You've probably all noticed this in your own lives, but a lot of art just doesn't hold up over time. By "art", I mean film, TV, books, and music although mime is probably also subject to this principle.
I remember when Star Wars first came out. I was ten years old at the time, and movie theaters across the country had endless lines. It seems incredible now because there are so many multiplexes everywhere, but you simply couldn't see Star Wars if you wanted to without standing in a crazy long line. Every showing was sold out - the country was gripped by Star Wars mania. President Carter addressed the nation wearing that Jedi-like sweater he always wore to try to calm our jangled nerves. Of course, I was ten and was dying to see it in the way that only a ten-year-old can, so perhaps that's just what my mom was telling me to shut me up. But...boy do I digress - the point is: When I finally did see it, I loved it! It was the best movie ever! Everyone loved it, except of course for that bitch Pauline Kael - what was her problem, anyway?
Many years later, I saw the movie again when it was re-released in 1997. I took my wife (then girlfriend) to see it, since SHE HAD NEVER SEEN IT. You read that right. but that's a topic for another day. I probably talked it up too much and so got that funny feeling you get when you badger someone into seeing a movie after rhapsodizing about it and then worry that they won't actually like it and you monitor their reactions to every key cinematic moment, but you try to seem like you're not monitoring their every movement - and, and ... it starts to feel like some kind of life-test of your taste, intellect, and judgment that you're failing because it's not living up to the high praise that you heaped upon it repeatedly. That feeling. She fell asleep during it, but I didn't and it was actually kind of terrible. I discovered that Pauline was right: Star Wars is a terrible movie, unless you're ten years old. I'm sorry if you love that movie, but you must face facts.
A lot of films and books have this quality: when they're new and novel either to a person or a culture, they seem great - but instead of aging like a fine wine, they age like a tuna melt. I think this is especially true with children, who are experiencing so many things for the first time. Movies that are incredibly profound and exciting become sophomoric and ridiculous when viewed through the jaded lens of experience. I also think this is why, when asked to list my favorite books, movies, albums of all time, I tend to retreat to some of the first truly great ones I experienced. Has anyone else eagerly approached an old "classic" only to discover a painfully bad impostor in its place?
