I recently came under fire by a ton of people (but a surprising number of people also agreed with me) for making the comments that the original John Carpenter version of “Halloween” was a terrible movie. Here’s the background… I remember really liking Halloween… but I hadn’t seen it in like 20 years. Recently at a movie party we watched Halloween again, and to my surprise… the film is actually awful.
I’m really sorry folks, I know you’re supposed to say nothing but sunshine about Halloween… but the plot was ridiculous, the acting… oh holy hell… no one has even tried to defend the acting in that movie. The dialog was laughable… again, no one has even tried to defend that… and the worst part was, that as a horror movie, it just wasn’t even the least bit frightening. Not the smallest bit of tension.
“But John…” some have argued with me “It’s a classic!” I can’t argue that really… but I have to ask then… WHAT MAKES SOMETHING A CLASSIC? What turns a regular movie magically into what we call a “Classic”?
Everyone agrees that first of all it has to be a great movie. Ok, on that I think we all agree. But there seems to be two very different trains of thought on this. To be a classic…
1) The movie has to hold up. It must be able to be viewed by an audience TODAY and still be considered great, as well as have been considered great in its time
This is the school of thought I hold to personally. Many films just get hyped (this happens today all the time too) due to some popular trend… OR… it did something totally different and new, and therefore had that novelty with it as well… but when you allow the “trend” to pass, or the “novelty” to fade… you’re left with a movie that just isn’t really all that good. Should those films be considered “CLASSIC”? I don’t think so at all.
Hence Halloween. I maintain that if Halloween came out in theaters today, it would be dismissed by critics and audiences alike for the most part.
On the other hand… films like Spartacus, Ben Hur, The Godfather ect. ect. ect. are still watched by brand new audiences today who love them. They are true classics.
2) The movie just has to be great in its time.
This is where most people seem to fall, and for understandable reasons. When a movie pushes limits, or outdoes other films in its window, or does something totally new… that is indeed noteworthy and deserves praise. With the Halloween example, many have rightfully pointed out that Halloween went on to influence how TONS of horror movies were made afterwards. Halloween changed the horror genre. This is totally true. BUT…. Does that mean its good when honestly held up against other films in the genre that have come after it? That’s the debate.
This post isn’t about Halloween… its about this question: WHAT MAKES A MOVIE A “CLASSIC”? I’d love to know how you define it, what characteristics you think it needs to have. Does it have to hold up to the test of time? Does it just need to be great in it’s time? Or is it something totally different? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
