Something very strange happened in the nineties. Genre movies got pushed to the boundaries of creativity and cleverness, over and over again, in such a way that has never been done either before or since. It was as if there was something in the water that elevated nearly all films, taking each of them to the highest level of achievement.
To give some examples right off the bat, Scorcese was making his best movies that decade (Goodfellas and Casino,) Tarantino broke out and made his best movies (Pulp Fiction,) we got the best police investigation movies, (Seven,) sci-fi movies (the Matrix,) mysteries (the Usual Suspects, The Fugitive, LA Confidential.) It was all in the nineties.
To put things into perspective, every genre was being hit at the highest level, and some of the best directors of all time (the Coen Brothers, Danny Boyle, PT Anderson, James Cameron, Wes Anderson, David Fincher,) were all making their very best movies. So let’s examine this in two ways… by genre and by director. And let’s see how it goes.
THE GANGSTER GENRE
The Godfather movies of the seventies established the gangster genre. Sure there were gangster films going all the way back to James Cagney and Edward G Robinson’s 40s and 50s days, but let’s be honest… it was the Godfather movies that were the first actual great gangster works of art. And how did the nineties answer the call of the Godfather? With Goodfellas and Casino. Easily two of Scorcese’s best (and he, of course, was a filmmaker who came out of the seventies.) Suddenly we were getting voice over narration in both movies, explaining the life of a gangster. Letting us feel like we were a part of it. The results were flawless.
THE COPS AND ROBBERS GENRE
The cops and robbers genre found all angles to explore with movies like Seven, LA Confidential, Heat, and The Silence of the Lambs. But then there were the more action packed cops and robbers flicks like Bad Boys and the Last Boyscout. Every one of these movies was handled with style and precision from filmmakers at the top of their game.. be it Tony Scott or Michael Bay.
Scorcese wasn’t the only filmmaker from the seventies who really hit his stride in the nineties. Spielberg gave us Jurassic Park, which somehow was the first Dinosaur action movie ever put on screen, and was nothing short of a masterpiece. He also gave us Saving Private Ryan, easily one of the best war movies ever made. Both in the nineties. These were Spielberg’s last two good movies, although he has continued turning out films year after year in the decades since.
And that’s just looking at directors from the past, who hit their stride in the nineties. There were also plenty of directors who got made in the nineties and have never been as good as that decade when they got their start. David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson, the Coen Brothers, Wes Anderson, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino.
This was the decade when Disney relaunched itself and sane out swinging hard with their big four animated movies, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. The Little Mermaid was 1989, but all of those others permeated the first half of the nineties, culminating with Disney nit only dominating the animated films playing field, but then revolutionizing it with Toy Story, the first CG animated movie. That studio literally went from The Lion King in 1994 to Toy Story in 1995. And ever since Toy Story, animated movies have nit been the same. The genre completely changed with that film so that pretty much all animated movies these days are computer drawn and not hand drawn. 3D looking instead of 2D looking.
Speaking of advancements in technology, the action genre got major bump ups in this department. That was courtesy of James Cameron who turned out Aliens, Terminator 2, and Titanic, all in the nineties. With Aliens and T2, we were looking at sequels to good movies that were far better than their predecessors. Now that just doesn’t happen. The only thing close was The Godfather 2 (many claim it’s better than the Godfather.) But in the case of Aliens and T2, it was pretty much definitive.
Court room movies. Primal Fear and A Few Good Men
What happened in the nineties? The launching of some of the best movie directors working today… Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson. Also, some filmmakers who were around gave us their best work… Scorcese with Goodfellas and Casino. The Coen Brothers with Fargo and the Big Lebowski.