In honor of famed director Sidney Lumet, who died yesterday, I watched Twelve Angry Men. (Background information is available at imdb.com .) How long do you think it will be before movies like that are made again? It must be the most interesting lowest budget movie I've ever seen. "Low budget" is putting it mildly. How much did it cost to put twelve guys in the jury room and let them talk to each other? Intelligent dialogue between adults -- how boring and out-of-date can you get!
If you want to give your imagination some exercise, try to put yourself in the shoes of a 16-year-old who encounters Twelve Angry Men today, by mistake no doubt. The poor lad must be bored out of his mind by a movie with no action, no bedroom scenes, no special effects, and no graphic and gratuitous violence. If he were capable of making it through the movie, he must think that people "back then" were ridiculously easy to amuse since, like, you know, they had a lower standard of living, and didn't have anything high-tech in their lives.
Here is something even harder to believe. I've actually heard customers and financial analysts wonder why Netflix didn't go out of business since it only costs a buck to rent a movie from the Redbox vending machine. Our culture being what it is, why don't they put Redbox machines in the drive-throughs of fast food joints. The driver could be thumbing away at his iPhone Redbox/McDonalds app, selecting fat-soaked junk food and special-effect-laden B movies with virtually the same keystrokes. It would save time and be so convenient, assuming the driver doesn't crash his 1 ton dualie diesel pickup into the side of the building. Somebody is probably working on it, right now. But don't get your hopes up waiting for a movie from Sidney Lumet at such a place.
If you want to give your imagination some exercise, try to put yourself in the shoes of a 16-year-old who encounters Twelve Angry Men today, by mistake no doubt. The poor lad must be bored out of his mind by a movie with no action, no bedroom scenes, no special effects, and no graphic and gratuitous violence. If he were capable of making it through the movie, he must think that people "back then" were ridiculously easy to amuse since, like, you know, they had a lower standard of living, and didn't have anything high-tech in their lives.
Here is something even harder to believe. I've actually heard customers and financial analysts wonder why Netflix didn't go out of business since it only costs a buck to rent a movie from the Redbox vending machine. Our culture being what it is, why don't they put Redbox machines in the drive-throughs of fast food joints. The driver could be thumbing away at his iPhone Redbox/McDonalds app, selecting fat-soaked junk food and special-effect-laden B movies with virtually the same keystrokes. It would save time and be so convenient, assuming the driver doesn't crash his 1 ton dualie diesel pickup into the side of the building. Somebody is probably working on it, right now. But don't get your hopes up waiting for a movie from Sidney Lumet at such a place.
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