What Makes a Classic?

By Matthew Werner

What makes a classic? Is it popularity? Is it quality?  Is it timing?  Is it thematic depth? Is it timelessness? Or, perhaps, is it a mix of those elements?

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Popularity? No. Many pieces of media are especially prevalent in culture when they come out, but they leave our public conscious soon thereafter. There are also artworks which are of low quality which do well because of powerful marketing or striking up a particular trend. Then there are those titles which no one cares about until reappraisals grant them renewed interest; Blade Runner, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and so on and so forth. Financial success or prevalence in pop culture is a poor barometer for defining classics.

Grendel (1983-1986)

Quality. Now, you may immediately think to yourself, “Clearly quality is the best measurement.” but I would beg to differ. Think of all the best picture nominated films which literally no one ever talks about except to say how no one ever talks about them; The Racket, She Done Him Wrong, The Thin Man, etc..

Celeste (2018)

There’s also the matter of how quality is not universal. What goes for a good film, comic, song, etc. now is different from what might’ve been considered such two decades, three decades, or a century ago. Standards evolve, and so too do the things we look for in art.

Pacific Rim (2013)

Timing and thematic depth. Those are big parts of it, for sure. Films like Escape from New York and more recently Brokeback Mountain spoke to truths of their day, and remain evergreen even now in no small part for that. People are driven subtly towards stories which hash out present day issues, and that helps in establishing a classic status. However, I do not think either of these properties can solely propel anything into stardom. There’s a reason why the phrase “before its time” exists, and why reappraisals can be so paramount in digging up things from the past which still speak to the matters of today.

Pride of Baghad (2006)

Timelessness. By all means, it is also an enormous factor. However, there are still numerous older, stalwart tales which continue to hold up, yet will never attain such a place in our culture. They may be greater than some things largely considered to be classic and stand the test of time even better, but that alone cannot make them deserve the title “classic”.

The Sexy Brutale (2017)

And so, predictably, we arrive at the answer of “it’s a bit of everything.” You can’t have a classic no one talks about. You can’t have a classic that most people think of as being tosh. You can’t have a classic which doesn’t tackle in some way the ails of its day. And you can’t have a classic which fails to sustain beyond its release.

Rick and Morty (2013-)

So what might I uncontroversially point to as a classic? 12 Angry Men, Tetris, The Birds, War of the Worlds, Maus, Who’s on First?, Star Wars, the Dollars trilogy, Robocop, The Glass Menagerie, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, A Contract with God, The Godfather...

The Iron Giant (1999)

But something I find to be much more interesting is the concept of the “modern classic”. The idea of guessing what might have the staying power to achieve cultural omnipresence. I think it’s chutzpah to claim that we have no classics coming out anymore. So, what could someday reach those heights of a classic? Chew, Get Out, the Red Rising series, Pacific Rim, The Witcher 3, District 9, Bad Times at the El Royale, Celeste, Upgrade, Song of the Sea, Rick and Morty, Invincible, The Iron Giant, Isola, The Sexy Brutale, Elysium, The Little Red Wolf, The Hex...

Sorry to Bother You (2018)

I think people are too afraid to consider pieces of media to be potential future classic material. Too stingy with their doling out of such a label. But in the end, aren't we more or less just shooting darts based on our personal preferences and those consequent opinions? Carpe diem, my friends.