One of my greatest joys in life is discovering the beauty and art which were created before I was born. There are thousands of years of written and recorded history which inform today's artists and craftmakers. Philosophy, art, scupture, music, fiction, non-fiction... leading to still cameras, motion picture cameras, film editing, synchronized sound, color film, video, special effects... it is a wonderful continuum, filled with magnificent works which gives weight and perspective to what has been made within my lifetime. I was 20 years old in 1970... do I dismiss Forbidden Planet because Star Wars had new effects? How do I view Star Wars if I had never watched Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress? How would I view The Sorcerer if I had never seen Wages of Fear? How can one evaluate the remake of Cape Fear if you have never watched the first film with that name?

But to some people... without color, a TV show is unwatchable. Too bad, so sad for them.

Quoting Winston Smith:

Quote:
Rosebud.

It was his sled!

Quoting widescreenforever:

Quote:
well ..some people love a well good cooked dinner and others can live out of packaged dinners ....

(and to continue the metaphor) ... and feel the "good cooking" is no better (or worse) by comparison for their own tastes and don't understand what is so special to others about it.

[/metaphor]

Apart from the OP question (yes, I have it on BR but have yet to watch it, I keep postponing very long movies, be that Gone..., Zhivago or others), on the black & white issue I once had a revelation of sorts.

Understand, I was used to seeing B&W 'movies' on TV as a kid: Keystone cops, Laurel & Hardy etc. Basically slapstick only and poor image quality. Not saying it's bad, just that I didn't expect too much of B&W besides having a (very) good laugh.

Some years ago I bought a Marx Brothers box (with Duck soup, Animal crackers, ...), His Girl Friday, and some others on the cheap and was pleasantly surprised to find another world I should have visited a lot earlier. Found movies like this at least as entertaining as modern movies with jokes that were then and are still now very un-PC. (meaning: excellent jokes  ).

So nowadays I do not have a 'cut off date' for movies. Good and bad movies occur as long as movies are being made. 'special effects' too: nobody assumes that going to the moon in Méliès' movie was a documentary. And especially special effects are a sign of the times: the sequences of the space orbiters in the older James Bond movies are as laughable nowadays as the physically ridiculous tilting of giant slabs of earth without breaking apart in '2012'. Just as long as it doesn't take you too much out of the 'suspended belief' that is required for any movie to watch, I can live with it.

Quoting DJ Doena:

Quote:
Quoting VibroCount:

Quote:
Wait... what? You own no films made before 1970

Quoting DJ Doena:

Quote:
I basically own no movies made before 1970 and very few made before 1980.

What I meant was that the ratio of pre-1970 movies drops dramatically in comparison to later decades.

Quote:
You are much like the snobs who claim not to own a television and yet feel capable of criticizing TV shows

.

I am the snob?   

I came into this thread simply answering the question if I own Gone and stated that my film collection basically only starts in the late 70s. Not once did I even remark on the quality of earlier films.

Since then I had to read thinly vailed condescension towards me (e.g. people feeling "sad" for for me, implying I don't know a good meal from a fast food burger) because of my personal watching habits.

And no, for my enjoyment of the Lord of the Rings I actually don't need to know or put in context that director Peter Jackson also made Braindead.

Quote:
on watching one James Bond film, dismiss Sean Connery's entire work based on the first one made

No, I watched Dr. No and made a specific remakr Dr. No. I will continue with From Russia With Love albeit less enthused as I went into Dr. No

I wouldn't take much out of the comments. Classics for the most part are a reason for older guys to watch chick flicks from an earlier period of film.

I'd take a good burger and fries over Prime Rib. Which I feel is a over rated as some classics.

Hey cliff. Have you ever bought a Susquehana hat or been to Niagara Falls. <BEG>

Quoting DJ Doena:

Quote:
I don't.

I basically own no movies made before 1970 and very few made before 1980.

If have have a movie of that era then I have a very good reason for it. I've never even seen one of these so-called classics: Gone, Casablanca, Kane, Zhivago, ...

WOW!  I'm speechless.  I'm glad there's such a big variety of movies.  There's always something for everyone....  Almost forgot...yeah, I own GWTW.  Just about every version released on video.

Quoting eommen:

Quote:
Apart from the OP question (yes, I have it on BR but have yet to watch it, I keep postponing very long movies, be that Gone..., Zhivago or others), on the black & white issue I once had a revelation of sorts.

Understand, I was used to seeing B&W 'movies' on TV as a kid: Keystone cops, Laurel & Hardy etc. Basically slapstick only and poor image quality. Not saying it's bad, just that I didn't expect too much of B&W besides having a (very) good laugh.

My wife tells a story how she grew up with a B&W TV till the early 70's.

When she finally saw "The Wizard Of OZ" at a revival showing she finally understood the change when Dorothy opened the door after she landed. She also finally understood the horse of a different color  joke. 

Bobb