Amazon Prime Video has started putting new dates on many older movies, thus tricking me into watching some old stuff. What I find most interesting is how quickly the discrepancy is discovered, usually in the first 2 minutes as the intro rolls.
The first clue is the font, colors, and scrolling of the title and actor names. Then the background music seems kind of dated. Then the audio and video quality is another give away. As many old films go on, weakness in editing and directing become more apparent. I find it curious on how we have become so accustomed to "newer" technology and style, that the old stuff looks bad.
My most recent example was a movie titled "The Silver Brumby." It was tagged on Amazon as 2017, but it's actually from 1993. A few minutes in and a young, 30 year old Russell Crowe shows up. Now, a lot of the old stuff is pretty good. Better than a lot of new stuff. But that's because the story line and acting are strong, and overcome the technical weakness. That also points out how many new movies try to overcome poor plots and weak acting with technical wizardry and powerful sound tracks.
I think I prefer the former over the latter.
