Is there a word for this movie experience? The "opposite of nostalgia", maybe?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Philosophy
Vampire of Jesus — 7 years ago(July 26, 2018 05:39 PM)
Nostalgia is defined as a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past. When it comes to movies, there are countless films from our youth and childhood years that are dear to our hearts. When we remember them it can fill us with feelings of pleasure as we remember memories we associate with the movies, which usually are the movies themselves.
When you revisit them, however, it’s not uncommon to be flabbergasted at how at how poor the acting is, how outdated the effects are or how cheesy the whole thing is. Yes, once our nostalgia glasses smash we can see that many of the movies we treasured are nowhere near as good as we thought they were.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, how the movies themselves haven’t changed? They never change. It’s us that change. We grow up. We gain new experiences. And our experience in life shape us and can change how we approach a movie. A movie that you loved once, through no change of the movie itself, you might despise revisiting it years later. A character you looked up to, you might now see where his nemesis is coming from. They always say, don’t they, how a sign of growing up is that you stop supporting Jerry and can now see why Tom is so annoyed at him.
So many different things can affect our enjoyment of a movie, from what mood we were in when we watched it, how old we were, who we watched it with, whether we saw it and gave ourselves time to absorb it or watched it as part of a marathon, so many things. And one of those things that evokes a sentimental memory-trip to a time when we innocent and free, is having watched the movie during our youth. And even if we become more knowledgeable in film later on, the movie still hold a special place in our heart.
I think, also, it works the other way too. I’m noticing more and more movies that I’ve seen years ago that I was either indifferent to, or downright hated. There are many different reasons we can attribute to this. One is that as you go on in life your taste changes and it just happens that this movie resonates with you now, it could be that because you’ve seen it already you adjust your expectations, it could be that your experiences in life allow you to bond with the film so now that annoying cheesy romance subplot is something you now find endearing, or perhaps because you’ve got more experience with movies you appreciate it when things are well crafted.
I started thinking about this after recently seeing Gladiator for the first time in years. When I first saw it, which was yonks ago but not during my childhood years, I thought it was great. I really enjoyed it. Good swords and scandals movie, macho, good music. It was really good.
When I saw it recently I was floored by how well made and engaging it was. Everything about it from the effects to the production designs to the blocking and the pacing. It was such a magnificent package, a perfect film. And I thought to myself, why didn’t I give the film this much credit the first time I saw it. Sure I’ve seen a lot of movies since and might now have a more acquired taste but you can flip that argument on its head and say since I’ve seen so much more movies since I could easily have been sanitised and therefore unimpressed by Gladiator’s main feats.
I also saw a couple of other movies after many years, films I was unimpressed with like Predator 2 and Die Hard 2: Die Harder. Predator 2 felt like it was made by someone overdosed on coke and Die Hard 2 was a mediocre forgettable action flick wedged in between two classics in the genre.
But again, revisiting these films, whilst not necessarily making me love them, has made me appreciate them a lot more. I found myself engrossed in the opening LA shootout of Predator 2, smiling at the charm and likability of Willis in Die Hard 2. Why though?
I think the reason is, when you look at all three movies there is a clear link – they’re all action movies. And my relationship with action cinema is a strained one. I absolutely love many 80s and 90s action films, films like Robocop, Lethal Weapon, Predator, Aliens, Rambo, Police Story, Commando, Escape from New York, 48 Hours, The Matrix, Hard Boiled etc When the likes of Predator 2 and Die Hard 2 are pitted against these films, it’s easy to see why I didn’t think much of them when I first watched them.
But in modern times, I have to be honest and say I find the vast majority of 21st action films to be trash. There are a few gems here and there, and recently there has been a small wave of terrific ones such as Fury Road, John Wick 2 and The Raid pictures, but overall I’m watching modern action films trying to work out what the heck is going on with all the shakey cam, shaking my head at the CGI blood effects, dozing off because of the protagonists void of charisma and they are just so boring. So I think what it is is that I grew up watching 80s action cinema, being indifferent to the likes of Die Hard 2 because they are no match for movies like The Killer and The Terminator, -
golfrumors — 7 years ago(July 26, 2018 06:02 PM)
I think the reason people dislike a movie they liked as a child on rewatching it is because they had so little experience watching movies anything will seem novel and interesting and because they are stupid children who are amused by simple things. And they might enjoy a movie that they previously disliked because after having seen more movies they become familiar with "film grammar" and that other crap and are able to notice it. It is like if you watch a sport for the first time you probably can't appreciate it but you still might find it exciting. But as you watch more games you understand the rules and what good plays are and become able to distinguish between good and bad performances.
— 7 years ago(July 26, 2018 05:52 PM)