How to Get into Old Movies...Part 7

Part 7: Start with Christmas Movies

For anybody who is not familiar with the plot of It's a Wonderful Life, there is a simple question: how?

I obviously don't know the numbers behind this, but I am safe with making the argument that most Americans have probably seen this Christmas classic. Even if they have never seen fragments of the movie, it's still a tale that is largely inescapable as it is often parodied in just about every television show imaginable; basically, if a show exists long enough, at least one of its Christmas episodes will involve a parody of It's a Wonderful Life.

The same can be said for A Christmas Carol which, in addition to being ripe for TV parody, has the added bonus of being a literary classic. Additionally, what makes the Dickens classic so unique is that it has more than a dozen movie versions (from full-length to TV movies, both live-action and animated), ranging from the first sound adaptation in 1935 to the well-known George C. Scott TV version to the family classic The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Thanks to these two classics and the national obsession America has over Christmas and its many facets - one of the larger ones being Christmas movies - it is very easy to introduce Christmas movies as an into to classic movies. What makes it so easy is that it is much more culturally appealing to a young, possibly nostalgic young person to use the phrase, "Let's watch a Christmas movie," instead of "Let's watch an old movie."

Of course, a handful of new full-length feature Christmas movies are released in theaters each year, not to mention the multiple straight-to-video and Hallmark flicks that are produced annually. However, when we think of Christmas movies, our minds don't usually run straight to recent movies (there are a few notable exceptions including Elf, Home Alone and Scrooged), such as Fred Claus or Four Christmases. They often go to the two I mentioned up top and the likes of Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, Holiday Inn, The Shop Around the Corner, Christmas in Connecticut, The Bishop's Wife and countless others (including the Rankin-Bass collection, a beast too enormous to touch in this post). And if needed, you can always use updated versions of classic movies to introduce classics, such as using the Denzel Washington-starring The Preacher's Wife to introduce The Bishop's Wife.

From there, you can jump into other movies directed by certain directors or starring certain actors. For instance, jumping from It's a Wonderful Life to another Frank Capra classic like You Can't Take it With You isn't that much of a leap.

Most importantly, though, don't underestimate the power of Christmas. You can easily coax somebody into watching a movie if you say it's about Christmas. So feel free to use it. Tell young people about a movie where a squirrel helps a poor family, they might be partially curious. Tell them it's a Christmas movie and it's called A Christmas Wish (sometimes The Great Rupert), and you've just earned yourself a viewer.

How to Get into Old Movies...Part 6

Part 6: Take a Film Class

Many high schools and most colleges offer at least some sort of film class. The larger a college's film department, the more diverse these classes happen to be.

Sometimes when we watch movies, especially ones we're not all that into, we might just get up and leave. Or we might not try all that hard to pay attention.

Although I would never encourage forcing anybody to watch anything a la Clockwork Orange, there is something to be said about being sat down and shown a movie as opposed to voluntarily watching something. Although I think you should watch something because you want to watch in, sometimes we gain interest in something without expecting to or via somebody else's suggestions.

Plus, especially in the case of college courses, the professor is usually somebody who knows the ins and out of just about every scene and can tell you the symbolism behind certain aspects of movies, as well as how certain movies fit into the pantheon of film history.

Film classes can also help you revisit movies you had seen once and give you the opportunity to see or experience certain things you either didn't notice or didn't fully appreciate the first time around. In my own case, I remember watching The Searchers on my own and then watching it again a few months later in a film class. I liked it a lot the first time around, but absolutely loved it by the end of the second viewing, boosted greatly after my professor pointed out the undertones of Ethan's (John Wayne's character) unspoken, yet subtly suggested love for his sister-in-law.

Since this series of posts is all about getting other people interested in classic movies, I would suggest taking the class with a friend or suggesting that he or she take it with you.

How to Get into Old Movies...Part 5

Part 5: Show Them Those Iconic Images

When I was in college, I always wondered how many of the people with Breakfast at Tiffany's posters had ever actually seen the movie. Of those who had actually seen the movie, I further wondered how many had ever actually read the original short story by Truman Capote, a dreary and less romanticized version of the eccentric drifter Holly Golightly.

Regardless, whether they have seen the movie or not, there are probably very few people who don't recognize that iconic image of Audrey Hepburn holding that long cigarette.

Due to that recognition, a movie, such as Breakfast at Tiffany's, is a perfect entrance into classic movies. From there, you can take on some of Hepburn's other work, like Sabrina or Love in the Afternoon. You could even go the road (much) less traveled and check out a flick with George Peppard, such as How the West Was Won.

There are many movies like this that boast iconic images that would be worth checking out, such as James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, Humphrey Bogart telling Ingrid Bergman to get on the plane at the end of Casablanca or Cary Grant being chased by a plane in North By Northwest.