access to classics
A few blogs have pointed to Classic Movies it’s OK to Hate” at The Onion AV Club. As I had hoped, Star Wars made the top of the list. As a child, I positively loved the universe and collected the dolls action figures, but, when I watched it in class as an undergrad, I was bored out of my gourd. It just seemed to drag. I don’t think the prequels have done anything to improve the film’s status in my mind either, so I’m a little bewildered by commitment of its fan community. For example, Austin has a weekly radio show about the films. Why?
The article doesn’t reveal its criteria for a “classic movie,” and, as someone who’s spent the better part of his adult life in academic film-TV programs, there are some classics missing I expect to see. Casablanca or Citizen Kane aren’t mentioned. I frankly enjoy Citizen Kane, but I’d certainly entertain an argument over why it’s OK to hate it. And where’s The Sorrow and the Pity? Many of these movies like Caddyshack and The Big Lebowsky aren’t “classics” in the sense that you’d watch them in film school, but apparent favorites among certain twenty-something buff communities.
I’d like to add my own list of classic movies it’s OK to hate, but I’m frankly drawing a blank. One movie that comes to mind is Full Metal Jacket, which I found pretty offensive when I watched it last summer. Compared to other Vietnam American War in Vietnam movies, the film used a painful moment in history and the suffering of soldiers and families for a dry, formalist experiment. To me, it just seems pretentious and disengaged from the characters depicted on screen.
