Old Films

I am currently taking a film class that is also a sociology class. I didn’t think it was going to be mostly analyzing old documentaries but that’s what we do for most of class. I am not a film buff, nor have I watched a decent amount of movies before the 1970s; it’s not my area of interest. But, in the class all we watch are movies pre-color, pre-decent film, and pre-entertainment ( at least I think so ).

The problem with that is that the professor, and a decent amount of my classmates, are loving the movies. They rave about the minor details that would not be caught on a first watch and hidden meanings behind actions that would also be very hard for the average viewer to catch.

We have seen Nanook of the North, which is apparently one of the best documentaries ever (I looked it up) but I was snoozing the whole time. We have also seen The Plow That Broke the Plains which I also didn’t understand watching it on my own and was watching it on 2.5 speed on YouTube.

So, my question is: am I the problem?? Should I be liking these very old, bad quality, boring movies? Do I need to open my mind and look at the films differently? Or, am I fine and the movies really do suck? I’d like to think it’s the later.