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How much does childhood nostalgia influence your views on films?

actonsteveactonsteve
edited April 2012 in Bond Movies Posts: 1,492
Some here cant see anything with DAD as they saw it in their childhood years, some cant see anything wrong with Goldeneye because it made a big impression when they are growing up, some have no critical facilities over Goldfinger because it was part of their formative years..

I am guilty. Holds up hand. I cant see anything wrong with the films running from LALD to LTK because they were a big part of my childhood/teen years.

However.

I see they have problems. Even when seeing MR at age ten I knew their were problems and it could be improved. Those films wernt perfect ie Jaws in love, the beach boys music, Laurence of Arabia, kung fu schoolgirls..

Worship at the altar of your favourite film, by all means - but acknowledge their faults as well.

Comments

  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    edited April 2012 Posts: 13,355
    Not a lot or at least I hope it doesn't. I loved all the Indy films as a child but as you grow older, you realise (for me at least) Raiders is the only great one.

    The same with Bond, even as a child, I kind of knew which ones I liked and which I didn't.

    I never liked the Star Wars prequels though, watching in the cinema, so I don't have nostalgia for everything.
  • SandySandy Somewhere in Europe
    Posts: 4,012
    I have no problems with that. I grew up watching Bond-films, before I was probably old enough to watch them, but back then people didn't care much for what was child-apropriate I guess. My earliest childhood memory is not watching cartoons but the title sequence of TSWLM - cool, a woman doing gymnastics on a gun!
    My first Bond in cinemas was Goldeneye and although it had a major impact on me I can clearly see its flaws. Same thing for the other Bonds I watched before and after. So no altar for me to worship in.
  • VBM398VBM398
    edited April 2012 Posts: 154
    Guilty. I cant see anyting wrong with the Brosnan Bond movies. But... they have some problems. But I love them. My first cinema film is Tomorrow Never Dies. I loved that movie. The car sequence blew my mind.
    In the Craig movies I dont thought that way anymore. But I still love those to.
  • BAIN123BAIN123
    edited April 2012 Posts: 11,189
    The thread I was born for ;)

    I think it depends on how much you watched said film in question when growing up. Earlier today I was contemplating on what my most watched film has been. I came to the conclusion that it was GE. Not only my most watched Bond film but possibly my most watched film full-stop. :-S

    Nostalgia is (or at least can be) a VERY powerful thing. I think it's just human nature, people like to remember the films that made them happy as a child. As someone who grew up in the 90s I'm like that with The Lion King (god I love that film), Terminator 2 and (of course) GE. When the soothing music comes on and I see Pierce getting out of the Aston I get an odd feeling in my stomach. It's like I'm watching an old friend.

    HOWEVER I will acknowledge GE's faults...and there are faults (an episodic narrative where Bond doesn't really do that much and a "not quite confident enough" performance from PB). But that doesn't mean you can't still have a "soft spot" for it. Plus, as an adult, I think there are a lot of positive things which outweigh the negative (the dialogue, the supporting cast, the atmosphere).

    Although the Lion King is perfect as it is ;)
    actonsteve wrote:

    Laurence of Arabia..

    I would agree with all the faults you listed except this one. IMO the homage adds to the eligance of the film :D It's also the closest Rog ever got to being in L&A (apparently Rog wishes he was in that).
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    Well, I have favorite films from childhood, of course. But I do look at them differently as an adult. For Bond, my first film in the theatres was Diamonds Are Forever and it blew me away. I do view it more critically, or from a different perspective, as an adult. So I may have favorites just because of warm memories (Xmas movies, seeing a movie with my dad, etc.) ... but I can notice and acknowlege faults in movies, even the ones I enjoy so much. It does not ruin the movies for me; I still enjoy them. I don't worship them as totally perfect, but I can still have warm feelings for them.
    I do think that it is okay to feel nostalgic or sentimental about things, even movies. I do not look at the world thru rose colored glasses, but I still like slipping them on sometimes (knowing they must come off again, too).
  • thelivingroyalethelivingroyale
    Posts: 12,837
    I suppose that's part of it. Alot of my favourite films are films that I saw when I was growing up. My whole childhood from age 10 onwards was Die Hard (god I love that film), and Dalton has been my favourite 007 ever since I saw TLD at the cinema all those years ago.

