I liked movies better when they had a point, like this one, and others of the age

There are so many great old movies that inspire and bring people closer with respect to American culture ... or what it could be or should be moving towards.

Always having lessons, almost like religious parables, they were entertaining and reinforced our values.

Today ... whatever we are reinforcing seems to have brought us to the brink of catastrophe and stupidity. So many movies put the criminal or lawbreaker on a pedestal and ridicule the moral solid citizen. I used to smile at this point of view back in the 80's which was at that time espoused by mostly religious folks and how they complained about immoral Hollywood. I could see their point, but I thought they were too fearful and unrealistic.

Today I am not so sure and I think a lot of the problems we see with society and the inability for people to get along stem from the ubiquity of video and cinematic images and memes that people take to heart because they do not have enough reality in their lives.