been due to the first generation of video store kids getting to make films. That is, you could educate yourself in films without expensive screening fees, nor attending a film program. There was also a break in the studios, where small films could be found in festivals, or even developed by the minor wings of major studios (Miramax is the best example of this, where their art films where actually supported by their horror division).
- now, you have the full effects of cultural relativism. You have entire groups of people seriously taking movie classes in university. Of course, you have no high level craft demands or serious guild system to ensure quality. So the truly talented work on the mindless event films (trying to appeal to everyone -- sort of impossible), while the hacks work on art films... paid for with GRANT MONEY (that is to say, your money). The middle ground, of expertly crafted genre films and serious adult dramas, is squeezed dry. A studio won't have a wing that develops small budget talent anymore. They will go to festivals and buy it for zero dollars, and fuck you because this is the only chance you have to get your movie seen.