DAJK Posted February 8, 2019 Author Share Posted February 8, 2019 2 hours ago, nick64 said: Snow White Wizard of Oz Gone with the Wind It’s a Wonderful Life Sound of Music Jaws Godfather Star Wars Alien Raiders E.T. Dirty Dancing Beauty and the Beast Aladdin Lion King Jurassic Park Home Alone Toy Story Titanic Harder to judge post-2000, but some candidates are Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Pirates, Nemo, Mean Girls, MCU. I’d also argue Elf has solidified itself as a Christmas classic. Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation are pre-2000s Christmas ones I’d call classics as well. But basically these are the films you’d struggle to find people who haven’t seen most of them. May be missing one or two, but this is off the top of my head. I agree with a lot of these in terms of classics (maybe take something like Dirty Dancing off and add Forrest Gump). But some of them certainly stand out more than others (JP, Titanic, SW, Lion King, Jaws, Gone With the Wind etc.) I guess I'm just curious if another movie on THAT level can ever happen again, is it possible given Hollywood's current state (not talking metoo, more like box office generally and the era of sequels/reboots). It seems like Hollywood is currently re-making classics, rather than making new ones. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Prime Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 7 minutes ago, DAJK said: I agree with a lot of these in terms of classics (maybe take something like Dirty Dancing off and add Forrest Gump). But some of them certainly stand out more than others (JP, Titanic, SW, Lion King, Jaws, Gone With the Wind etc.) I guess I'm just curious if another movie on THAT level can ever happen again, is it possible given Hollywood's current state (not talking metoo, more like box office generally and the era of sequels/reboots). It seems like Hollywood is currently re-making classics, rather than making new ones. Here's the thing. Arguing if we'll ever have a new "generational classic" is really hard, because we won't know until at least a decade from now what is a "generational classic". It's like arguing whether Post Malone has changed the music industry or not, when he's only just started out. Though I guess if you had to choose one now in terms of recent releases, I do feel like Wonder Woman and Black Panther fit the bill. Even if you don't like the films, they've certainly started to build a strong legacy and universal appeal. Giant box office, movies everybody here has probably seen, broad appeal to kids and adults, representation that few generational classics have achieved. I definitely feel like 30 years from now, those movies will be the Star Wars of today's kids. Frozen also arguably fits the bill, especially with the Disney machine behind it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick64 Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 2 hours ago, DAJK said: I agree with a lot of these in terms of classics (maybe take something like Dirty Dancing off and add Forrest Gump). But some of them certainly stand out more than others (JP, Titanic, SW, Lion King, Jaws, Gone With the Wind etc.) I guess I'm just curious if another movie on THAT level can ever happen again, is it possible given Hollywood's current state (not talking metoo, more like box office generally and the era of sequels/reboots). It seems like Hollywood is currently re-making classics, rather than making new ones. Completely forgot Forrest Gump. I’d argue Shawshank as well from that year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ipickthiswhiterose Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 I disagree with there being anything like the number of movies that fulfil the OP's description. In fact I think there is one one definite and two possible candidates: The Wizard of Oz (Definite) Jaws (Possible) Star Wars (Possible) The Wizard of Oz is the undoubted winner and all-pervading answer for this question, because it is the only movie from before 1950 that anyone in modern discussion can just assume that anyone they are talking through has watched. The other two movies I think are arguable as films from pre-1980 that almost every adult will have seen and the vast majority will feel positively towards. But even then: they are really close together themselves in terms of release. Outside of that there is simply not a classic movie that is isolated enough and has been viewed by enough people to count. Snow White and Casablanca are enormously famous, but nowhere enough people have actually seen them for them to count. Gone With The Wind may have once been a valid choice, but now it is neither held in high enough esteem nor have enough people seen it. Anything post-1990 is far too clumped and surrounded by other massive movies to be even remotely considerable. It probably isn't even possible anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebeccas Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 I think the following are films many or most people are introduced to in their childhood at some point: The Wizard of Oz It's a Wonderful Life The Sound of Music Jaw Star Wars Raiders of the Lost Ark In addition, these are some films people see as teens/young adults and have generally penetrated the cultural consciousness of multiple generations: Casablanca The Godfather Terminator Pulp Fiction Titanic Fight Club 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krissykins Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 For a certain generation, Mean Girls is totally iconic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomCruiseTop Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 I want whatever the people putting MCU movies up there with things like Wizard of Oz, Titanic, and LOTR are smoking. I've had more lucid thoughts than that while smoking DMT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...