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Showing results for tags 'old fart alert'.
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Every age seems to hearken back to an earlier, Golden Age, when life was simple, and, for example, movies (& later, TV) were just terrific, thank you very much - not like the dross we have to sit through these days, oh, no... I guess it's a sign of getting older, and that we have been exposed to more (and, just as importantly, have actually lived through those times), that allows us to look back and say "Yeah, now that is when cinema/TV/music was the best." Of course, we are wrong, just as our parents were wrong, and their parents before them. Go back far enough, and you'll probably find someone complaining that cave paintings aren't what they used to be - too much sex and swearing. "I remember when old Og used to paint lovely family scenes. None of this nudity - and the language... Well, I never... 'Ugg' this, 'Aagg' that - it's a disgrace. Og gave us what we wanted, though - just good old-fashioned slaughter, disembowelling and dismemberment. Ah, those were the days..." We can, however, say that what we have now is generally sub-standard - certainly in the case of cinema. The amount of rubbish that I have switched off after 10-15 minutes is waaaayyyy higher than it used to be. Perhaps it's because movie studios are no longer run by people who understand that show business also requires a show, and that a show comes from the heart and not from some marketing fuckwit's focus group. To give an example, on many an occasion it has become readily apparent that the focus of the film is on some child whose presence in the film is purely to satisfy the demands of some demographic. It seems, also, that there is another reason why modern movies suck: It's not the only reason, but it's a good one. Good business is when a quality product is delivered to the customer at a reasonable price. Good business is when the customer comes back again and again because he/she knows the quality of the product will meet certain standard. I would argue that the focus has shifted from improving/maintaining the quality of the product to lowering the expectations of the customer in order to get away with delivering an inferior product. And that is why modern life - in general; movies are but a symptom of the malaise - sucks. In Henry IV (Part 2, if I remember correctly), Shakespeare wrote 'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.' I bet he would have added marketing execs to the list if he'd written that today...