As I recently browsed through my movie collection, I was amazed at how many belonged to the 1990's era and apart from the odd gem here and there, how few were made in the decades to follow. I then began to lament on the last golden age of originality of moviemaking that was the nineties and despair and what, generally speaking, in my opinion, has been a steady slide towards louder and brasher remakes since and a lack of those pioneering (with the exception of some technological breakthroughs) qualities that existed within the movie industry up to and including the 1990's (I also hold the same opinion about the music industry - but that's a whole other blog!!).
Maybe I have rose tinted glasses on when it comes to the nineties as it was an era where I really fell in love with movies as original auteurs such as Ethan and Joel Cohen, Quentin Tarantino, Danny Boyle and Sam Mendes all burst onto the scene and have remained at the forefront of classic moviemaking ever since. Even some directors who have had rollercoaster careers (M. Knight Shyamalan, Bryan Singer) chose the nineties to produce their best work.
Just look at a list of top movies of that era and see what it includes: The Usual Suspects, The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas etc.- all examples of classic films where script, tension, tone and atmosphere take precedent over CGI and franchises!
Every film genre simply produced better movies in this decade that any decade since:
Comedies: The Big Lebowski, Clerks, There's Something about Mary, Dumb and Dumber.
Horror: Silence of the Lambs, Blair Witch, Project, Sream, Interview with the Vampire.
Thriller: Misery, Cape Fear, Primal Fear, Shallow Grave, Seven
Drama: Schindlers List, The Truman Show, American History X, Saving Private Ryan.
Trying to compile a similar list for the decades to follow is considerably more difficult. That's not to say, however, that there hasn't been some great movies since, but the influence seems to have moved to the visual spectacle more than to the combination of story, sight and sound.
There is viable reasons for this as society has changed to the instant culture that exists today and audiences can sometimes lack the patience for the slow burner that intrigued movie goers of the past, instead craving instant visual gratification to satisfy their cinema needs.
Hollywood has also made movies more universal to appeal to a wide range of non-English speaking markets, therefore replacing large amounts of dialogue with bigger, better and louder actions sequences to tell their story!
The success of the super hero movie genre has also seen a glut of similar (sometimes even exactly the same) type of movie rehashed time and time again.
Nowadays, individuality seems to largely come from the independent movie scene rather than mainstream Hollywood, although this years Oscar nominations have restored my faith in the appetite that still exists for a good story and a strong cast.
Supporting all type of film making is hugely important to the survival and growth of that little masterpiece that with the right kind of backing and support can appear in our
consciousness and console us in the fact that good movies do still exist - if we can just look past that latest remake and give it chance!
