What makes a classic movie?
Monday, February 8, 2010 at 1:30PM In my humble opinion, a classic movie is simply defined by the era it was created in. Any movie created from the beginning of cinema to approximately 1960 should be considered to be a classic. Whether it was good movie or not, it was created during what most call “the Golden Age of Cinema”. I use this as an example: I think most people would agree that movie scores and other non-vocal music created in the last fifty years would be called “Instrumental” music, not “Classical” music. Classical music is the instrumental music created centuries ago by the great composers such as Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, et al. I don’t think anyone would call the music of John Tesh or Yanni “Classical” simply because it is instrumental.
As for the longevity or mass appeal of classic films, I am the first to say that most classic films do not have the same appeal for modern audiences, simply because of the stylistic norms we as a modern audience are used to. I like fast paced action films, and get very bored with slow-paced dramas, but there are several classic films that I do enjoy. Movies like “The Philadelphia Story” and “Ninotchka” tell romantic stories very akin to something that could be made and enjoyed in the modern era. In our current time of war, we can still appreciate the tone of the film “All Quiet on the Western Front”, even though we may not have lived during World War I, and may not understand fully the mindset of those who did experience it.
Having said that, just because a movie is a classic doesn’t mean that you have to like it. Our individual enjoyment of a movie will be peppered with our own opinions and biases, and just because everyone else think it's a great movie doesn't mean you're forced to enjoy it. There is a movie that is considered the greatest movie of all time that I can’t stand, and that film is called “Citizen Kane”. I forced myself to watch this film a few years ago in an effort to watch all 100 films of that year’s AFI Top Movie list (I failed miserably at this, by the way). To this day, after much deliberation, I still don’t understand why this is the greatest movie of all time. It’s long, boring, and, for me, completely un-inspiring. Is my opinion affected by the fact that I grew up already knowing what ‘Rosebud’ really was? I’ll admit that is possible, but I also think that I would have been pissed off to get through that whole movie just to learn that it was his stupid sled all along.
Someone explain this one to me: Why is “Citizen Kane” such a great movie? And for deliberation, if you agree with my disdain, what do you think is the greatest movie of all time?


