So I watch a lot of old movies. A few years ago, I made a New Year’s Resolution to watch more old movies. I came up with this idea for a few reasons. First, I realized that there were a lot of classic films that I had never seen. Second, I really have no vices. I’m a social drinker and non-smoker who doesn’t believe in dieting. I mostly stick to decaf. I have accepted that my shoe collection will never be organized in any form or fashion. There really wasn’t much I could cut back on. Third, I thought it would be fun to try something that might actually be, you know, fun. My plan was to watch at least one movie a week that I was too young to have seen in the theater. And I stuck to it pretty faithfully until about June and I had better things to do.
So now, I’ve decided to pick it up again. Mostly because I enjoyed it, and also because I really had no one to discuss the films with. So often, I’d think “They wouldn’t end it that way today.” And when you meet a friend for lunch and they ask what’s up and you start going on about a 50-year-old Elizabeth Taylor film they kind of look at you as though you’re strange. Also, blogging is what we writers do now, and I thought this might be more interesting than writing about parenting and cats.
Editor’s Note of Warning: I’m just a person who watches movies. I’m not any sort of film expert or insider. As a feminist, I am especially interested in how films portray and have portrayed women and women’s issues, but that won’t necessarily be the focus of every movie or post. Feel free to agree or disagree. I really have no ego invested in this. I’m just a person who watches movies.
Gone With the Rewind 
I’m happy you started this. There are so many old films I have also not seen. I made a point years ago to see a lot of the Hitchcock films I had missed and was most impressed with “Rear View Window”. It’s a shame that so many people under a certain age will leave their homes and slap down ten bucks to see the umpteenth “Fast & Furious” sequel, but roll their eyes at exploring classic Hepburn films, among others.
Do you have a cut-off age for what constitutes an old film? In my 20’s I would’ve put it at 1950’s and before. Now in my 40’s I’m somewhat baffled by the idea that films from the 70’s are actually “old” now, but I understand the classification.
I was thinking either 20 or 25 years as the cut off, but most of them will be older than that. I’m thinking that’s old enough that we don’t necessarily live the same way that we did at that time, to an extent, attitudes would have changed, etc. It is hard to think about the fact that means that films from the early 90s would qualify, but I think I would mostly stick to movies older than that.