Netflix suddenly cares about maintaining a curated library of notable old films
You can now watch a collection of notable movies from 1974 on... Netflix, of all places
We’ve entered a strange new phase in the streaming wars today, one that suggests an actual sane human at the helm of one of the biggest streaming services rather than an emotionless machine that keeps insisting people like interchangeable action movies with one or two name-brand stars (like a Ryan Reynolds or… a second Ryan Reynolds). That’s because, as reported by IndieWire, Netflix has launched a new dedicated section for films from 1974 that it’s calling “Milestone Movies.”
And these aren’t just movies that Netflix had laying around already and decided to shuffle into a new category. IndieWire says that the 14 Milestone Movies are new to Netflix this month and come from various movie studios—y’know, the ones that mostly all have their own streaming services but are pathologically incapable of retaining the rights to their most historically significant works because they’d rather make some quick cash off of them. That means Netflix, ol’ miserly Netflix, has been keeping tabs on which 50-year-old movies are for sale and has been snatching them up specifically so it can put together a curated list of 50-year-old movies, which Paramount+ and Max are clearly not as interested in doing.
As for which Milestone Movies are in the 1974 collection, IndieWire says it includes Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Black Belt Jones, Blazing Saddles, California Split, Chinatown, The Conversation, Death Wish, The Gambler, The Great Gatsby, It’s Alive, The Little Prince, The Lords Of Flatbush, The Parallax View, and The Street Fighter.
This is also apparently going to be a whole thing moving forward, with Netflix planning similar collections for 1984 in April, 1994 in July, and 2004 in October. If it’s a success, maybe we’ll get 1975, 1985, 1995, and 2005 collections next year, and then Netflix will somehow become the mainstream destination for historically significant films rather than Max’s TCM library, which should exist for that exact purpose but is probably now being used to direct people to old movies that are somehow “like” The Curse Of Oak Island or whatever.