Old versus New

Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday

A while ago I had a long debate with a friend of mine on the importance of old movies. My friend, a terrific movie watcher and all-around good guy, was under the impression that old movies were virtually irrelevant at this point. Obviously special effects and graphics of today blow away the most advanced movies of 20 years ago, let alone the 1940s. My friend, lets call him Joe, went farther than that however, claiming all aspects of movie making were more sophisticated now. Screenwriting, acting, cinematography. Modern directors have learned from their predecessors and are now building on top of if. That is not to say that Joe thinks all new movies are great and all old movies are crap. He just feels that a good new movie tops a good old movie any day, and doesn't understand the fuss about all the classics. I have several other friends, movie lovers even, whose film watching repertoire is nearly complete among the new releases section, but develops giant gaps the farther back in time we go.

I hold a different view point. I love old films. Sometimes, I'll admit the label of classic can be misleading. If Roman Holiday were released today, it would star Julia Roberts or Rachel McAdams instead of Audrey Hepburn, and be rightly lambasted as pure escapism. Many Marilyn Monroe movies are downright sexist, and I even find (gasp) Casablanca to be a bit tedious. Just because they were great at the time does not mean they remain great now. I still enjoy watching these, mainly because I have some historian in me. Even though the original telephone cannot compare to an iphone in terms of utility and elegance, it would still be cool to use one. But I understand that argument does not apply to everyone. I love watching the truly great old movies for a very simple reason. They stood the test of time.

Christopher Nolan's Inception is a terrific movie. It is exciting, subversive, thoughtful, complex, event and character driven, philosophical while still being escapism. Yet as of right now, Inception has appealed to exactly one audience in time. The 2010 movie going audience. In 2040 will people still be wowed by the craftsmanship that went into Inception? I think so, but I also think Avatar, despite being a best picture nominee an the highest grossing film of all-time, will fade into history as at best, nothing more than a landmark for special effects. 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Inception

Then you have movies like The African Queen, Adam's Rib, or Citizen Kane. The Orson Welles' masterpiece was created in 1941. It continues to capture the hearts of cinephiles now almost 70 years after it was released. If I had to bet, I would guess that movie watchers will still be wowed by Citizen Kane in 2040 and long after that. For me at least, that is the definition of a classic.

The Seventh Seal

There are a few timeless questions that philosophers have struggled with, regardless of what period of human history they lived in. Is there a God, and why are we here, come up over and over again in the works of the great thinkers. Ingmar Bergman almost certainly falls under the category of "great thinker" and his movies and screenplays reflect that. His most famous film, and maybe his most philosophical, is the 1957 black and white movie, The Seventh Seal.

The basic plot of the movie is very existential. A knight and his squire return to Sweden from the crusades with their faith destroyed by decades of holy war. The film opens on the shoreline of Sweden where the knight learns that Death is coming for him. In a desperate ploy for more time, Antonius Block challenges Death to a literal game of chess for his life. The longer he can hold off Death in the board game, the longer he has to remain among the living. As he travels across the 14th century swedish countryside that has been ravaged by the black plague, Block meets various characters who throw in with him on his journey.

This movie is essentially about a search for God. Block cannot believe that God might not exist, or even that He is absent while humans endure so much suffering. And so, Block relentlessly searches for a sign from Him. The knight's traveling companion, the surly, cynical, squire has no use for God anymore, but Block continues to search without hope, even as Death closes in.

Antonius Block is played by Max von Sydow in a career making performance. The noble and kind knight that is tormented by the lack of a creator. The pain he injects into Block is magnificent. Gunnar Bjornstrand is excellent as the faithful squire. He also provides much of the levity that makes the tremendous austerity of The Seventh Seal bearable. The beautiful Bibi Andersson, Bergman's frequent muse, also appears as an innocent wife and mother of a family that Block meets.

The image of Death playing chess is iconic and frequently parodied, but remains powerful. This movie offers questions, but supplies no real answer. In a tremendous monologue, Block offers the basic dilemma of the both the film, and its creator.

"Is it so terribly inconceivable to comprehend God with one's senses? Why does He hide in a cloud of half-promises and unseen miracles? How can we believe in the faithful when we lack faith? What will happen to us who want to believe but can not? What about those who neither want to nor can believe? Why can't I kill God in me? Why does He live on in me in a humiliating way -- despite my wanting to evict Him from my heart? Why is He, despite all, a mocking reality I can't be rid of."

27/30