When Art Was Made In Studios - Nostalgia for the cinematic heroes of Generation X

Ok, maybe it’s not such a huge stretch to call cinema “art.” That’s why we decided to bring the focus of today’s post to some of the most engaging films from the nostalgic past of Generation X. If nothing else, we hope you’ll find here a fuzzy reminder of some of your favorite films that evoked the golden era of reluctant heroes, conflicted heroines, action, adventure, and above all, irreverence.

We speak of a time before the Great Box Office Schism whence real filmmakers got fed up with greedy studio executives valuing “titanic” profits over artistic value and spilled into the brave new world of independent film. A time when “studio film” didn’t refer to overproduced, underacted, predictable tripe starring models who should have stuck to modeling. When films were remade only if they could be improved upon in some way, and a sequel was an honor bestowed upon only the industry’s paragons. When more money went to location sets than makeup artists. When writers outranked computer effects. When Stephen Spielberg worked with Richard Dreyfuss.

Yes, in a time before Jar Jar, Spielberg used to prefer actors to pretty faces or stereotypical cartoons, and the legendary pair made films like Jaws, Close Encounters, and Always. Dreyfuss’s box office success allowed him to star in other seminal films of the era, such as Stand By Me, Stakeout, Let It Ride, The American President, and Mr. Holland’s Opus. Spielberg also instituted the second extraordinary transmutation of a carpenter to create Han Solo and Indiana Jones. That guy with the big scar on his chin went on to bring us some of the most relevant films of our time – Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, Witness, Working Girl, and Regarding Henry. He took an unknown little boy and that Barrymore girl and stuck them in a film called E.T. Their combined cinematic futures included films like Firestarter, Irreconcilable Differences, Cloak and Dagger, Boys on the Side, Valmont (a delicious re-imagining of Dangerous Liaisons), Legends of the Fall, and The Suicide Kings.

At the intersection of cinematic genius and television entertainment was a show called Amazing Stories. Long before film actors joined the ranks of TV stars, filmmakers like Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis joined forces to entertain the masses with the show which catapulted Danny DeVito out of impeding obscurity and into the world of Hollywood royalty after the cancellation of Taxi. Life as Gen X-ers know it would not exist without the likes of Terms Of Endearment, Ruthless People, and Throw Mamma From The Train. Zemeckis cast the 4 foot 11 inch actor in his first blockbuster – Romancing the Stone. The film sparked a successful sequel and afforded Zemeckis the chance to put his own script on film. With the help of a small, fresh-faced young TV actor named Michael J. Fox, Back to the Future found record audiences and the rare honor of two successful sequels (a feat achieved previously, of course, by Spielberg and George Lucas’s The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi). Love for graphics, which turned out to be the Achilles’ heel of this generation of filmmakers, was still a fresh idea when Zemeckis unveiled Who Framed Roger Rabbit – likely the last film of its kind to rely on graphics solely for the artistic effect of furthering the plot rather than for convenience.

Meanwhile, a gravely voiced, beaknosed actor was capitalizing on the success of the Romancing the Stone series in his own way, and rocketed to long-lasting stardom with leads in films like A Chorus Line, Fatal Attraction, Wall Street, The War Of The Roses (in which he paired up again with Romancing’s DeVito and Kathleen Turner), Shining Through, and Basic Instinct. In her stead, Turner – though not the typical stick-skinny falsetto voiced Bambett leading lady – graced films like Prizzi’s Honor, Peggy Sue Got Married, and The Accidental Tourist. Zemeckis wisely recruited her again to voice the sultry Jessica Rabbit.

And while men were the primary recipients of this action comedy golden era, extraordinary women like Holly Hunter, Susan Sarandon, Glenn Close, and Sally Field took Turner’s lead and dauntlessly lent their spunk and spirit to cinematic masterpieces like Raising Arizona, Broadcast News, Always, The Piano, Rocky Horror Picture Show, White Palace, Bull Durham, The Natural, Jagged Edge, Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Smokey and the Bandit, Norma Rae, Murphy’s Romance, and that exemplification of Southern women’s angst, Steel Magnolias.

If you’re young enough not to remember most of these films, make those Netflix folks earn their dough and set yourself up a rental list. And if you do, we’d love to hear your comments. Post them on our blog, or email lazlo@lazlosbasement.com

And raise a glass to some of the greatest bygone years of filmmaking history.

Original article at http://lazlosbasement.com/blog/?p=237