Defining "Classic" Movies
by Elizabeth, ReelClassics.com
April 4, 2003
Reel Classics has been online for over six years now, and
it is probably somewhat surprising that in all that time I have never put forth
any definition or criteria for the "classic movies" I purport to be writing
about on this site. The question of "What makes a movie classic?" is a
frequent one however, and after years of considering the subject, I now feel
comfortable enough with what I'm doing to attempt to answer it.
I like the word "classic" because the term is broad enough
that I can tailor my own prejudices into its definition. In general, I use it to
mean "embodying high qualities" with a touch of "famous in the sense of
long-established." A classic also usually either serves as a model or adheres to
certain established standards. Classic movies aren't so much defined by a
specific time frame (although the Hollywood studio system that existed from the
1910s into the 1960s and produced the majority of the films I consider classics
certainly lends a temporal prejudice to my definition). Rather, classic movies
embody a method of storytelling that leaves something to the audience's
imagination. When, in a classic movie, the leading man and leading lady kiss and
the screen fades to black, the older members of the audience know what that
means. The younger members of the audience don't know what that means, but their
ignorance doesn't hurt their enjoyment of the film. As a result, the whole
family can watch the same movie together and get different things from it
depending on their stage of life and the experiences they bring to the theatre
with them. By leaving graphic depictions or descriptions of sex and violence and
moral corruption to the audience's imagination through suggestion and innuendo,
classic movies make these themes more powerful in the minds of those old enough
to understand, yet without destroying the innocence of those on whom these
subtleties are lost.
An example: A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951).
I first saw this film when I was about twelve years old and thought it a
compelling, tragic romance. I knew enough about sex to know that if Shelley
Winters was unmarried and pregnant, she had done something she wasn't supposed
to do, but I didn't know enough about life to really understand her scene at the
doctor's office. At age twelve, I thought, "Okay. She's pregnant and she goes to
the doctor. That makes sense." It seemed a little odd that she was talking to
the doctor about her financial situation instead of her health, but not too odd,
so I left it at that. A few years later however, when I watched the film again,
I suddenly realized what this very cryptic and carefully worded conversation
between Shelley Winters and the doctor was really about: abortion. By telling
the doctor that she and her husband couldn't afford the baby, she was trying to
get him to perform an abortion. At seventeen, that scene in the film took on a
whole new meaning for me, and it was because of the expanded life experience
which I brought with me into the theatre, not because of anything that had
changed in the filmmaking.
To me, this is what classic movies are all about. They are films that can be
watched on many different levels, and as a result, enjoyed again and again over
the years in new ways. Because they adhere to certain standards of discretion
and use established cinematic devices to imply what they cannot say explicitly,
they also can't rely on sex or violence to hold the audience's attention. Rather
than resorting to the use of blatant sensorial stimulations like explosions,
nudity and flashy editing, classic movies use compelling stories and characters,
or snappy dialogue, or high production values (cinematography, editing, shot
composition, scoring, sets and costuming, etc.), or good acting, or some
combination of the above qualities to attract and entertain the audience. The
Production Code, which governed Hollywood filmmaking during the days of the
studio system and censored the depiction of sex, violence and immoral behavior
on the screen, played a major role in establishing the framework within which
filmmakers were forced to find creative ways of subtly suggesting themes and
plot elements which they weren't allowed to show explicitly. But just because
those rules existed then and don't exist any more doesn't mean there aren't
still filmmakers who adhere to them. Because today it is easier and more common
to show two people in bed together than to imply it, modern films don't often
meet my classic movie standards of discretion. There are still classic movies
being made however.
An example: LA VITA E BELLA (1997) (LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL)
To me, this Italian movie embodies the creative suggestiveness and subtly that
classic movies are all about. Instead of relying on special effects to create
graphic scenes of the violent indignities suffered by Jews in the concentration
camps of World War II, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL implies the horrors which surround its
characters by showing their reactions to what they see and hear. When filmmakers
choose to show these atrocities outright, as has been done in SCHINDLER'S LIST
(1993) and THE PIANIST (2002), they shock, but the images are never
personalized. When films don't leave anything to the audience's imagination,
there is no room for the audience members to extrapolate scenes in their own
minds according to their own experiences; no room to personalize the characters'
experiences by imagining what these people must be seeing or hearing or feeling
that could make them react like this. But the subtleties of LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
don't limit themselves to the horrors of the concentration camp. In one of the
film's most romantic sequences, the leading man follows his leading lady into a
greenhouse. Rather than show what they do there, the scene slowly dissolves to a
shot of the same greenhouse, only this time, a little boy is playing there. The
implications are obvious, the device serves to advance the plot a few years
without restoring to a "Five Years Later..." inter-title, and the love scene is
left to the audience's imagination. Beautiful.
Thus, to sum it all up, although most of the films featured here at Reel
Classics were made under the Hollywood studio system and similar regimes in
other countries, it is not the time period or conditions under which they were
made that make them classics –- it is the films themselves and the approach to
storytelling they embody.
© 2003 Reel Classics, LLC
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