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Raiders: Ford forgotten (1 Viewer)

ABritch

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My 17 year old Son grade 12 English class has a short quiz every Friday with Random questions. One question last Friday was “who portrayed Indiana Jones?”

Not one single student, including my kid, knew the answer? Close to all the students hadn’t seen any of the films.

I was shocked, flabbergasted!

Is Raiders so old now that it no longer appeals to the under 30 crowd?
 

Malcolm R

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Forget about Raiders, Crystal Skull was just over 10 years ago which shows how many young people watched/cared. Further evidence, IMO, that demonstrates the franchise is due for a refresh with a new actor in the role in order to make it relevant to modern audiences. This devotion to Ford, and only Ford, is silly.
 

ABritch

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Forget about Raiders, Crystal Skull was just over 10 years ago which shows how many young people watched/cared. Further evidence, IMO, that demonstrates the franchise is due for a refresh with a new actor in the role in order to make it relevant to modern audiences. This devotion to Ford, and only Ford, is silly.

For me Ford is Indy, but that’s more nostalgia. The largest demographic of Filmgoers is 18-25 so casting someone younger in a similar series related to Indiana Jones might work.

But, at the same time the Saturday afternoon cliffhanger serials of Spielberg/Lucas’s childhood from the 1940’s-1950’s are not relatable to a modern young audience. I just don't think the style would work the same way now.

When Indy 5 comes out in 2-3 years Ford will be 79-81 years old, which will be totally unbelievable. I think you’ll see Ford in a smaller role and his Son take over with whomever they cast. Someone in the 35-40 age range, not a kid.
Also, setting the adventures in the 1960’s-1970’s would make sense for that age.
 

richardburton84

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That’s just sad. That’s all I can say about the class (for the record, I don’t wish to offend).

Like a good number of people, I grew up with the original films so Ford as Indy is pretty much ingrained into my mind, though it will be interesting to see what LucasFilm does when Ford decides he’s through playing the role.
 

David Weicker

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Did your son know?

I’ve watched these with my sons, so they would have answered correctly.

Don’t blame the kids
 

Worth

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Well, I don't have children, but my friends' kids have little to no interest in movies period, let alone older ones. They just watch YouTube and Instagram videos.
 

TravisR

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It's no different than it was in the past. Raiders Of The Lost Ark is 38 years old and I love it but it's "old" and not many kids care about older movies. I was a kid in the 1980's and very few young people watched movies made in the late 40's or early 50's then (in high school, I knew two other big movie fans and even their knowledge of 40's/50's movies went no further than Citizen Kane and Casablanca). Just like kids in the 50's didn't watch silent pictures. Same as it ever was.
 
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TJPC

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Kids are mostly plugged into today of course. I used to play CDs as background as my class worked when I taught highschool. I was astonished to find - 10 years ago at that - some students who had never heard The Beatles!

When I was highschool age my father and I got in an argument because I said I didn’t know who “Kay Kaiser” was.
 

Johnny Angell

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But, at the same time the Saturday afternoon cliffhanger serials of Spielberg/Lucas’s childhood from the 1940’s-1950’s are not relatable to a modern young audience. I just don't think the style would work the same way now.
I disagree. Make another Indy style move and do it well, and they will come. Quality never goes out of style.
 

Nick*Z

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The argument that today's millennial is plugged into only what's out there today is a bunch of hooey. If there's ever been a generation with more opportunity to be exposed to more stuff - it's this one. Alas, it is the internet age that has gradually dumbed down today's youth so that they know absolutely nothing beyond their own navel-gazing fascination within their own small scope of knowledge.

Pathetic!

When I was a kid there was no internet. If you wanted to find something out, you went to the library. There were only 3 TV networks - not counting UHF. So, realistically, I should have been very cut off from the past. Instead, I somehow found ways to embrace it.

I knew who Bing Crosby, Kay Kaiser and Harry James were - among many others - because there stuff was still being shown on late night TV or Saturday afternoon as filler in the 'dead' hours.

The internet was supposed to expand our scope of knowledge. Actually, all it has done is to compartmentalize our interests. So, those with limited interests can stay comfortably ensconced in only their comfort areas and never face the reality that life began long before theirs did, and that what came before them was of infinitely more interest to the world we live in now, than 'the now' being peddled to them as 'everything' today.

I despise the disposable nature of today's pop culture. But I will concur with David Weicker here; it's adults that know this stuff who need to be more persistent in exposing the younger generation to this stuff, since today's pop culture seems hell-bent on making us more stupid by their clever design. We owe it to the younger generation to remind them of the past - celebrate it. Cherish it. Love it. Remember it. It's worth remembering. Oh, bother...now I forgot what I was going to add!
 
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Sam Posten

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When I was a kid there was not internet.

What you are reaaaaally failing to take into account is that the story has significantly changed. The limiting factor is no longer access. It's time to spend on any media. The competition isn't 3 channels now, it's 500 channels, unlimited streaming services, unlimited music streaming, youtube, video games, comic books, books, and well, porn.

If you want to expose people to content you enjoy, make a blog or podcast and guide them to it. They aren't going to find it on their own. Studio executives are not going to think they have struck gold re-releasing 'classics' from your childhood, there just isn't any profit in it.
 

