1939 was the best year, after that I think 1977 may come in second.
...in your opinion?
1900s
1910s
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Yeah, maybe not the best selections, but FO. What's the best era?
1939 was the best year, after that I think 1977 may come in second.
correction 1.1939, 2.1976, 3.'77.
If I had go decade by decade......the 70's would be #1
Yeah, 1939 is a holy year to movie critics...even though it falls in the near-40 year reign of the MPAA code.
For me, it's definitely the 40's.
For me, it's two decades, the 40s and the 50s.
What a ty selection in the OP. NONE of those were the best of their decade except maybe Gone With The Wind.
As far as the question, it's gotta be the 70s and it's not even up for debate.
The Godfather part 1 and 2
Rocky
Jaws
Star Wars
(with just those first 5 this arguments already over but I'll continue)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Apocalypse Now
Taxi Driver
Alien
A Clockwork Orange
The Sting
Chinatown
The Deer Hunter
Patton
Network
The Exorcist
and then for comedies: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Animal House, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles (pretty much the Mount Rushmore of comedies)
Agreed.I dont really know what the "Golden Age" of anything means but...
A film like Kubricks 2001:ASO(1968) comes to mind as one that broke ground and jumpstarted the next decade of other similiar films that basically laughed at that particular genre pre-70's.
Then there's Dirty Harry(1971) that also stepped up to the plate in terms of cinema violence and urban political themes.
Other posters have mentioned JAWS,The Godfather etc...all strong cases for this argument.
I suppose that my particular age(40's) could have something to do with my belief that the 70's was a
strong decade for cinema....maybe....maybe not. Thats the question you've gotta ask yourself.....punk.
Last edited by mojorizen7; 06-30-2011 at 12:58 AM.
"golden age" for me would mean 40s... and 50s maybe. Good stuff in the 30s too, but lots of the movies in the 30s seem too dated now, and they suffer from 'stageyness', and too many of them have musical interludes that intrude on the main movie.
After that, it would be the 70s... great, great stuff. I'm too old to call the 70s a golden age for anything though.
I was born in 89 so there's no personal bias based on nostalgia for me like there may be for others. I dare anyone to put up a lineup of the best movies for a decade like I did for the 70s. It's pretty ridiculous how many iconic movies there were.
I'd also say the mid 90s were pretty heavy with Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemtion, Pulp Fiction, Braveheart, Apollo 13, Casino, Toy Story, and Fargo
70's or 90's for me and I'm leaning towards the 90's.
CubanSucks covered a lot of the greats already but I'll add more les from 90-99: Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Saving Private Ryan, The Big Lebowski, Goodfellas, The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, The Lion King, Casino, Dazed and Confused, Schindler's List, The Matrix, Reservoir Dogs, American History X, Office Space
90's also had some of the most fun guilty pleasure flicks (Arnold movies, Jim Carrey movies) and blockbusters reached their peak imo; before studios went overboard with CGI.
Last edited by Cane; 06-30-2011 at 03:52 AM.
Oh, and as for the movies representing their decade in the OP, that's easy. I'd have to go:
50s: 12 Angry Men
(anything before the 50s I really don't give a about)
60s: The Graduate
70s: The Godfather
80s: The Breakfast Club/Ferris Bueller/Back to the Future
90s: Pulp Fiction
00s: LOTR trilogy
I definitely prefer that lineup over the 70s personally. But the fact that those 70s movies still manage to be entertaining today to a 22 yr old says a lot
Ironically i happen to believe that music sort of follows this pattern too(70's and 90's)....at least in the last 40 years. If i had to pick two decades from the last 40 yrs to stuff in a personal time capsule i'd happily secure the music of the 70's and 90's.
The music of the 50's and 60's was important too though.
OT: As a white musician and passionate fan of music myself,i have an incredible amount of respect for the music of the black culture from the dawn of man up until about 1985. Since then not so much....but hey,white people and the rest of the young and old masses of all cultures dig rap and hip-hop....it is what it is.
IMO thats a big part of whats lacking in music over the last 20 yrs or so. Soul,blues,funk and true rythmn & blues is dead and that sucks...and its absence has had an effect on all forms of modern music.
BOTTOM LINE: I don't see modern black music as true expression or art....blast me all you want if ya feel like it.![]()
Last edited by mojorizen7; 06-30-2011 at 04:15 AM.
The Golden Age of Cinema is right now and it just keeps getting better. If you want to talk about acting or stories that would be a different discussion.
Nearly impossible question to answer as asked, really. Entirely too broad. It would be easier and/or more accurate to try and nail down a particular genre's golden age, but still completely subjective and too reliant upon personal taste to reach any sort of consensus.
Were I to try and decide on a golden age of cinema, though, I don't think it would neatly fit within one decade. And I certainly don't think it would be based on which specific films were released during that ten-year period. I'd look at technical achievements and game changing trends -- the roughly five-year period from the development of sound technology to the inception of the Hayes Code; the invention of CinemaScope, VistaVision, and the move to a 2.35 aspect ratio in the 1950s; the move away from the restrictive Hayes Code in the 1960s and 70s; the (re)emergence of independent films in the 1990s.
Wikipedia has a good series of articles on Pre-Codes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Code_Hollywood
atm the main article looks highly researched and well written. Someone could come along and talk about penises and vaginas in it of course but it looks good now. Doherty's book is the best source on that period by far:
http://www.amazon.com/Pre-Code-Holly...9447135&sr=1-1
In american cinema its the 70s. For cinema in general probably the 60s.
The 50's, sandwiched nicely between the 40's and 60's.
I'd probably go with 70s
There are timeless classics in every decade, but as far as great movies and great acting in bulk it's the 70's and 90's.
Definitely.
The amount of great films released during the 60s is simply mind boggling. It was arguably American cinema's second strongest decade (after the 70s) and world cinema was at its peak. Japanese cinema was at its best, the French New Wave directors were cranking out masterpieces left and right, while Bunuel, Bergman, Fellini, and Antonioni (among many other "lesser known" directors, like Hiroshi Teshigahara and Luchino Visconti) were all at the top of their game. In addition, you still had Kurosawa, De Sica, and Bresson going strong, not to the mention the emergence of directors like Tarkovski, Fassbinder, and Herzog.
Last edited by midnightpulp; 07-08-2011 at 01:31 AM.
I love just about all those movies mentioned above but I'm not sure they all stand the test of time. I don't think people will look back and consider Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, etc. as timeless classics. Don't get me wrong, I'll watch Pulp Fiction everytime it comes on. But of all those movies up top, Shawshank is far and away the closet. IMO.
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