I love the movies. Why, I don't know. I'm sure it's cause they are for entertainment, but that's not completely it. Modern movies are great for what they are, but there is NOTHING like a classic. I'm not talking Star Wars classic. I'm talking Breakfast a Tiffanys, West Side Story, Singing in the Rain Classic. Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Rock Hudson, Natalie Wood, Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, and Marylin Monroe these names evoke thoughts of what Hollywood glamour was. Movies were so good back then. They had a different air about them. The major studios didn't try to imitate "real life" there was a "silver screen life" that was portrayed. Going to the movies was truly an escape of reality. 
Music does lend a hand to the "magic" of these silver screen masterpieces though. West Side Story would be nothing without its Leonard Bernstein composition. White Christmas would have been just an old holiday movie without Irving Berlin brilliant score and lyrics. A lot of the American standards come from films of the day. Such as Cole Porters, I Get a Kick Out of You in the 1936 Film version of the play Anything Goes, starring Bing Crosby and Ethel Merman. New York, New York sung by Frank Sinatra in MGM's On the Town (1949). Great songs and standards which are popular still today might not have been written if it wasn't for these films.
Classic movies or musicals couldn't be mentioned without tipping the hat to the dance numbers. West Side Story is a dance picture more than it's a musical. The silver screen wouldn't be the same if Gene Kelly was never captured dancing down the rainy sidewalks in Singing in the Rain. That type of 
movie magic just doesn't happen anymore. Even modern day musicals just don't have the pizazz or star/dance quality of a Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers. This is what makes classics so...... I guess you would say CLASSIC.
movie magic just doesn't happen anymore. Even modern day musicals just don't have the pizazz or star/dance quality of a Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers. This is what makes classics so...... I guess you would say CLASSIC. All in all movies are romantic. Fall in love again with Gone with the Wind. Or laugh at the antics of Jerry Lewis in the Nutty Professor. Find your inner Gene Kelly and put a little extra skip in your step when the rain starts to fall. Emulate the swagger of Dean Martin in Robin and the Seven Hoods. I guess what I'm trying to say is, "We are all in a movie......and the film is your life". You're the director! There will always be drama, but you're in control of the comedic relief. Choreograph a dance number here and there. Make sure there is great music. Just remember there is no editing so do your best and get it on the first take. Lights, Camera, ACTION!!!!
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I couldn't agree with you more! Movies are definitely not the same and even todays actors are very different.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what it is about that time. I use to watch classics religiously growing up...my mom thought I was weird for wanting to watch classics more than cartoons. She called me an old soul.
To me there was something very uplifting and magical about those films. They're irreplaceable.
Thanks for sharing :)
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JOENI CALDERON
I really enjoyed all of Justin's thoughts about going to a movie and not having to see mayhem. I agree with all of his choices and sometrimes I think this guy should have been growing up with me, because he relates to all that I know and care for. (not that all of it had only happened some 50 years or so ago). My favorite movie of all time is "Fiddler on the Roof" ("TRADITION", remember?) The story of a stuggling family- complicated with honor, respect, love, young women and men,decisions on choices, poverty, fulfilling a mans role as a husband and a hard working father taking his questions on life to his maker, and great music. Keep up the good work-I'm sure there will be more to enjoy.....Love Grandpa
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