Crappy Old Movies
I have a special place in my heart for terrible old movies. Especially the horror movies. Tonight I am going out to see Mothra, a terrible Godzilla movie from the early '60s, on the big screen. My dad and I used to rent some of the classics, like The Blob, one of my personal favorites. There is something infinitely appealing about their incredible cheese.
Where else but in 50s B, or even C-movies could I get the joy of watching a glob of grape jelly eating a small American town? I think what makes them best is how you can't quite tell if people were really serious about these films. They don't really strike fear into the heart, but the actors seem to try, kind of, and they classified the films as horror movies. They don't seem to find what they're doing funny, but they must be aware of what it looks like.
There's also something fascinating about seeing how films like Godzilla reflect the times. The Japanese movies from that time period are all about Tokyo being destroyed and people running through the streets. I think it's a definite reflection of the fears of the time: beind annihilated by large, unstoppable forces that only give you enough time to be afraid before killing you. It was a constant concern, and the movies definitely tap into things like that.
Like how recently we've been getting more into alien horror movies. People are afraid of the unknown, like those illegal immigrants "who won't speak damn English and take all of our jobs." As Stephen Lynch points out, all the of the good jobs, like fruit picking... ANYWAY, we're always hearing about some unknown, vague new threat that will wipe us all out. And it'll be from people we don't understand, don't know much about and consider sort of irrelevant.
And the joy of these old movies is that even though they're supposed to be horror movies, they're sort of comical. When we fear, we take on the abstract ideas, and it's harder to dispel them. There is something comical about having a giant moth come and destroy your city. And there's something similarly amusing, but in a more grim way, about being afraid of big ideas without wanting to know more about what's actually behind them, what the reality behind them can actually do.
And if you've never actually seen Godzilla, the old one, you really should rent it.
Where else but in 50s B, or even C-movies could I get the joy of watching a glob of grape jelly eating a small American town? I think what makes them best is how you can't quite tell if people were really serious about these films. They don't really strike fear into the heart, but the actors seem to try, kind of, and they classified the films as horror movies. They don't seem to find what they're doing funny, but they must be aware of what it looks like.
There's also something fascinating about seeing how films like Godzilla reflect the times. The Japanese movies from that time period are all about Tokyo being destroyed and people running through the streets. I think it's a definite reflection of the fears of the time: beind annihilated by large, unstoppable forces that only give you enough time to be afraid before killing you. It was a constant concern, and the movies definitely tap into things like that.
Like how recently we've been getting more into alien horror movies. People are afraid of the unknown, like those illegal immigrants "who won't speak damn English and take all of our jobs." As Stephen Lynch points out, all the of the good jobs, like fruit picking... ANYWAY, we're always hearing about some unknown, vague new threat that will wipe us all out. And it'll be from people we don't understand, don't know much about and consider sort of irrelevant.
And the joy of these old movies is that even though they're supposed to be horror movies, they're sort of comical. When we fear, we take on the abstract ideas, and it's harder to dispel them. There is something comical about having a giant moth come and destroy your city. And there's something similarly amusing, but in a more grim way, about being afraid of big ideas without wanting to know more about what's actually behind them, what the reality behind them can actually do.
And if you've never actually seen Godzilla, the old one, you really should rent it.
posted by Meredith at 6:45 PM
1 Comments:
we must evacuate the city!
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