“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”

― H.L. Mencken, Prejudices First Series

You literally just said that, in this very thread, many times:

Do you not remember any of that? Because the above reads as if you're presenting the idea for the first time, not that you're repeating something already discussed at length very very recently.

That summation just conjured up a very vivid image in my mind….
https://cdn01.cdn.justjared.com/wp-c...dler-opera.jpg

An audience member doesn't necessarily have to agree with a film's messages or morals in order to appreciate its quality or herald it as a spectacular film. I think that gets lost on people. I thought Gone with the Wind was fine. I don't agree with the racism and slavery. I do appreciate that was how Americans thought in the 1860s and 1930s, so it's not too terribly outlandish it'd have those themes. That shouldn't mean the movie sucks.

I think films are like time capsules that show contemporary thoughts and societies about subject matters for when they're made, and it's good to know the context of when a movie came out before watching it. I've never really thought a film has to reflect one's personal standards in order to be a good movie. I don't agree with the characters in Godfather. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad movie (I'll rewatch it and see if my opinion changes). Sometimes I hate characters, and then I dislike the movie because of that. It's really case-by-case.

Maybe my pain is making my mental faculties not fire with much efficiency and quality to make my point clear.

Bold!

I'm out here paving roads where previously only swamps festered. By the way, there's a fair amount more to my post than just that one snippet, my friend.

My captain! My captain!

I watch a ton of old movies, I'm talking 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s, 30s, 20s. I love seeing how things were way back in the day. Even though the films are fictional, the mannerisms, what was and wasn't socially accepted, the types of speech, interactions between men and women and people in general...all that fascinates me. One can get a sense of how society change by watching old movies. Not to mention one gets to see actual places frozen in time and held in suspension on film stock. Women's fashions were always changing, men usually wore a suit and a tie even if they were robbing the bank! And the cars, OMG I wish I had some of those old cars.

Yeah I know a movie made in 1948 isn't necessarily grounded in fact but you can see glimpses into how life was back then because the fiction reflected their reality (at least to an extent). They were dressed formally, like you stated, the way they talk, the things they ate, the prices of things, what type of stores were in existence, the technology, all of that. It's so cool to see these snippets of the past in the old films we watch. (1948 was a random number I decided to use with not much meaning).

Re: Is The Godfather the greatest American film ever made?
 

If you would've said 1947 it would've been a Star Trek thing:D

I thought about 1944 but thought I should go with a non-War year. I swear it was basically a random out-of-the-air number.

I was just making a Star Trek joke, the number 47 comes up all the time in the older Star Trek TV series.

I'm trying to think of the last old movie I seen where the house decor was this really cool and funky early 1960s.

Oh got it. To be fair I never watched any Star Trek TV series.

I can't think of any off the top of my head, although I'm not super focused right now.