Are we ever going to see the brilliant cinematography of the 80s again?

[RadioRaheem84]

Most of the movies in the 80s had brilliant cinematography!

Blade Runner, Manhunter, The Bounty, The Road Warrior, Aliens, The Year of Living Dangerously, Year of the Dragon with Mickey Rourke. These movies were stunning visual pleasures. They didn't speed up the scene for the audience and take flash shots of the cityscape. They actually showed the depth of each scene like each frame was a piece of art.

Sometimes even the synthesized 80's soundtrack was a good combination with the visuals. They need to bring a bit of this back. I think Michael Mann and Ridley Scott are the only two directors that still bring us these types of visual films yet they've also fallen into the the whole speeding up the scene thing too.

[The Author]

I agree, both on cinematography in the 80s, and I'd like to throw in the 70s too because in terms of film that was a good decade too in my opinion. You could keep up with the action, unlike the fast-paced schizophrenic epilepsy that constitutes action scenes that came into the fore starting with at least "Saving Private Ryan." The movie "300" captured some of the slow-motion speed effects which I liked, and the television series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" seems to be following in the same direction with slow-motion action instead of fast-pacing. Although, in the case of "Spartacus" some of the execution comes out a little too slow- but then maybe that's because I've been too spoiled by the quick pacing of action films from the late 90s and especially the 00s. I don't know, but if action flicks executed their fighting and shooting sequences in slow motion like the films mentioned above, I'd enjoy watching it. It just depends on execution, and on the quality of plot.

[pierrotlefou]

I agree, both on cinematography in the 80s, and I'd like to throw in the 70s too because in terms of film that was a good decade too in my opinion. You could keep up with the action, unlike the fast-paced schizophrenic epilepsy that constitutes action scenes that came into the fore starting with at least "Saving Private Ryan." The movie "300" captured some of the slow-motion speed effects which I liked, and the television series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" seems to be following in the same direction with slow-motion action instead of fast-pacing. Although, in the case of "Spartacus" some of the execution comes out a little too slow- but then maybe that's because I've been too spoiled by the quick pacing of action films from the late 90s and especially the 00s. I don't know, but if action flicks executed their fighting and shooting sequences in slow motion like the films mentioned above, I'd enjoy watching it. It just depends on execution, and on the quality of plot.
I'm glad quality of plot is in bold. That seems to be missing from a lot of modern films.

[x359594]

Most of the movies in the 80s had brilliant cinematography!...They actually showed the depth of each scene like each frame was a piece of art...

Most of the movies of the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s had brilliant cinematography too: Docks of New York, Sunrise, Street Angel, Tabu, Scarface, M, Pepe Le Moko, Partie de campagne, Morocco, The Scarlet Empress, The Informer, Mystery of the Wax Museum, Stagecoach, Gion no shimai, Genroku chushingura, Citizen Kane, The Letter, Notorious, Shadow of a Doubt, Macbeth, They Live by Night, Rope, Under Capricorn, Duel in the Sun, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Ugetsu Monogatari, Touch of Evil, Vertigo, Crime Wave, Yojimbo, The Apartment, Contempt, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Cries and Whispers, Days of Heaven, The Wild Bunch, The Godfather, etc., etc., etc.

It seems to me that the real change in standards occurred when high def videography replaced film as the preferred medium of the film industry within the last 10 years or so. Still, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese directors are continuing to shoot in film rather than video, as do many (but not all) European film makers.

[Glenn Beck]

It's a good thing we have auteurs like James Cameron to buck this trend.

[RadioRaheem84]

Yes, a perfect movie would have the cinematography and cool synth soundtrack of the 80s. The political message and realism of the 70s. And the noir-ish mystery plot of the early age of cinema; 20s, 30s, 40s.

History:

Hitchcock and Orson Welles had excellent cinematography They're classics. But to me the 80s stick out so much because it combined cinematography with a synth soundtrack that brought together old and new. The Bounty with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins was brilliant with the soundtrack by Vangelis.

The 70s were the best for gritty realism and a huge turn in cinema that showed a darkside to the streets without that Hollywood studio grittyness that pervaded films in the 50s and 60s. The Godfather has some of the best cinematagraphy, music, costume design, editing and screenplay I have ever seen in a film, only matched by GF2.

The early 90s was a goofy time for a string of movies. Popular music was the norm for any soundtrack. And does anyone remember that credits were sometimes animated dancing letters in most comedies? :lol: The summer of 95 brought about the era of the summer blockbusters! You couldn't make a summer movie unless it was predicted to break the 200 million dollar mark in a month. It was all down hill there and people had to watch indie films to get anything remotley cerebral out of a film.