Last night, while writing my post for PulpRev for this week, I came across a gold mine of classic cinema: entire YouTube channels and playlists dedicated to putting up in their entirety classic films from the 30s and 40s. Many of these were Mr. Moto (also deserved classics), and (of course) the classic Sherlock Holmes films of Rathbone & Bruce.
Much like the playlists for Legend of the Galactic Heroes and other anime not licensed for commercial release in North America, these too tend to get banhammered from time to time; due to enduring popularity, they will inevitably return, so I'm not at all concerned about posting this one here.
So, why am I posting about this?
Folks, it's not just the glories of the Pulps we lost since World War II. Even if you're not a fan of the Hays Code, you can't help but to see that the movies of the past reflected an era of civilized behavior far superior to our own degraded culture today- and because these films still exist, we can compare ourselves to that past and see how much we've lost. Yes, even after accounting for the Funhouse Mirror Effect that popular media imposes upon us, this remains true.
As my professors would often say, "The past in a foreign country." and this is one of the reasons why. I won't get into the hows and whys behind the change--that's for Empires--but the fact remains that it is gone, willfully destroyed, and replaced with the venal mess of a non-culture we have today.
Look at what we've lost. We've got a long way to go to get it back.
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