Logo

The Independent

How Good Is TV These Days … and How Bad Are the Movies? Dustin Hoffman Offers His Opinion

Jul 6, 2015  •  Post A Comment

Seven-time Oscar nominee Dustin Hoffman sounded off about how bad the movies are — and how good TV is these days — in an interview with the U.K. publication The Independent.

The actor, who won Academy Awards for “Kramer vs. Kramer” in 1980 and “Rain Man” in 1989, indicated that movies and television have gone in opposite directions.

“I think right now television is the best that it’s ever been and I think that it’s the worst that film has ever been — in the 50 years that I’ve been doing it, it’s the worst,” Hoffman told the publication.

Hoffman appeared to blame financial pressures for the demise of film quality. The report notes that most movies are now made in about 20 days.

The Independent adds: “Part of the reason is that digital technology enables filmmakers to shoot more scenes in a day than they used to, but mostly it’s to do with the downsizing of budgets as more and more films get made. The films that have been squeezed the most by this development have been the quality dramas, a genre that has a habit of calling on Hoffman’s inimitable services.”

Adds Hoffman: “It’s hard to believe you can do good work for the little amount of money these days. We did ‘The Graduate’ and that film still sustains. It had a wonderful script that they spent three years on, and an exceptional director with an exceptional cast and crew, but it was a small movie, four walls and actors, and yet it was 100 days of shooting.”

the graduate-poster

2 Comments

  1. I think everyone agrees. If you want to see explosions, car chases, and special effects; go see a movie. If you want to experience great drama, comedy, dialog, and acting; watch TV. That said, of course there are still some wonderful movies being made and some abysmal TV shows. Movies should have the advantage since they have a defined beginning and end; obviously better for telling a story. TV shows can suffer from sudden decisions to quit or with continual renewals and the need to “s-t-r-e-t-c-h” the concept.

  2. Chuck and Dustin are correct. Since television went to the shorter 10-14 episode season, they can bring in more drama and story telling that a movie can’t fit into 2 hours. This is why you are even seeing the networks adding more of these shorter series instead of overstretching the season.

Your Comment

Email (will not be published)