Favorite era for movies?

Jailtime

Standin' on a corner
What era produced your favorite movies? Silent movies, 30's, 40's/50's classics, and so on. I'm going with 40s and 50s as the great era for Hollywood. Great movies, composers, directors, and actors/actresses. Hey, isn't Grace Kelly enough to make the 50s the best? :yes: And Alfred Hitchcock could make one hell of a good flick, just watched Rear Window. :thmbsp:
 
Being a movie usher in the 60,s and 70,s. I would have to say that the late 60,s and early 70,s produced some of the best movies around. Look at Easy Rider, Woodstock, Seven Easy Pieces.
Just my thought, there are lots of really good movies. I just went today to District 9 and loved it.
Jon
 
I would also choose the 60's and 70's (I am a fan of italian cinema and that was the golden age of it, as well as of great directors such as Bergman or Kubrick).
 
It's hard to choose - there have been a lot of great movies produced in every era. Lots of dreck in every era, too.
 
Exactly, Sam. Every decade had some good stuff. I'm just sick to death of the glut of modern films based on #@$@ comic books/graphic novels. WTF?? Doesn't anyone actually read real BOOKS anymore? I could list 2 dozen books which would take to film (whether it be live action or hi-quality CGI like Cars, Beowoulf, etc.) quite nicely.

One of my favorite books of all time was, for a long time, in preproduction, but finally the idea was just junked because no one could come up with a good screenplay: Arthur C. Clarke's RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA. Too bad.
 
I appreciate watching movies from the 40's - 50's for how they capture the period. I watch for the sets often more than the plot.
 
What era produced your favorite movies? Silent movies, 30's, 40's/50's classics, and so on. I'm going with 40s and 50s as the great era for Hollywood. Great movies, composers, directors, and actors/actresses. Hey, isn't Grace Kelly enough to make the 50s the best? :yes: And Alfred Hitchcock could make one hell of a good flick, just watched Rear Window. :thmbsp:

Rear Window is one of my all time favorites!
 
Exactly, Sam. Every decade had some good stuff. I'm just sick to death of the glut of modern films based on #@$@ comic books/graphic novels. WTF?? Doesn't anyone actually read real BOOKS anymore? I could list 2 dozen books which would take to film (whether it be live action or hi-quality CGI like Cars, Beowoulf, etc.) quite nicely.

One of my favorite books of all time was, for a long time, in preproduction, but finally the idea was just junked because no one could come up with a good screenplay: Arthur C. Clarke's RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA. Too bad.

Some of the "comic book" movies are terrible, some are great films (Nolan's Batman flicks come to mind). They can be good entertainment, and the recent spate of them is more likely due to affordable CGI that can finally do justice to the source material than any other factor.
 
I dig the late 60s to early/mid 70s flicks.

Serious, literary themes ("Apocalypse Now" channeling Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"). Groovy tunes ("Car Wash" and "Shampoo"). Sun-dappled camera angles ("Easy Rider"). Heavy doses of paranoia ("Parallax View," "Marathon Man," "Three Days of the Condor," and "The Conversation"). US directors were influenced by the French New Wave, but had their own wide-open take on things ("Vanishing Point" and "Badlands").

Noir from the 30s/40s is great stuff. Think Fred MacMurray and Bogart.

The 50s gets a bit melodramatic for my tastes. Both "Rebel without a Cause" and "The Wild Ones" are over the top.

All this being said, "Goodfellas" (1990) may be the perfect movie.

Ken
 
1935-65. When directors like Ford, Hitchcock, Wyler, Vidor, Capra, Sturges, Curtiz, Hawks, Walsh, Fuller, King, Minelli, Wilder, DeMille (yes, DeMille) etc. were in their prime or still doing great work.

Great producers back then too: Zanuck, Selznick, LeRoy, Freed, Wanger, Cooper, Berman. And the stars---Gable, Davis, Cagney, Flynn, Colbert, Garland, Bogart, Fonda, Wayne, Astair, Kerr, Tracey......

Not to mention the music: Korngold, Rozsa, Newman, Steiner, Tiomkin, Friedhofer, Herrmann, Waxman and Bernstein (Elmer not Leonard).
 
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Rear Window is one of my all time favorites!

Yeah, I love it for the reason that spartanmanor posted. The sets are fantastic, they add so much to the movie. And Rear Window has my two favorite stars, Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart. I'm a big fan of the Perry Mason series, so it was cool to see Raymond Burr too. :thmbsp:
 

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Yeah, I love it for the reason that spartanmanor posted. The sets are fantastic, they add so much to the movie. And Rear Window has my two favorite stars, Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart. I'm a big fan of the Perry Mason series, so it was cool to see Raymond Burr too. :thmbsp:

I'm 31. Until I was in college, I couldn't stand Jimmy Stewart as I despise "It's a Wonderful Life" (the same applied to Capra). One morning in college I flipped on the TV while waking up on a day when I didn't have class until fairly late in the morning. As I was flipping channels, I landed on "The Glenn Miller Story" on AMC. I've been a huge fan of Miller's for a long time, and the music drug me in. After a few minutes, I realized that Stewart was playing Miller. Ever since then, I've been a big fan of Jimmy Stewart's movies.

I wonder how many other people out there in my age range have been put off by the constant "IAWL" reruns?
 
Late '40s through early '60s SciFi/Thrillers.

"The Day the Earth Stood Still",
"Kronos",
"The Angry Red Planet",
"The Blob",
"Tarantula"
"Creature from the Black Lagoon"
Etc., etc.

Dave
 
Speaking of Hitch and Stewart how about Vertigo? IMO one of the finest (and weirdest) pictures ever.

I read about the pictures as much as I watch them; this week read a book on Victor Fleming, another on John Ford, another on MGM in the 30s and two on gangster pictures.
 
Late '40s through early '60s SciFi/Thrillers.

"The Day the Earth Stood Still",
"Kronos",
"The Angry Red Planet",
"The Blob",
"Tarantula"
"Creature from the Black Lagoon"
Etc., etc.

Dave

I like "Them", "Destination Moon", "When Worlds Collide" and "This Island Earth". And the best of all, "Invaders from Mars", the picture responsible for the later drug use of so many Baby Boomers. ;)
 
I like movies from the 30's.
Movies with SOUND was just starting to evolve.
Many of the great actors & actresses that we know of today.....began their careers on the silver screen back then.
What a glorious era of discovery!?


Steve
 
I like the movies from the ‘30s and ‘40s. Only Angels Have Wings, It Happened One Night, And Lost Horizon are some of my favorites.
Also late ’70s and ‘80s – Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back To The Future, Star Wars.
 
I like the movies from the ‘30s and ‘40s....... Lost Horizon are some of my favorites.

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