MOVIES THAT WON’T LAST
Movies that won't last 75 years: Some Oscar winners for best picture won't stand the test of time. Recent films in that sad category include "Crash," already principally remembered as the movie that shouldn't have beaten "Brokeback Mountain"; "Slumdog Millionaire," which few people have thought about since the day after it won; and "Argo," a decent movie that seems to have won only because people were angry that its director, Ben Affleck, didn't get nominated for best director.
Movies that won't last 75 months: "Whiplash" is good, but it's all about J.K. Simmons' performance. "Gone Girl" is also good, but its ending will keep it from becoming anything more than the diversion of a season.
Movies that won't last 75 days: "St. Vincent" looked promising, but it's fading fast. "The Equalizer," with Denzel Washington, is lots of fun, but Hollywood churns out fun like that at a regular pace. "The Trip to Italy" is already 75 days old, and you have no idea what movie I'm talking about.
Movies that won't last 75 minutes: These are movies so bad that you forget them as you're watching them. We've had two in the last few weeks: "Dumb and Dumber To," in which Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels establish for all time that stupidity is only funny in the young; and "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1," which I've completely repressed.
“Gone With the Wind” opened to the public in Atlanta on Dec. 15, 1939, seventy-five years ago this month. Across that gulf of time, there have been wars, elections, billions of births and deaths, changing mores and fashions, countless acts of kindness and cruelty and many seemingly unforgettable things forgotten. Yet that movie somehow can speak to our time — to a generation as beyond the imagining of the filmmakers as the folks of 2089 are to us.
Two new books have come out about the movie, “The Making of Gone With the Wind” by Steve Wilson and Robert Osborne, and “Gone With the Wind: The Great American Movie 75 Years Later” by the editors of Time Life. There is also a new edition out on Blu-ray. But this time, let’s not look back. Let’s look forward. Let’s try to figure out which movies of our time will be celebrated and commemorated on their 75th anniversaries.
Here’s one possibility: None of them. In 75 years, people might just be celebrating the 150th anniversary of “Gone With the Wind.” But I reject that pessimism. Here are 10 movies from the 21st century that just might have an audience after 75 years.
“Boyhood”
This year’s surest bet for immortality is this Richard Linklater film, shot over 12 years, depicting the life of a boy as he grows from 6 to 18. Strangely powerful, almost mystical in effect, it will improve with age, as the world it depicts begins to seem more distant. The beginning of the film already does, with its vintage 2002 technology.
“Birdman”
This isn’t the safest bet, but it’s the second best movie of 2014 (so far), and it might have a shot at immortality, not only for its innovative technique (it seems as though it were filmed in a single shot), but for the way its story, of a former screen superhero bringing a play to Broadway, seems to have more than a surface meaning. It vibrates with the times in a way that’s hard to quantify, at least for now.
“25th Hour”
The 21st century didn’t begin on Jan. 1, 2000 or even on Jan. 1, 2001. It began with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. This film, made by Spike Lee just weeks after the tragedy, captures the state of mind of New York and the United States at the dawn of this new era.
“The Best of Youth”
Though foreign films will never have the same popularity as domestic product, this six-hour Italian production will probably find some permanent place as the best depiction of the ’60s generation’s journey through life ever committed to the screen.
“Before Sunset”
The “Before” films were original and effective in their time, but as the world changes, they will even get better. Time will enhance their poignancy. In “Before Sunset,” every detail of the street in Paris that screams 2004 will seem romantic in 2079.
“Brokeback Mountain”
This very fine movie has already gained in impact from the premature death of Heath Ledger. In the future, it will undoubtedly be tied inextricably with the issue of same-sex marriage and the transformation of public opinion of this issue in the first decades of the 21st century.
“An Inconvenient Truth”
This will go one of two ways. If Al Gore was wrong in his predictions, no one will remember or care about this film, except as a footnote to the 2000 presidential election. However, if Al Gore turns out to be right — if people of the future are screening this from their coastal property in Ohio — then the future will look to this film and wonder why so little was done.
“Inglourious Basterds”
Quentin Tarantino has the best odds of being remembered as the signature director of the turn-of-the-millennium era, and this fantasia on World War II is his masterpiece.
“Drinking Buddies”
If it’s not “Drinking Buddies,” then maybe it will be “Baghead” or some other mumblecore film. In any case, mumblecore captures the speech patterns and attitudes of young adults in modern times better than any other genre. “Drinking Buddies,” Joe Swanberg’s well-observed film about a man and a woman who don’t know whether to be friends or lovers, stands a better chance than most of them.
“Blue Is the Warmest Color”
One of the most effective and daring films about young love and lost love ever made — that almost in passing was a trailblazing depiction of a lesbian relationship. The intense and timeless emotion will keep this film alive at 75 and beyond.