TravisR

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The argument that today's millennial is plugged into only what's out there today is a bunch of hooey. If there's ever been a generation with more opportunity to be exposed to more stuff - it's this one.
It's certainly true that they have more access than anyone before them but that doesn't mean that they automatically have an interest in something. They're just like the generations that came before them, they do not care about the past.
 

RobertR

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I remember a post on HTF from a guy who said he didn't know who Stalin was. That said a great deal to me about the awareness of the past in today's youth.
 

TJPC

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I was born in 1951. We had 4 television stations in the Windsor/Detroit area and everyone’s TV was black and white.

The networks only broadcast from about 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. (There were Games and Soaps during the day). All other time was filled in by old movies and a bit later re-runs of “I Love Lucy” and “The Honeymooners”.

Because everything was black and white, it was not readily evident to new TV watchers what was new and what was not. We changed channels until something grabbed us, and at least one channel often had old movies with Bette Davis etc. At night if you didn’t like Carson, you watched an old movie. We got to know all the classic stars, and lesser lights like The 3 Stooges etc.

It wasn’t as portable as the internet, but we were glued to the screen. Because of the way things were programmed we were exposed to most of classic Hollywood and accidentally absorbed it.
 

Nick*Z

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It's certainly true that they have more access than anyone before them but that doesn't mean that they automatically have an interest in something. They're just like the generations that came before them, they do not care about the past.

Oh, with all due respect - whole-heartedly disagree. Prior generations to this one had a ton of interest in what came before them, partly via being taught things in history class, partly from the proliferation of 'old stuff' on the boob tube, and partly, because when we were assigned to do 'research' it required legwork and a trip to the library, exposing us to far more fact-based and scholarly information. The internet has shortened everyone's attention span - period. Those who came to it after decades of doing things the ole-fashioned and aforementioned way found it a useful tool to expedite their research. But those who have only been weaned on it are having their selective thought processes systematically destroyed.

It took effort to find things out before the internet was a daily part of all our lives and that was very much part of the 'interest' as it stirred the mind. The internet has merely turned it to mush for a lot of younger folk. The proof is in your statement - the 'interest' isn't there. That's sad. Very sad!
 

Malcolm R

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At night if you didn’t like Carson, you watched an old movie. We got to know all the classic stars, and lesser lights like The 3 Stooges etc.
It probably doesn't help that a lot of local time is now filled with infomercials, rather than movies or syndicated shows/reruns.
 

Nick*Z

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What you are reaaaaally failing to take into account is that the story has significantly changed. The limiting factor is no longer access. It's time to spend on any media. The competition isn't 3 channels now, it's 500 channels, unlimited streaming services, unlimited music streaming, youtube, video games, comic books, books, and well, porn.

If you want to expose people to content you enjoy, make a blog or podcast and guide them to it. They aren't going to find it on their own. Studio executives are not going to think they have struck gold re-releasing 'classics' from your childhood, there just isn't any profit in it.

With all due respect, what you are reaaaaaally failing to take into account is that the systematic dumbing down of a generation - and those yet to follow it - is leading to a deficit - not only of history, but of basic knowledge and understanding; the navel-gazing having taken over because of the sheer laziness of today's generation to look beyond what's directly in front of them. When not even Jeopardy contestants - supposedly the scholarly brood of our current generation, cannot even identify still images of Jean Harlow and Marlon Brando, we've truly reached a level of collective amnesia in modern society that does not speak well for its future proliferation.

Because it isn't just the fact they can't identify famous people that is concerning. It's what else just isn't on their radar that ought to be if they are to be considered higher functioning and well rounded individuals who can carry on an intelligent conversation beyond where they went to dinner last night, or what Taylor Swift was wearing at next year's music awards show. We've become an incredibly superficial society - very surface sheen with zero substance underneath. That's sad. If you can't see that, I really don't know what to tell you.

What helped before was that older content was still being peddled on the networks. Today, it's relegated to specialty channels. Those with 'interest' seek them out. Those without, just assume their time would be better spent on 2 minute YouTube videos.

Addressing a few things: your comment about video games, comic books, books, music and - porn - don't really apply as all of these alternative modes of entertainment were readily available when I was a kid. The point is, they were 'alternatives' and not the way one consumed every last waking moment to the detriment of any and all other content out there.

When I was young I read comics - Superman, Batman, The Fantastic Four, Archie and Jughead; I played video games - Pac-man, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Q-Bert, etc.; I read books, loved Fitzgerald, Tennyson, and Frank Norris among my favorites. I also watched television - a lot of it: everything from Walt Disney's Wonderful World to Murder She Wrote, the Abbott and Costello Sunday Morning Movie, Blondie and Dagwood, Bill Kennedy at the Movies, the Saturday Afternoon Creature Feature, St. Elsewhere, Dynasty, etc. I just sucked it all up. The point is, I compartmentalized my time. Time for comics, time for TV, time for video games. Today's generation has become rather fanatical in their consumption of one form of entertainment at the expense of neglecting all others. So, comic book readers are only reading comic books. Video gamers are only gaming. Etc. Et al. Reflecting on my own evolution, I think moderation was definitely key. That's sorely lacking today.

Your comment about 'if I really want to expose people to content I should make a blog' is also moot as I already have one dedicated to the great movies and TV shows I love. It receives approximately, or rather, on average, 20,000 clicks a day. You should visit it.
 
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