Their impacts go beyond their generation by having shifted the world in some way.

> music, movies and arts will outlive us.

Will they? Who watches old movies?

I just watched Some Like It Hot (1959) a few weeks ago. Great comedy, looks phenomenal in 4K

I watch old ones, too, but always by myself. Nobody else wants to. It's always "eww, black and white!"

Often they're right. They'd be much more watchable with an AI that could sharpen the picture and colorize it.

Watched it with the family! Was a hit

Hard disagree on the colorization bit. I don’t see how color would improve some thing like Psycho or Citizen Kane

Nice!

I think it'd take more than picture quality to make classic films accessible. Acting styles and pacing especially have changed a ton since the b&w era. It's not to say they're not good, but they're a bit of an acquired taste.

A kid in this house has started an appreciation for the original Twilight Zone, and enjoyed Casablanca before that. Gotta start early I guess. TV is scarce in this house, which promotes reading and feeling lucky to see a great movie, no matter the era.

I don’t know. Sometimes poor contrast black and white film does really well for the atmosphere/vibe/whatever the hell you want to call it.

"Sometimes" is the right word. Usually, it's just inferior. B+W was used for artistic purposes only rarely, the rest of the time it was because it was cheap and easy.

Peter Parker for one. > Hey guys, you ever see that really old movie, The Empire Strikes Back

As a kid I watched many films from my parent's generation. Mary Poppins (1964) or Great Escape (1963) come to mind as being staples every christmas -- Great Escape on boxing day especially

A generation before that people watched "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) for much the same reason.

I've subjected my kids to a few old films from well before they were born, but they were films from my youth -- Bill and Ted, Back to the Future, Men in Black, Muppet Christmas Carol etc. And yes they've seen Star Wars, which was from before I was born (just), but that's an ongoing franchise.

I don't see them watching films from the 1960s like I did though, and I doubt they'll make their kids sit through films from the 90s.

> A generation before that people watched "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) for much the same reason.

Some of us still watch it!

Of course the vast majority of old movies are long forgotten (and no great loss), just as the vast majority of what we're producing today will be. But there are a minority of classics that endure. Just as there's still a market for Shakespeare, Dickens, and Mozart, despite all the plays, books and music that have been written since.