1940 classics remastered! I get it, but what about 2010 movies?

[coffeeman]

so I was thinking, I am 40 years old.

I grew up watching casablanca(a 70 year old film now), the great escape, how the west was won, shane, ben hur, the 10 commandments, the towering inferno, etc etc etc

you catch my drift. all those great movies were made before I was born.

I use to watch them late at night with my parents, when they were being played on tv, yep the old 20" crt tv which we all had, then came the vhs, beta max etc days of the 80's.. those were the classics, the films my parents watched and use to talk about those celebrities and got my hooked on film.

all the while I grew up watching star wars, Et, indiana jones, the goonies, stand by me, back to the future etc..
then we came into the 90's,
bigger tv's, big block buster films, laser discs, and DVD releases
sure , this is my time , my era. these are my movies of my day.
now as a film buff I always went back and watched the classics,
marlon brando, james dean, jimmy stewart, james cagney, sure they are all dead, but their films are classics.

they were alive while I was alive though.

I remember seeing those old actors collecting their life time achievement awards and hearing my parents talk of how famous they were.
I was waiting for the next Harrison ford or Mel gibson movie to come out my local multiplex but of course appreciated the classics.
sure I was 20, but now I am 40.
and my love for old movies has surpassed my love for newer movies.

my question is this

now , a film like ....ummmmmmmmm I don't know..
ok.. let's say something like "Double Indemnity" or perhaps 10 years even earlier "It Happened One Night"
now these films get released on BLURAY or are coming to BLURAY and we get excited,there are people who will be buying them, me for one!
because

A: well we know of Clark cable. because our parents use to go to the movies and watch his movies he was the most famous actor of his day, the 50's 60's era , he was the man! still in our life time so to speak,
B: they are classic movies.
we enjoy them because we can relate to the story because our grand parents, or we recognize props in the film as when we grew up so we can relate to the old america, or the old cars, the phones, the food in the store or how life was, we understand it because we lived it,
or we if we are of a younger generation we just appreciate the great story but can't relate to any of the props.

now, what happens 50 years from now?
50 years from now, when I am 90 years old
where does "it happened one night come in?
who will be buying that movie? casablanca? RIO BRAVO! ???

or even a film like ummmmmmmm I don't know..
let's say..die hard
yes I will remember that movie even though I will be 90+ years old.
but will someone who is 20 years old in the year 2063
know die hard?
care about die hard like we care about casablanca ?

will die hard get a new 4K.. no ummm 16K new transfer release and an upgrade to the original bluray which is out now?
will the die hard 16K release in 2060 even have buyers?
which films from our era will stand the test of time?
will casablanca? by 2060 it will be 120 years old.
we appreciate art like the mona lisa and relics, and buildings from 400 years old, so will we appreciate films?

I mean for now, film is a new medium, takies came out in the late 20's, we have grand parents still alive who remember clarlie chaplin debuting,
we have celebrities still alive now from the golden era of hollywood.
mickey rooney, kirk douglas etc.. they are here now, we know them!

so 100 years from now. where will transformers 2
the godfather, scarface, star wars, papillion and all the films from our era be?
what will they mean?
will they be just as famous then as they are now?

do you think they will still be being remastered and sold as classics?
picture it..

THE FLY...
now in remastered 24K...11.1 DTS super HD..100Gig ssd tape.

experience this classic like it was never seen before, coming soon!

or will all our films just disappear and go off to die somewhere?

I know a lot of questions, but serious.. with a new media like film, I often think what will happen to our movies and songs.

[JavaJulien]

I try not to put to much thought to it because several movies that were originally considered "flops" ended up becoming defining films of their decades (The Shining anyone?)

[LegacyCosts]

Art of all kinds will be all digital and streamed, a world war will happen and we'll lose everything of modern art.

[toddly6666]

More contemporary movies are released on good quality video than old movies from the past. The amount of good old movies are infinite.

So in the year 2063, the majority of films post-1990s will continue to get great quality videos while everything before the 1990s will not.

[coffeeman]

Originally Posted by toddly6666

More contemporary movies are released on good quality video than old movies from the past. The amount of good old movies are infinite.

So in the year 2063, the majority of films post-1990s will continue to get great quality videos while everything before the 1990s will not.

