Content And The Classics

I got into a heated debated over how much content is being made.
We're at a point now that anyone with a camera phone can make a feature film. Been done before. Now, I work on some projects where people make an entire feature film in 30 days. In the "old days" it took 3 months. Because it took an army to put these things together. These days, a few of your friends and that thing you carry around to make phone calls is all it takes.
The guy I debated with believes this is a revolution to get the so-called elitist from controlling the content. I agree, to an extent. What we have is total garbage. Unfiltered garbage. Has anything done in those circumstances ever yielded anything worthwhile...perhaps. But it all depends on what you consider worthwhile. For me, it never has. It's mostly unwatchable. Even for total one-man army productions such as Russ Meyer, the ability to do these types of things also came with a Herculean effort. To which most movie makers today have no clue.
I respect the ones who take the time to do it right (though most are obnoxiously anal about the process, I still respect it). Man, are they sometimes annoying. But they care. Sometimes a little too much about the technical.

That said, it got me thinking about why I think the process is important. The specifics I can tell you is that when I was a teen and saw a film I liked, I did the research on it. I mean REALLY went full crazy research. I'll use Ridley Scott's "Alien" (1979) as an example.
When I saw that film I had to know everything about it. From the making of, to the details of its origins, the people involved and the actors. I mean, I went deep on it. I bought every magazine that had any story on it. Went to the library to research. I studied that film. And subsequently "Aliens (1986). I bought the script, dissected it to its core and still, wanted more information. I also did the same with "Gone With The Wind" and well...pretty much every film that I loved. Then broke them down and reverse engineered it to see why they worked on an emotional level. This was even before I knew there were film schools that taught you this. To me, I couldn't get enough information on them.

The point here is that, we don't do this anymore. Hardly have time to. And no one seems to care. If you are anything like me, this was part of the fun of these films. That we can study them because they effected us so deeply. I mean, I knew what camcorder Marty McFly used and what wristwatch Ripley wore. These are how much films meant to me. To me, this is what is what makes up cinema. It isn't a disposable thing. It is something to be held in reverence (pretentious as it may sound). Film was a commodity much more valuable than gold. Because it was permanence. The way things are made today, no one believes their product is that. They are made to elicit attention...for the short period of time people watch it. And has no importance.
Movies are important to people only as a diversion and not as a historical document of cultural tastes. There is no collective anymore (my theory as to why we're so fractured these days). We can't discuss them, because they are so...disposable. And that is a sickening thought. My friend is glad that this is the new thing. I can't imagine why, as they make actors just as disposable if not more. Perhaps there are more opportunities, as he's prone to defend. But I don't think it does. It makes their value non-existent because it undervalues actors. If you think a product is made simply to be viewed as a passing diversion...it doesn't hold memories. And memories is what makes films classics. We don't have that anymore. Name any movie made in the last decade that has this standard. That the generation watching those will look back in 10 years and consider them canon to their lives. That anyone did ANY research and dissected its construction. Much of what I love most about the movies were the stories involved in its making of. Behind the scenes stuff fascinates me. These are things that are dismissed now because people simply don't care. And it hurts the value of the movie. Now, while it's true, the final product is all that matters. And, according to Steven Spielberg, we shouldn't know too much to ruin its value. But, there's also something to be said about how millions if not hundreds of millions are invested in a project with the belief that it does a) entertain b) have cultural significance.
Unfortunately, we are in a surfaced society that swipes left and right and never gets to hear the stories behind it. I'm reading a book now about Cheryl Crane. The daughter of Lana Turner. Yes, the one who stabbed her mother's abusive boyfriend to death. This type of Hollywood lore, Lana's own view on maintaining celebrity and a very blunt assessment of her own downslide into obscurity is a great study on celebrity and its eventual effect. To me, having too much content dilutes the pool into something that is now worthless.
I love old Hollywood to this day and haven't even scratched the surface of the history...even now. How can we possibly keep vomiting out garbage if we haven't even finished what was on our plate? There is much to be mined. Though, commerce marches on. Keep selling out. I'll keep studying the classics.