Sunday, December 2, 2007

"Casablanca" a bygone era of film making.

Humphrey Bogart has been my favorite actor for many years. He, like his films has stood the test of time. The films made during his era are very different from what we see on the silver screen today. Many things in these older films were implied rather than shown.
For example, in Casablanca there is a scene were a drunken bar fly asks Rick (Bogart) "Where were you last night?" His response, "That's so long ago I can't remember."
In just two lines we know that these two characters have a past. We also learn that Rick has no plans of pursuing anything further with her.
Hollywood of today would most likely put us through watching the scene that led up to this verbal exchange in graphic detail. And it really would add nothing to the plot.
Give me a good old western with John Wayne. No need here for graphic scenes. People get shot, sometimes there is blood, and sometimes someone may just grab their chest and fall over. You get the point and know what happened to the character without a lot of excessive violence.
This thought even occured to me last night when watching Die Another Day. In the early Bond films if Connery or Moore were to take a woman back to their room we might see some kissing and then one of them would reach for the lamp on the nightstand. Fade to black cut to the next scene.
Perhaps I am venting here a little, but I truthfully feel movies are much better when certain scenes are left off screen and instead are left to our imagination.

Breakfast: 5 pts. Raisin Bran w/skim milk
Lunch: 10 pts. Turkey Brats w/onions and hot peppers
Dinner: 15 pts. Potato Soup with little BBQ smokies.
Other: 3 pts. Apple Spiced Cider
Exercise: 6.8 miles 103 min

2 comments:

[rich] said...

I'm not keen on movies with 'for the sake of it' scenes. And hate gorefests. Since becoming a parent I must admit the general theme of programs on TV are not the best. Then again lots of smoking in them old films ;-) Good job you can switch 'em off.

Anonymous said...

Jeff,

You've become a friend and supporter, and taken the next step to go from supporter to blogger - and now Team member! Your constant support and commenting on various blogs reminds us all that we are not alone and we will always have friends who share our obsessions!!!

Now - WHAT'S NEXT?!?!?