I think some of the movies even pre 1990 will probably still be viewed 100 years, 200 years even 500 years into the future.
I think the historical dramas, the biographical films, I mean some films are history lessons.
and of course film education classes will be going back to view the beginning of how it all worked.
but of course most films will just be forgotten and probably never re released

[Atreyu]

Originally Posted by toddly6666

More contemporary movies are released on good quality video than old movies from the past. The amount of good old movies are infinite.

So in the year 2063, the majority of films post-1990s will continue to get great quality videos while everything before the 1990s will not.

You got it. It is all about money and they will be releasing newer films more so than older ones because they sell better. Just look at the titles available at your local retailer and then check out Amazon, huge difference in selection. The brick and mortars are only gonna sell what is more profitable.
Many younger people I work with won't watch anything from say more than 30 years ago. And you'd think I said something vulgar when I say it is in "black and white".

[coffeeman]

Originally Posted by Atreyu

You got it. It is all about money and they will be releasing newer films more so than older ones because they sell better. Just look at the titles available at your local retailer and then check out Amazon, huge difference in selection. The brick and mortars are only gonna sell what is more profitable.
Many younger people I work with won't watch anything from say more than 30 years ago. And you'd think I said something vulgar when I say it is in "black and white".

sometimes I think about, STAR WARS, and Star trek.. you know those two franchises are our lifetimes greatest science fiction movies.
no question they are great, star wars is probably revered as the greatest sfx movie of all time with a loyal fan base to boot, it was more than a movie for us growing up as kids, the merchandise etc..
. we all grew up watching it and dreaming we too were fighting the to save the galaxy.
1970's and 1980's we have come a long way in what we can do with motion pictures also. I mean even before star wars we had some amazing camera work recorded to film.
ben hur chariot scene, battle of briton arial scenes
and many other great movies. but now in 2013 you only have to look at films like peter jacksons king kong, pacific rim and of course Avatar to see what we can do now.

100 years from now! will star wars be a classic?
I think probably yes, just like mickey mouse and donald duck will be entertaining kids, I think disney will still be milking star wars, and of course remaking the movies once george lucas is dead and buried.

we are living in mysterious times, and this past 100 years has been the birth of most things. to bad we wont be here to witness what lives on and what doesn't.
but if it's about making money.
then in the future like you say, there might be a 30 year cut off. anything pre 30 years wont be getting released , of course they will be available for download on the future of television, netflex, or TCM etc. PPV
I mean I watch movies which are a 80 years old now. and love them.

I'm sure in the future somewhere there will be some people who will be james cagney fans! probably not many, just like most young people today haven't even seen Casablanca or Gone with the wind!

[mojo_navigator]

I think about this stuff all the time and (sadly) I don’t think any of this will be remembered in the future other than in a sterile, historical way. We are not the ones who'll decide cinema's legacy - the younger generations will. And to them, already the legendary films that we all revere are little more than relics from the pre-internet era.

The world is currently going through a massive technological revolution and this is redefining humanity’s relationship to art in the same way, perhaps, that the onset of the Industrial Revolution did in its time.

Most young people coming up do not see any artistic value in films. If you were to talk about cinema and music etc as artistic pursuits, they’d just look at you in utter bafflement. To them, a classic movie is just another piece of minor distraction that they delete from their smart phone once their "buzz" is over. Their concept of what has value and what doesn’t is radically different to previous generations.

On the one hand, it depresses me that we’re heading towards the kind of superficial culture described in “Brave New World”. But on the other, maybe this was humanity’s destiny all along.

[growler]

Before the advent of home video, collectors needed to collect actual film; 16mm or 35mm versions. Then came video tape versions available for huge numbers of collectors. But, magnetic tape does not hold up for many decades. I'm ignoring laserdisc since it was not collected by many. With DVD & now BD, I am very optimistic about films being preserved in great formats accessible to future generations. Digital downloads may eventually get lossless audio & 4K treatment.

If nothing else, film scholars, 100 years hence, will have access to preserved copies of most films; good & bad. Just as librarians had/have old books as well as classics & popular fiction. Costs are much lower & space requirements (especially for digital copies on hard drives) are small.

As long as we remain a tech society, those who wish will be able to access film from 10, 50, 100 or 500 years prior. They probably will laugh at our Sci-Fi as we do at the 1950s Sci-Fi film FX & technology.