How high do the stakes have to be?

[dewi]

Surely the overall theme of films, soaps on TV, and even books, is the fight against evil, there has never been a book written, or a film or programme been made which does not have the fight of good against evil in it, even the comedies of Norman Wisdom, Laurel and Hardy contained these themes, Shakespeare , Dickens, all on the same theme, this is the reason that the latest films, etc, have to increase the violence and the shock factor, because otherwise people would realise its the same story being told over and over, the problem is that people expect more and more violence, I mean the soaps on TV now just mimmick each other with the rapes, murders, etc, and it gets to the point where they become unreal, if you remember "Brookside", which basically consisted of 6 houses in a dead end street, got so confused with murders, affairs, robbery, that it had to stop, because people could no longer relate to it, it seems to me that when you watch TV now, nothing good happens in the shows, they have to have that shock factor where everyone is against each other, a bit like the end of the world in most films now, even the Harry Potter films was good against evil, the only film I think that wasn't based on this recurrent theme was "Grease", and everyone was happy at the end.
I too am a film buff, and enjoy a good film with a good story, films like "Papillon", I recently(last night) watched an old black and white movie "Hobsons Choice" on TV, they don't make them like that anymore, another good film to watch is "Lost in Yonkers", still if there was always a good film or two on TV, we wouldn't be on the forum.

I'd agree... very much so... the shock factor seems to be one of the driving factors, but is it isn't the driving factor that made us watch the Shaw Shank Redemption... it isn't the driving factor that made us watch the Shining.

We watch films that engage us, and Papilon is a brilliant example of a film that shouldn't engage the masses, but did... because it was something real, something that described what really happens in life. We don't fight against the universe, we don't prevent the end of the world.. but we do an Evan Almighty... one Act of Random Kindness at a time. Happens to spell ARK, but who gives a monkies, the moral of the story is pretty good.

 

[Dave]

Yeh, Im a big film buff too. There seems to be a lot of completely crap chop em up horrors around. All sadistic.
Last decent film I saw was last week. Hell or high water. Jeff Bridges is usually brilliant though.

Bat Dad.......hahahhahaha brilliant.

 

[boatman]

Ironically though the masses couldn't read said story until around 75 years ago due to the lack of education given to the masses, so although a nice synopsis of the Bible, wholly irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

Hollywood playing catch up though? Interesting point... maybe Hollywood is replaying the doomsday voices of the past that preached in ornate building placed in the centres of towns.... interesting.

75 years ago? I am 70 and my parents and grandparents were certainly literate although in increasingly humble circumstances the further back you go through the generations. See the Mercury and othe English Civil War journals to see that literacy was not unusual even back then.

 

[boatman]

Surely the overall theme of films, soaps on TV, and even books, is the fight against evil, there has never been a book written, or a film or programme been made which does not have the fight of good against evil in it, even the comedies of Norman Wisdom, Laurel and Hardy contained these themes, Shakespeare , Dickens, all on the same theme, this is the reason that the latest films, etc, have to increase the violence and the shock factor, because otherwise people would realise its the same story being told over and over, the problem is that people expect more and more violence, I mean the soaps on TV now just mimmick each other with the rapes, murders, etc, and it gets to the point where they become unreal, if you remember "Brookside", which basically consisted of 6 houses in a dead end street, got so confused with murders, affairs, robbery, that it had to stop, because people could no longer relate to it, it seems to me that when you watch TV now, nothing good happens in the shows, they have to have that shock factor where everyone is against each other, a bit like the end of the world in most films now, even the Harry Potter films was good against evil, the only film I think that wasn't based on this recurrent theme was "Grease", and everyone was happy at the end.
I too am a film buff, and enjoy a good film with a good story, films like "Papillon", I recently(last night) watched an old black and white movie "Hobsons Choice" on TV, they don't make them like that anymore, another good film to watch is "Lost in Yonkers", still if there was always a good film or two on TV, we wouldn't be on the forum.

Lots without that fight, see Ballad of Peckham Rye for just one example.

 

[sunndog]

Just a trend dewi, superhero films sell so they will milk the life out of them until they stop selling

I dare you watch transformers age of extinction

 

[Tengu]

http://io9.gizmodo.com/china-would-like-superhero-films-to-stop-pandering-and-1786820358

<Yawns> Do they want to see such trash?

 

[santaman2000]

http://io9.gizmodo.com/china-would-like-superhero-films-to-stop-pandering-and-1786820358

<Yawns> Do they want to see such trash?

Apparently so. Remember the Bruce Lee movies of the 70s. I loved them at the time but looking back they seem quite different.

 

[santaman2000]

I find the saddest change to the horror genre. I'm old enough to remember when the point was to build suspense and keep the watcher/reader in a state of fear. Unlike now where the point is gratuitous blood and gore.

 

[petrochemicals]

If you want suspense, Hitchcocks Rear Window has to be the best, all done with a windowframe in shot. I agree whole heartedly that films are an ever increasing stakes game. The trouble is the movies are not intellectual (usual suspects an exception) they are just a spectacle, and like a drug addict things have to get more and more and more. The first saw film was clever, but was very very graphic, and it got more and more violent and bloody as they progressed. Tales of yore had a point and meaning, like books, they where clever, films get more and more stupid.

 

[Andy BB]

I think this is all missing the point though. I watch films to be entertained, rather than to analyse the story to find technical flaws with the plot. To be truly inspired, I'll read a good scientific or history journal. After all, who couldn't be awed, inspired and enthralled to find out that we all consist of matter created within the heart of exploding stars; we are all - literally - star-children!

To be fair though, a good movie can still make the hairs on the back of one's neck stand up. The best example of that for me is the biergarten scene in Cabaret, with the Hitler youth singing "The future belongs to me"......