I wonder if we are slowly losing our imaginations. Together with S.W.M.B.O., I went to the movies yesterday and as usual we saw a number of trailers for upcoming films. Many of them were extremely gory and unpleasant. In fact none of them appealed to the two of us at all. It made me wonder, not for the first time, if people, and especially young people, are losing their ability to conjure up ideas and thoughts.
If everything is so graphically displayed then there is little need to imagine anything. It so happened that later on that evening one of my most favorite films came on TV. The Third Man with Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton. There was a scene where a well matured man entered a hotel with a much younger woman. Later on the same couple were portrayed coming down the main stairs. The situation was pretty obvious, but I wonder if the youth of today would have caught the inference without explicit bedroom scenes. As the man was played by Wilfred Hyde White, I think we should be grateful for the omission.
Perhaps that is why so many films need over two hours to get their points across - The Third Man took just 104 minutes and will always remain a gem. It was in black and white too
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