Hays code

It was written by a catholic priest

Hollywood has gone downhill for a variety of reasons.  I've listened to a number of podcasts with writers, directors, talent agencies, etc.  Their analysis of the problems are below.

Money Reasons
1.  Quantity over Quality.  Streaming services need "content" so crap is churned out (i.e. Disney, Marvel) and the genre is run into the ground, til dead.
2.  Corporatization.  Almost every major studio is publicly traded, which means it's run by "suits" whose main concern is the stock price, not storytelling.
3.  Marketing/IP.  Related to the above 2, the Execs want movies which are easily marketable, (i.e. a known brand/IP/franchise), so sequels, prequels, etc are churned out, because they are "safe" and less marketing $s are needed, due to the public awareness which already exists.

Story Reasons
4.  CGI over story.  Money is spent on special effects, in an attempt to "wow" the audience, while top screenwriters are ignored, in favor of newbies.  The script/story suffers.
5.  Scripts get changed.  Top directors/actors are given "creative control" to change the script during filming, which often results in poorer storytelling.
6.  Good writers = TV shows.  Since writers aren't paid well for movie scripts and their stories get changed for the worse, the top talent has moved to tv shows.

Acting
7.  Acting is subpar.  Actors are chosen who believe in "the message", who are liberal and who have favor with Hollywood's "values".  Talent still matters, but not as much.
8.  Nepotism.  Self-explanatory.  Most of the young actors who are related to "legends" can't act.  But they are "part of the club" so they get hired.

Message Over Story
9.  Script requirements.  Often a director is given a list of "things that have to be in the movie" (i.e. a cool car, funny jokes, things which they can sell in toy stores, a love subplot, a diverse cast, product placements, specific locations for sets, etc) and then a writer has to cram all that into a story and have it still make sense.  Doesn't work.
10.  Liberalism/wokeism.  When directors/actors get "preachy" then story often suffers and characters don't act like real humans. 


All of the above kills the creative process and originality.  It is the opposite of being imaginative, fun and entertaining.

I’ve been around long enough to recognize waves of nostalgia for worldly fads, styles, and fashions come around about every 20-30 years.

For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would ever feel nostalgia for the 1980s or 1990s.  There is really not a whole lot that is iconic about that era.  It was pretty nondescript.

Now, as for the 1970s, those were distinctive.  All-pervasive lapses of taste were so blatant that, in a twisted kind of way, they have their own charm.  Avocado appliances and burnt-orange upholstery, in retrospect, didn't look that bad, and to this day I have a soft spot for heavy dark woodwork and wall paneling.  (The living room wall in one of my houses is in serious need of repair, and I've considered the latter.)  Men's fashion, well, maybe we just kind of need to forget that part.

So, I can’t interest you in three Sears polyester seersucker leisure suits from about 1975? Light blue and white, gray and white, beige and white? Men’s size medium, look as good as new. Pure Vintage! They were my father’s travel/RV suits for Mass because they’re impossible to wrinkle!

I'm going to have to pass on that offer, medium size wouldn't quite work for me.  Try 2XL.

The 80s look good because the 2020s are horrible.

I admit that I do like a lot of movies and music from the 60s, 70s and 80s, because that's what I grew up with, but it doesn't mean that they are good.

Sure, some things we like to remember, like some cars or some house appliance styles and colors, but if you look at these pieces of entertainment with a critical eye, you will see how much evil is there. Even in the 40s, with the "code" in force, Hollywood was pretty bad.

Katharine Hepburn was wearing pants to set the revolution in motion. And we are talking about the 1930s.

The movies are enjoyable? A lot of them are, I admit, but it does not mean that they are good. I do have bad taste and like bad things, but at least I know that they are bad.

Sure, some things we like to remember, like some cars or some house appliance styles and colors, but if you look at these pieces of entertainment with a critical eye, you will see how much evil is there. Even in the 40s, with the "code" in force, Hollywood was pretty bad.

Katharine Hepburn was wearing pants to set the revolution in motion. And we are talking about the 1930s.

Agreed. "Older" is not necessarily objectively good with regard to morality/substance in film, even if relatively better than modern stuff. Even the application of the Hays code/National Legion of Decency, however well intentioned,  could be surprisingly idiosyncratic. If I remember correctly, the censors would cry havoc over things like the use of certain firearm models in the old film noir films/pointing gun towards the camera, resulting in alteration of scenes, and yet countless examples of immodesty in varying degrees somehow slipped past them unscathed...

And a fair number of the 40's, 50's, and 60's US films, even if free from immodesty and immorality, are surprisingly saccharine, sappy,  and without real substance or serious ideas. They often create a superficial world with smiles all around but no real thought or formation.  There seems to be a disconnect from the real-world problems. And the ones that did try to tackle serious issues were often unpopular or seen as "negative" during their time.  Of course, when the censors were eliminated in the 70's, and the profanity/immodesty/immorality was ramped up, one problem was traded for another....

Maybe the 80's and 90's media holds a certain appeal to some because on one hand, certain examples are relatively much better than present filmaking (with less violation of natural law etc.), yet at the same time they lack the sappy/saccharine superficial elements of 40's-60's, and weren't afraid to show bad, gritty things for what they really were. In effect, maybe there was a certain inadvertent "truth-teller" element there.

the censors would cry havoc over things like the use of certain firearm models in the old film noir films/pointing gun towards the camera

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I've never heard of this. What models of firearms weren't allowed to be shown in movies??! For what possible reason?

I definitely agree with the rest of your post too. I kind of think the priests in charge just didn't have all the power they really needed, though, and that a lot of those things were negotiated or threatened under pain of Catholic boycott, but that there were certain things that they just couldn't get the Jews not to put into the movies, such as passionate kissing, which seems to happen a lot in those old movies, but which is gravely inducive to impurity.