3dRevelation wrote:Films that have aged well IMO:
-A number of Billy Wilder films. I haven't seen all his films and even some of them that are supposed to be really good, but I think Sunset Boulevard, Some Like it Hot, and Stalag 17 have all aged well. Some Like it Hot and Stalag 17 I think are rather obvious as I think they are just as funny today as they probably were then. Sunset Boulevard is maybe not as sure of a shot, but I personally think it has aged well. Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond is great and the ending is one of the best in older cinema IMO.
-Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: Lacerating dialogue with 4 very good performances. I think audiences today could still relate to it also. I'm sure many couples have had bad experiences with another couples rocky marriage.
-I would second North by Northwest. I think it is Hitchcock's most thrilling film with the pacing and some of the set pieces that audiences would love today.
Films that haven't aged well IMO:
-The Grapes of Wrath. It's a hard novel to adapt, and I'm probably especially hard on the film because of my love of Steinbeck, but it hasn't aged well at all. Part of that is the time period the novel takes place in, but I believe the censorship of the time is to blame. Chiefly the censorship that prevented Ford from using Steinbeck's ending which is one of the most important parts of the novel.
-Grand Hotel. While I appreciate it's contribution to film as one of the first with a multi-story narrative, the film is rather stuffy and boring.
-The Red Shoes. The film is technically masterful, but the plot IMO is what doesn't hold up.
Definitely second Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe (b&w), and for those who liked that, there's an equally brilliant similar recent movie, Carnage.
And I agree with The Grapes of Wrath too. (hmmm also b&w. wtf?).
ShogunRua wrote:Anywho, I know what you're referring to with the book's ending, but I remember disliking it. I imagine they probably ended the movie [spoiler]with Tom's departure from the family[/spoiler], and that felt like the climax of the book to me, also. (Correct me if they didn't)
It does end that way, emphasized with the melodramatic soliloquy they replay all the time where Joad describes how he's going to become a ghost in the world for social justice. Not Fonda's best effort, which is part of the reason it hasn't held up for fans of realistic (unaffected) Thespian arts IMNTBHO.