Wassim made an interesting comment on the e-list about how his own film tastes have evolved and matured with age, yet the many that he knows still hold on to those childish "likes" when it comes to movies. I too have experienced that, where many pals of mine still have favorite movies like Wayne's World and The Three Amigos and Father of the Bride. While it's fine to "like" a movie, you would think that with age, you'd let go of some of these childish impulses.
For example, many of my favorite movies are not favorites now. You want to know what my favorite movie was when I was 7? Superman 2. My second favorite movie was Superman. I watched them 1000s of times. I also liked The Neverending Story (a fun little kid movie but the book is better, from what I recall), I liked all the Vacation movies, The Jerk, The Parent Trap (original--not the remake with ho bag Lohan), Pollyanna, there was a movie that involved a cat and a dog on a long journey but I don't remember the exact title, The Goonies, and all this sort of crap.
Now, some of these movies I still like, and still have their merits. I think The Jerk is a good bad movie, (as opposed to a bad bad movie, ala Crash and Saving Private Ryan). I still like The Parent Trap with Hayley Mills for sentimental reasons, and I like The Neverending Story, but none of these are anywhere in a league with being my favorite films now. Why would they be? I've grown and my tastes have grown. I don't get it. To not evolve is like saying my favorite band is New Kids on the Block because I liked them when I was 12.
But this does not just apply to movies, but to all art in general. I know writers who still think crappy writers they grew up with are good, simply because they "like" them, or this writer gave them some kind of "inspiration" as a kid. I liked a lot of those stiff poets from the late 1800s/early part of the 20th Century, like Oliver Wendell Holmes, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and John Greenleaf Whittier. But my tastes have since evolved. None of them come close to Jeffers, Rilke, Whitman, Shelley, Crane and Stevens--all poets I learned later on in life. So why would I still cling to them? Loyalty? What is it?
As example, one other movie I liked as a kid was Dead Poets Society. The guys are cute to look at (esp. the one that offs himself), the scenery is nice and Robin Williams is being his usual self. Not to mention the film quotes all the poets I knew at the time. But it's not a film that is high on intellect. For one thing, the message is very trite: "seize the day" YAWN. Also, the father (who later became the dad from That '70s Show) who forces the kid to become a doctor is so lame and there is no dimension to his character. Even the father/son relationship in Love Story was better than this.
I remember Roger Ebert gave this a bad review and I agree 100% with his review. Sometimes Ebert was spot on, and this is one of those times. Here's what he says:
"Dead Poets Society" is a collection of pious platitudes masquerading as a courageous stand in favor of something: doing your own thing, I think. It's about an inspirational, unconventional English teacher and his students at "the best prep school in America" and how he challenges them to question conventional views by such techniques as standing on their desks. It is, of course, inevitable that the brilliant teacher will eventually be fired from the school, and when his students stood on their desks to protest his dismissal, I was so moved, I wanted to throw up."
Another point he mentions is:
"The movie pays lip service to qualities and values that, on the evidence of the screenplay itself, it is cheerfully willing to abandon. If you are going to evoke Henry David Thoreau as the patron saint of your movie, then you had better make a movie he would have admired."
If you go on You Tube, all the idiots think the ending is a great scene, when it's so trite and over the top. The purpose: "ooh, see life in a new way and stand up for things," but that same theme can be explored in It's a Wonderful Life, albeit it is done much, much better.
Dead Poets Society is Hollywood's attempt at depth. It's not a terrible film, there is much worse out there, but it's not in any way a good one. The message is cliched and you know what's going to happen. Yet having said that, I do like the film, for the reasons I mentioned (cute guys, nice scenery, etc.) and if it's playing on a Saturday afternoon when I'm folding the laundry, I'll inevitably end up watching a little. But none of these are reasons to cling to any work of art, especially if that art is mediocre.
Here's the end scene, then it's best to leave it at that:
