Film director and movie historian Peter Bogdanovich died in early January, and his passing sparked an ongoing discussion that I'm still sharing (and enjoying) with several friends who, like me, are movie fans.
Our dispute involves the timelessness of Bogdanovich's films, particularly his early works. My friends insist that a classic is classic. Film classice are classics today and will be considered classics years from now, they say. I think that general statement applies to some films, but not necessarily to the ones Bogdanovich directed.
For those not familiar with Bogdanovich's career, he was considered a film genius in the 1970s. He was 31 when he directed 1971's "The Last Picture Show," a movie that earned eight Oscar nominations, winning two. It was his second movie as director. Critics called it a masterpiece and compared Bogdanovich to Orson Welles and his film "Citizen Kane."
During the next two years, Bogdanovich directed the popular comedy "What's Up Doc?" and "Paper Moon," a hugely popular hit that was set during the Great Depression. The movie earned four Oscar nominations, and a win for Best Supporting Actress.
But that was the high point of his film-making career. From the mid-'70s onward, Bogdanovich struggled professionally and personally. He directed movies that were slammed by critics and unpopular with audiences, although there were notable exceptions along the way, "Saint Jack" (1979) and "Mask" (1985).
He twice filed for bankruptcy and had a string of failed relationships, including two marriages that ended in divorce.
Bogdanovich continued working throughout his personal challenges, and had a recurring role in HBO's "The Sopranos."
He was a gifted writer and film historian. I've read a couple of his books and recommend his written work to those with an interest in American film history. Bogdanovich will always be linked to his early film success, but I think he'll be remembered most for his work as a writer.
Many serious movie fans (including my friends) insist "The Last Picture Show" is a timeless classic, one that audiences today appreciate as much as the audiences of the early 1970s. I agree the film is a classic piece of art, but I don't think it is accessible to contemporary audiences.
"The Last Picture Show" is set in a small Texas town that is barely hanging on in the late 1940s. The film is shot in black and white and features a cast that was largely unknown at the time it was released. Critics and audiences alike embraced the movie's stark black and white images. It was an effective device for telling this particular story.
Bogdanovich used black and white film again in 1973 to tell "Paper Moon," the Depression-era story of a con man and his child partner. Audiences loved the film, as did Hollywood. However, it's difficult to say how much of its success was due to the use of black and white film. It featured an interesting story and starred a charming Tatum O'Neal, then age 10, as a young hustler, playing opposite her real-life father, Ryan O'Neal.
Bogdanovich's decision to shoot in black and white paid off in the early '70s, when audiences still included many who lived through the time periods in which "The Last Picture Show" and "Paper Moon" were set. Many had memories of the Great Depression, the post-World War II years, and they grew up when watching movies and television in black and white was the only option. Color film wasn't widely used until the 1960s, so watching a black and white movie was a familiar experience for them.
None of that can be said for much of today's audiences. Nearly all of those alive during the Depression and World War II are no longer with us, and the last American TV shows shot entirely in black and white were made in the late 1960s.
Contemporary audiences want to view films featuring vibrant colors and do not relate well to black and white film, probably the primary reason Hollywood rarely produces a black and white today.
That is one reason why I think Bogdanovich's biggest films have limited appeal today.
The second reason concerns the stories Bogdanovich told through film. He made character-driven movies, a quality common to the movies Hollywood produced 50 years ago. Today's scripts are action driven. They emphasize computer-generated special effects, explosions, and are set at a pace that rarely allows for character development. Hollywood also loves franchise films, productions that allow for one installment after another.
The content of Hollywood productions moved in a significantly different direction during the past 35 years, and the type of movies made in the late 1960s and 1970s simply are not made today. Many factors contributed to that shift, and I think changes in the reading habits of American audiences is a key reason, though it receives little notice.
The simple fact is that Americans read fewer books today than they did half a century ago. Yes, many Americans read a good deal today, mostly in the form of texts, emails, or other electronic data. But the Pew Research Center and others who study the topic consistently note that a growing number of American adults say they didn't read a single book in the last year.
The Center maintains records about American reading habits dating to the early 1970s. In 1976, just a few years after Bogdanovich made "Paper Moon," about six percent of those surveyed told Pew they had not read a single book during the past year. The number increased to nearly 24 percent in 2015 and stands at 27 percent today.
American film audiences, particularly younger segments, have shorter attention spans and have less interest in character-driven stories than audiences found in movie houses a generation ago. And much of that is attributable to their aversion to books.
My friends acknowledge my arguments but insist they apply only to the general category of film audiences, not to fans with a sincere appreciation for good movies. With those viewers, "The Last Picture Show" and "Paper Moon" are accessible and will always be viewed as timeless classics, my friends insist.
They might be right. But Bogdanovich found huge success making movies that were popular with general audiences, and the habits of those audiences are not practiced by today's movie audiences.
-- Thank you for reading. Comments and questions are always welcome. Post here or send an email to kbotterman@gmail.com.
