I like the word "classic" because the term is broad enough that I can tailor my own prejudices into its definition. In general, I use it to mean "embodying high qualities" with a touch of "famous in the sense of long-established." A classic also usually either serves as a model or adheres to certain established standards. Classic movies aren't so much defined by a specific time frame (although the Hollywood studio system that existed from the 1910s into the 1960s and produced the majority of the films I consider classics certainly lends a temporal prejudice to my definition). Rather, classic movies embody a method of storytelling that leaves something to the audience's imagination. When, in a classic movie, the leading man and leading lady kiss and the screen fades to black, the older members of the audience know what that means. The younger members of the audience don't know what that means, but their ignorance doesn't hurt their enjoyment of the film. As a result, the whole family can watch the same movie together and get different things from it depending on their stage of life and the experiences they bring to the theatre with them. By leaving graphic depictions or descriptions of sex and violence and moral corruption to the audience's imagination through suggestion and innuendo, classic movies make these themes more powerful in the minds of those old enough to understand, yet without destroying the innocence of those on whom these subtleties are lost.
Source: "Defining Classic Movies", Elizabeth, ReelClassics.com, April 4, 2003
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