You don't have to stick to 'classic' (i.e. famous) movies -- you can be a fan of old films without limiting yourself to a specific canon. (Also, "Gone With the Wind" is a genre picture by anyone's definition, and I'll bet people at the time would have roared with laughter to hear it defined as a cinematic classic: it was a big-budget adaptation of the best-selling pulp novel of the year, a bit like the "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" movies. Nobody involved was setting out to make Great Art. "Ben-Hur" was a remake of a special-effects-heavy sword and sandal picture that had been a hit in the silent era, a few years previously -- the equivalent of the "Spiderman" reboot. And "Doctor Zhivago" was a sexed-up adaptation of a historical romance about the Russian Revolution -- the equivalent of, say, Colin Firth in "Pride and Prejudice" :-P) Of the three, to be honest I remember very little of "Doctor Zhivago" at all (I was pretty young when I saw it). I think I found "Gone With the Wind" the most straighforwardly enjoyable -- but it's definitely uneven: the second half is weaker than the first, and Leslie Howard, much as I admire him, is uncomfortable in the role of Ashley and shows it. "Ben-Hur" is a better shape in dramatic terms, but it suffers from a heavy-handed Christian message (as common to most Bible epics of the era).
Perosnally, I don't think "Citizen Kane" is the greatest film of all time; it's a perfectly good film, but I don't see what's supposed to be so special about it. And I don't think "The General" is the greatest silent comedy of all time, though I enjoy it -- that label is apt to lead to great disapppointment. (It's not especially *funny*, or even intended to be, however neatly constructed and historically accurate it is.)
It helps to have seen these things, because then you know what other people are talking about. But not having done so certainly doesn't preclude you from enjoying other old films... and maybe some that people who have only ever seen the famous titles have never actually watched.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2018-05-23 11:39 pm (UTC)Of the three, to be honest I remember very little of "Doctor Zhivago" at all (I was pretty young when I saw it). I think I found "Gone With the Wind" the most straighforwardly enjoyable -- but it's definitely uneven: the second half is weaker than the first, and Leslie Howard, much as I admire him, is uncomfortable in the role of Ashley and shows it. "Ben-Hur" is a better shape in dramatic terms, but it suffers from a heavy-handed Christian message (as common to most Bible epics of the era).
Perosnally, I don't think "Citizen Kane" is the greatest film of all time; it's a perfectly good film, but I don't see what's supposed to be so special about it. And I don't think "The General" is the greatest silent comedy of all time, though I enjoy it -- that label is apt to lead to great disapppointment. (It's not especially *funny*, or even intended to be, however neatly constructed and historically accurate it is.)
It helps to have seen these things, because then you know what other people are talking about. But not having done so certainly doesn't preclude you from enjoying other old films... and maybe some that people who have only ever seen the famous titles have never actually watched.