How to Get into Old Movies...Part 2

Part 2: Use Movies Still Well Known in Popular Culture

It's been more than 70 years since The Wizard of Oz was first released in theaters. Yet, just about everybody, regardless of age, can tell you the basic plot of this movie, which happens to be in the top 10 of the American Film Institute's Top 100 American movies list.

There is not always a definite pattern that can help one to determine which movies resonate and will continue to resonate 10, 20, even 50 years past their release date. However, some do. Some become synonymous with the Christmas season (It's a Wonderful Life), some are known for their quotes (Casablanca) and some represent a rite of passage of sorts for young women (Gone with the Wind).

However, to those who may not know any different, some movies become nothing more than an hour-and-forty-five-minutes block of time on the TV Guide channel or a dusty VHS tape on a grandparent's shelf. And, oddly enough, many of these movies are and were considered stellar pieces of cinema, some ever garnering Best Picture or acting Oscars.

Take Goodbye, Mr. Chips. The 1939 movie about an initially stingy schoolteacher nabbed Robert Donat the first and only Oscar win of his too brief film career. And all this despite being in a competitive category with acting names that are still considered legendary to this day, and many even easily recognizable to young people nowadays: James Stewart, Laurence Olivier, Clark Gable and Mickey Rooney. Yet Robert Donat won, which would beg the question from young moviegoers nowadays...who is Robert Donat, and (going back to the movie itself) what is Goodbye, Mr. Chips?

Basically, in order to appreciate, or even be able to identify, a Goodbye, Mr. Chips, you have to work your way through the Singin' in the Rains and the Psychos. Other than being great building blocks for cinematic appreciation, these movies do a lot of great things in helping you get into old movies.

First, they train your eyes to get used to the look and feel of old movies. Second, they introduce you to actors you will soon begin to identify more frequently as you watch more and more old movies.

One theme I will continue to reiterate as I expand this list is that many of these tips can be used simultaneously. Therefore, you can start your journey into old movie appreciation by starting with well-known classics and then get more entrenched by looking back into the filmographies of some of the actors. We will continue to see links like this as we go on. Stay tuned until then...

How to Get into Old Movies...Part 1

Part 1: Start with Actors' Later Filmographies

There are many actors whose filmographies have expanded, and even continue to expand today, across multiple decades. Some actors who got their starts in the '40s and '50s even continue to perform in movies nowadays.

Take Dennis Hopper, for instance, who kickstarted his career in 1955 with the James Dean vehicle Rebel Without a Cause. Since then Hopper has notched about 150 movie credits, acted in some of the most important movies of the past 60 years, wrote and directed a few and has even garnered two Oscar nominations (one for acting and one for writing).

Most importantly, for the situation we are discussing, Hopper has a name and/or face that most movie viewers would recognize instantly or with a little bit of memory jogging.

Using Hopper as an example, if you are introducing old movies to a friend or family member, start them out with a movie with which they might be familiar, such as Hoosiers or Apocalypse Now, also movies that sit on the bridge to being considered old movies. From there, you can move backwards through Hopper's movies, touching on some essentials, such as True Grit, Easy Rider, Cool Hand Luke, Hang 'Em High and Giant.

Of course, Dennis Hopper isn't the only actor you can use. You can choose from a handful, such as Cloris Leachman, Julie Andrews, Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

Tune in for the next tip...

Ways for a Young Person to Get into Old Movies

This is something I always think about. It seemed really easy for me to get into old movies. I started watching them with my dad more than a decade ago, starting with Robin and the 7 Hoods and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and then really got into them again back in 2007 when I tried to watch all the movies on the American Film Institute's reduxed Top 100 list.

But, for others, black-and-white just seems like a barrier, a hurdle that is impossible to clear. And for many people nowadays, classic movies just don't have that pop to which so many have become accustomed: the special effects, the camera tricks and the like.

I'd like to introduce a series of easy methods and tips for easing one's way into the classics for classic movie upstarts or those trying to introduce their friends or family to the classics. Like swimming, if somebody just jumps right into the deep end of classic movies (early Hitchcock like Secret Agent or, say, Todd Browning's Freaks), he or she is bound to avoid swimming again at all costs.

In addition, if anybody has any additional tips, I would love to hear them.

-Steve

"Watch something with color..."

A few months ago, my roommate walked into the room and saw me watching the movie, "Born Yesterday" on Turner Classic Movies. Well, to me it was "Born Yesterday." To him, it was just some black-and-white movie.

This was when the lecture began. He explained to me that it isn't right for somebody my age (22 at the time) to watch anything that lacks color, that black-and-white essentially equals boring. In a way, I see where he is coming from. The way we view movies now is different from how we watched movies years ago. The way actors act now is different from the way they did before.

The truth is that I have a deep appreciation for all movies - old and new - especially those that have the uncanny ability to spark some sort of emotion or feeling from deep within, whether that emotion be happiness, sympathy or confusion. While many new movies are great at this, older movies have that special something.

The brilliant thing, to me at least, about movies from the '30s, '40s and '50s is the obvious reliance on acting and performing and drawing as much storytelling power as possible, sometimes from the simplest of film concepts, scripts and even sets. On top of that, it is almost mesmerizing to see an old movie for the first time that has dramatic themes similar to movies you may see nowadays.

I would like to use this space to, first, do what just about every classic movie blog does: analyze classic movies and explain why they are so important to us. Second, I would like to apply an added perspective as a young fan to the mix to give everybody a taste of why and how a young person can enjoy movies that were made almost a half a century before he was born.

I hope you enjoy.

-Steve