Thoughts on TCM
Posted: November 24th, 2010, 2:14 am
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For well over 10 years I've been a TCM fan. I love classic movies and am more interested in the private lives of the stars of the golden age than those of today. However, as has been said before, just because it's old, does not mean it's a classic. After all these years we've all seen most of the classic super movies of the Gables, Grants, Garsons, Crawford, Davis', and Coopers, etc. I myself, have sat countless times happily watching Casablanca over and over and always seeing something new with each viewing. My problem, I've finally figured out, is I'm a little more worldly than the average movie goer of the late 20's and early 30's. I don't mean to sound boastful at all, but with education and years of working with the public, some of the older movies are just not that interesting to me. I can guess the dialog and the end of the plot often within the first half hour, if not sooner. Oddly, I have seen movies that were remade within 10 years of the original, and in most cases, I much preferred the remake, because by then the actors had honed their talents to a fine tuned, higher bar. e.g. I much preferred His Girl Friday to The Front Page, and An Affair to Remember over Love Affair, and so many others. Yet, with better equipment, and more versatile equipment, today's remakes barely compare with their originals. Today's artists consider better to be bigger, or louder, and because of the departure of the studio system, today's actors no longer have that string of 3 or 4 years to practice and learn their craft as their predecessors did.
At one time TCM was on my television 24/7 while I glomed up those old classics, but recently, too many simply old movies have been appearing. I still love the series like Maizie, The Saint, and others, but those can only be shown so often also. In addition, being a Western fan, TCM rarely shows western movies, except included in birthday days, or Star of the Month days, so I have started to channel surf more. Having a channel devoted to westerns helps, but it too shows many, many reruns during each month.
This is one reason I like this particular board. It has evolved from the TCM board, but since it is not backed by TCM, we are free to discuss other channels. I don't feel proper discussing the Western Channel on the TCM board. It's kind of like biting the hand that feeds you or something similar. I'm still grateful to TCM for being there - I would still be lost without it. I'm enjoying the Moguls and Movies series tremendously, and love the Tuesday/Thursday primetime for Star of the Month.
I hope this was not taken as a complaint. I simply do not find a lot to discuss lately because it seems a few other people are like me in that after 5 or 6 viewings of admired movies, a break is needed to find new avenues to explore.
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For well over 10 years I've been a TCM fan. I love classic movies and am more interested in the private lives of the stars of the golden age than those of today. However, as has been said before, just because it's old, does not mean it's a classic. After all these years we've all seen most of the classic super movies of the Gables, Grants, Garsons, Crawford, Davis', and Coopers, etc. I myself, have sat countless times happily watching Casablanca over and over and always seeing something new with each viewing. My problem, I've finally figured out, is I'm a little more worldly than the average movie goer of the late 20's and early 30's. I don't mean to sound boastful at all, but with education and years of working with the public, some of the older movies are just not that interesting to me. I can guess the dialog and the end of the plot often within the first half hour, if not sooner. Oddly, I have seen movies that were remade within 10 years of the original, and in most cases, I much preferred the remake, because by then the actors had honed their talents to a fine tuned, higher bar. e.g. I much preferred His Girl Friday to The Front Page, and An Affair to Remember over Love Affair, and so many others. Yet, with better equipment, and more versatile equipment, today's remakes barely compare with their originals. Today's artists consider better to be bigger, or louder, and because of the departure of the studio system, today's actors no longer have that string of 3 or 4 years to practice and learn their craft as their predecessors did.
At one time TCM was on my television 24/7 while I glomed up those old classics, but recently, too many simply old movies have been appearing. I still love the series like Maizie, The Saint, and others, but those can only be shown so often also. In addition, being a Western fan, TCM rarely shows western movies, except included in birthday days, or Star of the Month days, so I have started to channel surf more. Having a channel devoted to westerns helps, but it too shows many, many reruns during each month.
This is one reason I like this particular board. It has evolved from the TCM board, but since it is not backed by TCM, we are free to discuss other channels. I don't feel proper discussing the Western Channel on the TCM board. It's kind of like biting the hand that feeds you or something similar. I'm still grateful to TCM for being there - I would still be lost without it. I'm enjoying the Moguls and Movies series tremendously, and love the Tuesday/Thursday primetime for Star of the Month.
I hope this was not taken as a complaint. I simply do not find a lot to discuss lately because it seems a few other people are like me in that after 5 or 6 viewings of admired movies, a break is needed to find new avenues to explore.
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