You Get the Popcorn, I'll Get the Seats

CNN is running a new six-part series every Sunday featuring movies from the Golden Age onward;  Tom Hanks is one of the producers.  As someone who loves movies, I took a look but then gave up in despair. I thought they would select a few outstanding movies from the different eras and perform in-depth examinations of the film and its stars.  I was looking for nostalgia on steroids. That's not what this treatment is about and, to be fair, I think it is well done for what they are doing.

The CNN presentation is a sociological exercise showing how the movies of particular decades reflect the culture of those times.  So you have a scene or two from a movie with voice-over comments and then a cut to another movie and the continuing theme of that era. And it is loaded with commercial breaks (eight minutes of entertainment,  five minutes of ads).

I would view scenes from a movie such as Chicago and then, SLASH, it was gone and scenes from another movie appears. And on and on.  It was like those annoying informercials that come on in the cheap time-buys for people selling music from the past: Country Western, The Fifties, The Sixties, and on and on by decades. Listen to "Autumn Leaves" by Nat King Cole:  "The falling leaves, drift by the window, the autumn leaves of red and gold." SLASH "I wonder who's kissing her now" Hey, damn it,  I'm singing here...go back and pick it up, "I see your lips, the summer kisses, the sun-burned hands I used to hold. Since you went away, the days grow long, and soon I'll hear old winter's song..."  I'm not buying your freaking music because you cut me off from Autumn Leaves.

Same with the movies.  I would have wanted a "60 Minutes" format with 15 minutes segments devoted to great movies.   Important scenes could be shown with appropriate comments as you remember the magic of the film and its stars.  For the truly great films you could focus a half hour,  such as Godfather I & II.  But Tom Hanks never called to ask my opinion.

I will digress to tell you I believe the Godfather I & II combined to be the greatest movie ever made.  The writing, the casting (every character dead on), the location shooting, the theme music, (la da da da da da da da, da, da, oh, my).  If you don't agree with me on this it doesn't mean your judgment is suspect or you're a bad person; just don't ask me to go to the movies with you.