Sure films today are amazing, we have the ability to produce loads of special effects and we can even watch films in 3D now, allowing the films to almost come to life right in front of us, but they are just lacking that certain something.
Sure films made 50 years ago don’t have the amazing technical special effects that we have and the majority of them are made in black and white but they just had that something special, they had a certain magic about them if you will.
Maybe films today just don’t seem as magical because Hollywood and all the other picture houses around the world churn out about a million films a week these days (a slight exaggeration but you get what I mean), or maybe its because of the high rate of illegal downloading that stops people from going and experiencing the magic of the cinema, as you can now watch any film at anytime from the comfort of your own front room.
But does it really compare to the excitement of seeing something on the big screen? The answer to that I believe is no. It doesn’t because; you have other distractions at home to prevent you from getting totally engrossed in the amazement of the film.
I also think the magic of film has been lost due to us expecting more from films. Just think about it 70 years ago when the Wizard of Oz went from black and white to colour, that would have been absolutely amazing but now we expect bigger productions, more special effects and high action chase scenes. Our thirst for technology and advancement has taken away the brilliance of cinema.
The celebrity culture we now have has also taken away the cinematic magic that once was. Before you had these huge Hollywood stars like Marlon Brando, Bette Davis, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe who you could only access through the cinema system and they remained what they were because of this, elusive and unattainable film stars.
Now we have the likes Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt who my have hugely successful film careers, but are now more famous for being famous, we seem to care more about their relationship and how many children they have adopted rather than their film roles. I mean I have never actually seen Colin Farrell in a film, yet I seem to know everything about his personal life through magazines and TV shows.
The point I’m getting to is, I think the public have so much access to the media and those who are at the centre of it that we seem to view their lives as the movie narrative and not the film anymore. We have also become more dependent on big explosions and animated monsters that the movies actual message and plot.
It looks as though that Hollywood magic that once was has been replaced by a media saturated public that don’t really care much for the film anymore but more about the hustle and bustle surrounding the production of it.
No wonder they called it the Golden Age of Hollywood.
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