Friday, July 09, 2004
"My" Decade
I seem to be developing an unusual fascination with the 1970's, particularly the New York area in that time. While I was born in 1976 I've always considered myself a child of the 80's as that's when I began to remember things and form opinions. But in recent months I've watched a lot of movies set in or filmed in New York in the 70's, and the city I see is pretty crazy looking but oddly familiar at the same time. To name a few: The French Connection (one of my favorites), Shaft, Shamus, and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. I also really enjoyed that hour-long documentary A Decade Under the Influence, which is all about the movies made in the 1970's.
One of the points made in the documentary is that the movie industry has changed dramatically over the last twenty years. Filmmakers from the 1970's point out the greater number of riskier, edgier pictures that used to be produced by mainstream studios as compared to today's market where the blockbuster is now king. It's hard to argue with that reasoning. I enjoyed Spider-Man 2, but consider the dimensions of that film. It cost an estimated $210 million to produce, not counting the untold millions it cost to advertise the movie over the last few weeks. That means they need it to pull in about $500 million just to break even! You're not going to get that kind of money with a gritty cop drama or the story of a black detective kicking ass. You could say that NYC has changed in a similar way. As the corporations move in and buy up tracts of real estate the small, independently owned stores are forced out. For every Strand Bookstore or Carnegie Deli there's two dozen Barnes & Nobles and about fifty Subways.
The tragedy of all this, which is why I think I find all this so fascinating, is that things will never, ever go back to the way they were in the 1970's. The films of that era may still exist, but the thinking behind those films is gone for good. Likewise, we cannot go back and visit the old New York. I'm not one to bitch and moan about how great things used to be. I fully acknowledge that many aspects of NYC have changed for the better. At the very least your chances of being murdered there have been reduced dramatically. I just wonder what things will be like in twenty years. Will my children pine for late 1990's? I hope not because they totally sucked.
One of the points made in the documentary is that the movie industry has changed dramatically over the last twenty years. Filmmakers from the 1970's point out the greater number of riskier, edgier pictures that used to be produced by mainstream studios as compared to today's market where the blockbuster is now king. It's hard to argue with that reasoning. I enjoyed Spider-Man 2, but consider the dimensions of that film. It cost an estimated $210 million to produce, not counting the untold millions it cost to advertise the movie over the last few weeks. That means they need it to pull in about $500 million just to break even! You're not going to get that kind of money with a gritty cop drama or the story of a black detective kicking ass. You could say that NYC has changed in a similar way. As the corporations move in and buy up tracts of real estate the small, independently owned stores are forced out. For every Strand Bookstore or Carnegie Deli there's two dozen Barnes & Nobles and about fifty Subways.
The tragedy of all this, which is why I think I find all this so fascinating, is that things will never, ever go back to the way they were in the 1970's. The films of that era may still exist, but the thinking behind those films is gone for good. Likewise, we cannot go back and visit the old New York. I'm not one to bitch and moan about how great things used to be. I fully acknowledge that many aspects of NYC have changed for the better. At the very least your chances of being murdered there have been reduced dramatically. I just wonder what things will be like in twenty years. Will my children pine for late 1990's? I hope not because they totally sucked.
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