What older movies made a good use of either side stepping special effects or have effects that somehow still hold up today? Why are they good movies?
Citizen Kane. A lot of clever and groundbreaking effects that most people don’t even realize are happening.
Once you see the pterodactyls, you can never unsee them.
It’s often hyped as groundbreaking, but that seriously misunderstands what they’re doing. Nothing in Kane is new, it’s Gregg Toland’s homage to the 3D films of the 1930s. Some of the best stuff people don’t even talk about now, like how almost every main character has prosthetics to make them resemble press figures of the time. It’s a satire.
Almost, if not everything, Stan Winston ever had a hand in making. Looking at the new Predator movie out just now, and its all CGI. But back in 87, Stan was creating something that looked so fucking real it was actually scary. Think back even further to 79, and what Carlo Rambaldi, among others, were doing with the “Alien”. Carlo focused on the head of the creature, and fucking hell, it holds up like fucking gangbusters. Carlo would go on to help bring ET to life as well.
Having less to worth with, made for some VERY smart people to create timeless works of art. Not only using clay, rubber and glue, but light and shadow as well. CGI has made modern Hollywood lazy, IMO. When was the last time a monster actually lived up to the hype once you saw it? I remember back in 2001, watching Jeepers Creepers and thinking it was the best horror movie in years. Then I got to the mid point and they revealed the monster and it… dropped off a fucking cliff.
Thinking back to Alien, and Carlo engineered the Alien’s head with over 900 moving parts, using a system of cables and hinges to create the lifelike jaw and inner mouth movements. This level of engineering gave the creature a physical presence that actors could react to in real time, rather than a fucking tennis ball and some guy shouting “Now imagine its a big Alien. Its mean looking, its got teeth and eyes, and you’re scared of it.”.
Only thing I can really think of that matches this level of detail, was the rings trilogy. And you can see the difference when you watch the hobbit. It just doesnt hit as hard because its CGI. And no matter how good CGI is, you can always tell and pulls you out of it a little.
The ridiculous, videogamesque barrel ride pulled me out of the Hobbit completely. I just couldn’t take the movies seriously after that.
You want old movies? How about Royal Wedding (1951). It has a scene where Fred Astaire dances on the walls and ceiling. There’s no cgi or special effects, it was just done with a simple camera trick.
Royal Wedding (1951)
Here’s the scene. When he sets the picture on the desk, they cut to a wide shot before the room starts spinning. Everything he touched had to be “nailed down”, including the cigarette, the hat and coats, the chair and the picture.
Modern movies need more random tap dance breaks.
Gattaca
Slightly related but I rewatched robots this past weekend and the animation held up quite nicely for being vintage now.
Lord of the Rings.
You can find some old Buster Keaton interviews on YouTube where he talks about the craft. Pretty good stuff.
Terminator, despite being a classic and massively popular movie of the time, is pretty bad by modern SFX & VFX standards.
The Thing (Jonh Carpenter) for a movie of the same era holds up impressivley well.The Terminator came out around when I was born and I finally got around to watching it tonight.
I have to give them props for trying with those full-body robot scenes but yeah, they’re rough.
The Princess Bride
The flames are real flames! The R.O.U.S. is a tiny guy in a suit! The giant is… Andre the Giant!
Yeah, the behind the scenes stuff for that movie is wild.
They had to keep reshooting the fire swamp scene, because Cary Elwes (Westley/Dread Pirate Roberts) kept panicking every time Robin Wright (Princess Buttercup) got lit on fire.
The R.O.U.S. scene had to be delayed, because they had to go bail the dude in the rat suit out of jail. He had apparently gotten too drunk the night before, and was in the drunk tank on the morning that they were supposed to shoot the R.O.U.S. scene.
Jaws.
The shark prop didn’t work well and looked terrible, which resulted in much of it being left out of the movie. The movie is more terrifying because of this.
The severed head rolling into view in the hole of the sunken boat still freaks me out. I think it was filmed in the back yard pool of one of the producers.
The shark has a name, it’s Bruce
A24 film, but they hide those aspects.
Just compare Gladiator vs Gladiator 2 to see how awful CGI is today vs what could be achieved using it modestly before.
Blade Runner (1982) still looks incredible. The miniatures and attention to detail in design effectively set the tone for subsequent cyberpunk.
Star wars, with models and miniatures.
Most great old movies, where cheesy effects were irrelevant next to the story.
Gravity Falls Little Gift Shop of Horrors, where the characters watch an ‘incredibly expensive’ stop motion scene that we (the audience) only see as reflected shadows.
Just gave the special editions a rewatch. The cgi inserted scenes have aged incredibly poorly, especially compared to the rest of the 1977 effects
The “Despecialized” editions are the best right now. I appreciate what Lucas wanted to do in the 90s but I wish he’d just left the originals alone.
I’ve really enjoyed 4K77.
And matte paintings. Never forget the legendary artists who turned paintings into scenery, or the camera workers who managed to blend in the actors to them.
- That first legendary pan-down to Tattooine, which the Tantive IV and Star Destroyer then fly past? Matte painting.
- The sterile hangars and seemingly-bottomless pits of the Death Star? Matte painting.
- The busy Rebel hangar on Yavin IV? Also a matte painting. I seem to remember reading that some of the hangar floor markings - besides making it look like an actual hangar - served to help align the matte with the set shots and coordinate extras so they wouldn’t accidentally walk out of the filmed segment and behind a matte portion.
The bottomless chasm in Bespin, matte painting.
Leia’s hair in the first one? Matte painting.
Don’t make me bust out the LART.
How about most of the storm troopers standing at attention for the arrival of Vader? Matte painting.
Gremlins. My brother and I were just discussing this because we heard that the new Gremlins movie will be using analog effects.
One of my favorite songs lol. And I wanna be at the rnc by the same gury, Nick lutsgo
That was a beautiful song, but what the fuck is a grimlin?
It’s grEmlin!
My favorite effect in gremlins is spoken word. Hear me out. The movies aren’t really scary and rely mostly on jump scare effects.
However the ‘Santa stuck in the chimney’ story is such a powerful, unexpected confrontation with a claus-trophobic (pun trademarked from now on) and disgusting gory event that it makes the whole movie feel so much darker as a kid.
Trough that scene the whole movie is elevated (in a horror genre perspective) from a funny sorry with jump-starts to something that sticks with you for way longer.
They’re making another one? And here I was thinking we were in the worst timeline. Second worst not so bad :3
We live in the timeline that all the other timelines use as a ridiculous example.
You’re telling me there’s a dimension for EVERY possibility?
Yup.
So there’s a timeline where Donald Trump becomes president?
Twice!
InnerSpace. I’ll die on hill that this movie deserves better.
Well that takes me back a spell. Great movie. I’d have to rewatch it to assess the effects but I remember them as awesome when I saw it as a kid.
