old movies.

My grandparents generation intrigues me. They were all big city folk so, in a lot of ways, their life wasn't much different than mine.  All of the modern conveniences that I consider essential were already around. They had telephones, washing machines, air conditioning, subways, trolleys, trans-continental airlines and you could still get from Philly to NYC on the train in 80 minutes. At the same time, it's crazy to think that, outside of big cities a lot of people didn't have electricity or running water, horses were still a common form of transportation and most roads were not paved.

Now everyone has a cell phone, air conditioning, running water and paved streets. My grandparents even email me their birthday wishes.

Over the last few years I've come to appreciate the big band music and movies of their jeunesse. It's a small window into their world and, wanting to see more, I've been stocking up on the classics.  I just watched '12 Angry Men'.  It never fails to amaze me how little politics have changed in 50 years (and how far the acting profession has fallen.)  The movie is about a jury in a murder case. The defendant is some nameless italian kid from the 'hood. The jury goes to deliberate and takes an 11-1 vote. They deliberate for a few more hours and over the course of the movie the vote swings the other way. Change the ethnicity of the kid, shuffle some accents and wardrobes and it could be any courthouse, USA ca. 2010.


I was also a fan of 'On the Waterfront'. Another movie about integrity.  Marlon Brando is the anti-hero that can break the mob's grip on the longshoreman's union. But will he stand up? It's depressing in the same way that '12 Angry Men' is . . . that industries come and go and the faces of the corrupt change but people still struggle unnecessarily and for the same reasons they did when our grandparents were our age.

Next up are the musicals. I had always wondered why Hollywood dropped the song and dance. Apparently, the rise of television and what audiences were coming to expect had a lot to do with it.  It's just crazy, though, that 60 years later my grandparents still know most of those songs.