I think I’m going to try to embark on an “old movie” kick. So far I’ve watched The Graduate (1967) and half of Network (1976) (I stopped halfway only because a certain friend protested that I’d watch the movie without her).
(It’s also interesting to note that Network was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 4 of them. Wow.)
These old talkies give an interesting insight into the zeitgeist of the time in which they were made. The Graduate, for example, overflows with a 60s-style contempt for anything structured (corporate lifestyle, traditional relationships, marriage – Dustin Hoffman even wildly swings a cross at an angry mob in a Church) and its soundtrack is made up largely of Simon and Garfunkle songs.
But the other interesting thing I’m noticing is that: things haven’t changed all that much. People are still making anti-adulthood, coming-of-age pictures like The Graduate, and the corporate environment portrayed in Network isn’t all that different than it is today (or at least, how it’s portrayed today in movies): big execs with the big offices; a success-hungry, up-and-coming, power-woman agitating some of the more senior employees with her risky ideas (Faye Dunaway), and of course the visionary being stifled by corporate red tape and number-crunchers (Peter Finch). There are no computers, though. (And, as a result, no “suspenseful” scenes in which our hero almost gets caught copying files off of some bad guy’s computer – why is that progress bar moving so slowly??)
I think I need to check out some old Jack Nicholson flicks next.