What's Wrong With Today's Film

by John Kelso

John Kelso Film is my life.

I think the greatest invention known to man since the inception in 1888 is filmmaking. I just can't get over that a series of still photographs - first on paper rolls and later on rolls of film - have the magic of movement to the human eye.

I have studied film all my life and I have watched many thousands of features, shorts, cartoons, and trailers.

I believe as the late Lillian Gish did, that we must save our film of living history. The generations since 1888 are the only ones to have a living history of our world and most people don't care. Shame on these people! I believe that everybody in the world should help in some way in protecting our film history before we lose it!

I love the art of filmmaking and the many different types of films that have been made.

We have come a long way in filmmaking with advances such as color film, sound, effects, cameras, the home video market, etc. But people have forgotten about the storyline. Most of the movies today are made for teenagers and not for adults. Filmmakers seem to believe in getting the picture in and out of the movie theaters so fast - before anybody knows they are rotten and no good.

The original film makers didn't like censorship. They wanted to show more of life without being obscene or having scenes with improper actions or suggestions. There are ways of showing on the screen more of life, without shoving and rubbing people's noses into the filth and obscene material that a lot of today's filmmakers think people want to see.

There have always been swear words in the movies since the silents. Lip-readers knew what the actors were really saying - at times when the interpretive cards were saying something else. Our knowledge of filthy words today came from a lot of foreign films from the 1930's through 1960's. These films contained the use of lots four letters words, printed out for all to see in the form of English subtitles. This happened a lot with French and Russian films of the 1950's and 1960's.

I don't mind certain kinds of swear words being used if it advances the plot of the film. But I do mind the words B___, F___, M___F___, and others being thrown out from the screen like a machine gun blast.

I think filmmakers ought to go back to the basics of filmmaking and find the magic again of films that we have lost. Let's get back to the old and best ways when everybody could go to the movies without worrying.

I hope we get back to the basics of filmmaking soon before they are gone forever.