Classics? Really?

It has occurred to me lately that the Golden Age of cinema is quickly being forgotten. Not only are the classic movies of yesteryear, such as Casablanca, Sunset Blvd., Harvey and A Star is Born, no longer staples of every movie collection but the stars themselves are fading.

This thought occurred to me as I read about the recent passing of legendary film director Kenneth Annakin.
Annakin directed such classic films as The Swiss Family Robinson and The Longest Day. He also directed six episodes of Walt Disney's Disneyland.

With in the last two years, multiple classic cinema stars have passed away. Cyd Charisse, Paul Newman and Bea Arthur.

Where does this leave us? The title of Classics in film has now been relegated to film like Animal House and Dumb and Dumber.

I have friends who won't even watch a film if it's over 30 years old. What good does that do anyone? Where will avoiding the classics, because they're "old" get us?

What is the public looking for in a film now? The draw seems to be to violence and bathroom humor rather than the film making techniques and quality.

In 2007 all but one of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture were rated-R for violence and language. Is this what we want future generations to remember us for?

For the last four years the films that have won the Oscar for best picture have been R-rated.
Is the call for blood and action or political statement become more important than the movie quality its self?

Where are the films that make a statement in their unique style or story instead of their big time special effects or shock-value?

It seems as if as our stars of the classic cinema die out, so does our desire for a quality film production.

Movies are so much easier to make that they can be made on a grand scale inside a computer. It seems that quality has been sacrificed for quantity.

When will this epidemic end? Who knows. Maybe Hollywood will never be what it once was. Maybe the movies will just keep getting more violent and less substantive.

I seem to have more questions than answers. A lot of good that does.

I hope that the film industry can get back to a time where less emphasis was put on scale and more on story.

Maybe we'll see a Casablanca again.

Or maybe we'll be stuck with Dumb and Dumber for the rest of our lives...