Support NeoGAF

[Men_in_Boxes]

I'm watching an old John Wayne movie called Big Jake yesterday. In this movie, John Wayne plays a grandfather who teams up with his two sons to save his grandchild from a band of outlaws.

The whole movie is John Wayne showing up the younger generation. He's tougher than them. He's smarter than them. He demands their respect at every turn. Essentially, everyone under the age of 40 is an imbecile in it.

It was really striking how this movie would never get made today. But why?

Big Jake released in 1971. The way Big Jake makes most of its money is through ticket sales. Who's buying tickets in 1971? Men taking their families to the movie theater. 6 tickets is a nice chunk of change at the time and fathers are more likely to buy 6 tickets if the message in the movie is "respect your elders".

Today, families subscribe to 7 different streaming services and everyone in the house watches their own content. The younger generation is the most lucrative demo to go after so modern media caters to them. That means we get a bunch of 16 year old protagonists surrounded by older imbeciles.

Now is this an original thought or have people known about this for some time?

Btw, the first 8 minutes of Big Jake is f***ing awesome. The final 94 minutes was pretty meh. Overall, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Kilau]

Overall, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

You liked Big Jake? Lol, my apologies. It did get a solid RT and IMDB score.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

No, you didn't figure anything out. If you had figured anything out, you'd hopefully be the one making money on it.

 

[SJRB]

Who the fuck is Men_In_Boxes?

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Your thought isn't even accurate, but also people have known about this forever, and with 'this' I mean that all fiction is a product of its time, like how hollywood used to be filled with stories/scenes that revolved around illegal weed possession and getting busted over the tiniest fucking joint, but now that the legality around that has changed, so have the stories/scenes.

 

[Sonik]

Who the fuck is Men_In_Boxes?

It's the guy that probably doesn't have original thoughts

 

[Big Baller]

Big Yikes

 

[Kilau]

You liked Big Jake? Lol, my apologies. It did get a solid RT and IMDB score.

Never seen it.

 

[Kenpachii]

Cowboy movies where basically the marvel movies from that time period.

 

[BlackTron]

Yes it's original. No one has been this wrong before

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I envisioned this thread going differently.

People, you need to be more open to exchange. Come out of the darkness already.

 

[Wildebeest]

I don't think that John Wayne could make a film today.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Who the fuck is Men_In_Boxes?

Some dude who wants John Wayne in Fortnite.

 

[Meicyn]

Um, Top Gun Maverick is a movie where an older veteran pilot schools a bunch of cocky young hotshots who think they’re hot shit. Everything Everywhere All At Once features protagonists depicted in their 40s/50s. John Wick Chapter 4 wasn’t exactly young adult film material in the spirit of stuff like Hunger Games or Twilight. Nor Oppenheimer for that matter.

16 year olds are not the primary target audience for most films because they don’t have cash. You know what demographic has a lot of disposable income? Folks in their late 30s and beyond. It’s why you see so many remakes of properties from the 80s and 90s, stuff that these folks grew up with in an effort to cash in on childhood nostalgia. That’s why there’s another He-Man on Netflix, for better or worse.

 

[March Climber]

Um, Top Gun Maverick is a movie where an older veteran pilot schools a bunch of cocky young hotshots who think they’re hot shit. Everything Everywhere All At Once features protagonists depicted in their 40s/50s. John Wick Chapter 4 wasn’t exactly young adult film material in the spirit of stuff like Hunger Games or Twilight. Nor Oppenheimer for that matter.

16 year olds are not the primary target audience for most films because they don’t have cash. You know what demographic has a lot of disposable income? Folks in their late 30s and beyond. It’s why you see so many remakes of properties from the 80s and 90s, stuff that these folks grew up with in an effort to cash in on childhood nostalgia. That’s why there’s another He-Man on Netflix, for better or worse.

While true in a sense, I feel like we still have fresh minds who are given a budget from time to time to make forward-thinking films. I remember seeing the stark difference in how movies shifted once a movie like The Matrix came out.

 

[AJUMP23]

I take my kids to the theater. Cost like 80 bucks.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Meicyn put me in a body bag.

 

[ReBurn]

You're just used to a world where most media is aimed at making grown men look like incapable, bumbling fools.

 

[Meicyn]

Meicyn put me in a body bag.

If it’s any consolation, you got me to look at Fortnite, even won a battle royale match the other day. Pretty sure the first five folks I killed were bots though based on how dumb they played. Maybe all of them were.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

If it’s any consolation, you got me to look at Fortnite, even won a battle royale match the other day. Pretty sure the first five folks I killed were bots though based on how dumb they played. Maybe all of them were.

I have to renegotiate my contract with Epic Games. I deserve slightly more than the 0 money I'm currently getting.

I will say, I think if you did a study, you'd see significantly more movies + TV shows where the older male protagonist is the hero compared to today. I don't think kids + women were as prized back then.

I limped out of the body bag you put me in covered in my own vomit.

 

[FunkMiller]

I hate to break it to you, but the younger generation has always been the main target demographic.

 

[Husky]

I dunno if your findings are accurate, but I like the thought and I'll give it further consideration as I continue engaging with film.
Gen Z characters in movies are just unbearable (to me, stuck in the 2000s). Totally ruined that Scream soft reboot. I wish Talk to Me was made at least a decade ago.

 

[LordCBH]

I will not hear anything against a John Wayne flick.

 

[KingHippo1967]

It doesn't surprise me that someone who refers to themselves in third-person – and assumes that putting their name in a thread title is enough of a draw to get people to read it – has enough self-importance to believe that their take on a 53-year-old movie, which essentially boils down to "adults buy movie tickets but TV is watched by all ages", is somehow the first time anyone has ever thought of it.

I know everyone thinks they're the star of their own movie, but this isn't even one that fathers would take their families to see.

 

[Artoris]

I don't think that John Wayne could make a film today.

He could be an extra in a horror film.

 

[AJUMP23]

I appreciate the incite when people make threads about themselves. Men_in_Boxes created some fun content and I appreciate it.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I hate to break it to you, but the younger generation has always been the main target demographic.

The only constant is change.

 

[Mossybrew]

OP as your Elder from here on out I'm going to demand your respect and deference as befits my station. In fact please refer to me as "Big Jake" going forward.