What movies did people look up to during the 80s/90s?
You know how, today, we take inspiration or look up to “classic” films like The Godfather and The Shawshank Redemption? Well, what did people in the 80s/90s look up to? 70s movies? Black and white movies? What were seen as classics back then?
And before then would have been movies like The Searchers, and before that, stuff like It's a Wonderful life. The golden age of cinema was loooong before the 90's. Heh.
Yes, in the 90s all we had were silent black and white movies. The sight of a train barreling down the tracks at us in the theater was a confusing and terrifying experience.
Let me throw 12 Angry Men on the pile. I've rarely (maybe never) been so astonished at..., whatever that movie is. Grabs you by the short and curlies, won't let go. And the premise could hardly sound more boring.
I can’t help you because I was too busy finding good stuff of the the 80s in VHS.
Old movies were not "boring" or more "classic" but it was as hard to find as regular movies, so there was no point focusing on a specific decade. And since it was difficult to find for most people around me, we were looking for 80s movies.
Also you had to live next to a friend who had a good collection of movies. In most countries it was difficult.
I don’t know if I make myself clear, but if you had the choice between the new Spiderman and the Godfather to please your whole family, which one would you choose?
Not to speak for OP (I'm going to speak for OP) but I think the question is not "were there good movies before $CURRENT_YEAR" but rather: how much time needs to pass before a movie is recognized as a classic, and has that amount of time remained static?