    BUT, as much as I like these films, I know that they have faults. And like you said, it's important to acknowledge them.
  • DCisaredDCisared Liverpool
    Posts: 1,329
    Childhood nostalgia influences my view on films a great deal.
    i still love the films i grew up watching. countless disney films ( the Lion king being the pinnacle),
    the land before time
    jurassic park
    The lost world jurassic park
    hook
    my girl
    Home alone 1 and 2
    free willy
    Beethoven
    hocus Pocus
    and of course bond.

    Those are just a few i can remember off the top of my head and admittedly some are a little girlie(i have 3 older sisters!) lol.
    Do i see there faults? YES! of course most arent masterpieces , but because they are apart of my childhood, when lets face it , everything is magical growing up. i will always look at them fondly.
    Interestingly my favorite bond films as a youngster, arent my top picks now,even my favorite bond actor has changed.
    i suppose you see more bad in things thou when u grow up.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Nostalgia doesn't influence me at all. If it did, I would feel that such films as Scarface, Night of the Living Dead, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner wouldn't hold up to the films of the 90s, which they most certainly do. In fact, they surpass the films I grew up with.
  • 00Beast00Beast
    Posts: 4,762
    Nostalgia influences me heavily! It's not the sole reason that I rank certain Bond movies where I do, because there are other significant factors, but I'll say that it does make a difference with Bond movies like GE and FRWL.
  • identigraphidentigraph
    Posts: 1,052
    I remember watching all the Rog films in a row as a young kid on TV probably on a saturday night, I loved them all apart from MR and I will always remember my Dad saying "that was rubbish" as the credits rolled.

    I have to admit that I didn't really watch an old Bond film for a number of years when other interests took over in my early teens but around about the time of TWINE being released I started watching all the old films again and started getting a bit obsessed, the Moore films emerged as my favrouites still but i did aquire a new appreciation of Timbo!

    I did watch TWINE 4 times in the cinema and thought it was great but now it ranks really low on my list!
  • TorgeirtrapTorgeirtrap
    Posts: 17,763
    Not that much, I think. I do still have a soft spot for certain Bond-films that have their flaws, and that's about it.

    On the other hand, i still enjoy Police Academy 3 and the Police Academy series very much. PA3 is probably one of the films I've seen the most, beside Bond.
  • boldfingerboldfinger
    Posts: 5,767
    Nostalgia plays less and less of role. I enjoy dicovering films anew each time I watch them. Even if it is to a film´s detriment, like NSNA, which was once my favorite film with James Bond in it (because it was the first one I saw) and now registers somewhere under ´miscellaneous´ ;-) .
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,978
    With Bond? Not little to none. The first Bond film I ever watched was YOLT, the first on the big screen was TND. I became a Bond fan in 1996 (I turned 9 that year) following the aforementioned viewing of YOLT. So you could say that I grew up with Brosnan's Bond, but that doesn't mean I was or am a fan of his Bond, which I most certainly am not. He just happened to be the official Bond when I was the age of 10 through to 17. When I first started wathing the films, Connery was my favourite Bond actor. All that changed when I got to TLD & LTK, where Dalton knocked Connery down into 2nd place. Daltons two Bonds are the only films in the cannon that I can count amongst my favourite films of all time.
  • QsAssistantQsAssistant All those moments lost in time... like tears in rain
    Posts: 1,812
    Nostalgia at times plays a really big role. As I get older and go back and watch films that I loved as a kid, that I haven't seen in years, I lose that naostalgia feeling. GF, for example, was my first Bond film and was in my #1 spot for years until I watch it again a few weeks ago, it's been about three or four years since I watched it. While I still love that film I was forced to move it down in my rankings, to about the #5 spot.

    The original Star Wars trilogy is an example of a film that I have major nastalgia with; I've watch them many times over the years and will continue to do so. It's like catching up with old friends (Han, Luke, and Leia) even though their story is always the same.
  • largo2largo2
    Posts: 469
    I love looking back and watching the films from my childhood - Flash Gordon, Carry on films, Bond and star wars.
    It was even better going to the toy shop buying the toys and playing out your favourite scenes in your own bedroom.
    Getting the DB5 and chasing the Lotus around your carpet, or setting up a fight between Luke and Darth Vador on your window seal. How I wish I can go back to those days.
    I grew up with Roger and it was not untill my teens I started to get more into Bond and as the films stopped,I caught up with old films and look back with fond memories of sitting infront of the fire watching them, I love looking back at the past, but looking forward to the future especially oct 26th
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