Let’s start with a fun fact. Did you know, the first motion picture was a 2-second feature called 'Roundhay Garden Scene' which was released in 1888 (“Roundhay”, 2008)? Movies have come such a long way. There was the silent era, Charlie Chaplin and with the sound came music and all became cheery. In the early 1900’s, movies were mostly comedies and romances and were for older people who stayed home. They showed the same people playing the same generic characters. The gardens and the flowers, the boy meets girl. Over and over and over. They were a way to avoid and escape life, which in those times- lets accept - wasn't very hard to begin with. Movies that would stir the public were avoided and stereotypes were encouraged. Nobody dared go to go outside the box. So, what changed? The 1940s, which was the time of the Second World War changed all that. The need for wartime propaganda and surfacing patriotism brought war and Nazi related movies including '49th Parallel', 'Objective Burma' and 'Desperate Journey’.
Christensen and Hass have said in their book ‘Projecting Politics’ (2005, p.4, ¶4) that, “every film has a political significance and meaning.” What they mean here is that no movie is without influence or inspiration.
In the 50’s the movies were either influenced by the war, or the increasing impact of teenagers on what was brought to the market.
Some of The movies that were either directly about the war or in some way related include ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ (“Top movies”, 2008); about POWs building a bridge, ‘The Searchers’ (“Top movies”, 2008); about a man coming home from the war and ‘Paths of Glory’ (“Top movies”, 2008); about French soldiers mutinying against their commander in World War I.
Teenagers felt a need to rebel and be unique and stand out and they needed a role model which was provided to them in the form of James Dean and the great Marlon Brando (Dirks, “Film history”, 2008). I don’t know how many of you know him, but he was in movies all through the decades that I’m going to discuss in this speech. These include ‘Rebel without a Cause’ (Dirks, “Film history”, 2008); was surprise, surprise about rebelling teenagers and so were ‘A Street Car named Desire’ (Dirks, “Film history”, 2008) and ‘Gidget’(Zoerner, “Gidget”, 2008); this movie actually created the idea of free spirited teenage girls.
50’s were also the time of Hitchcock and for those of you interested, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Peter Pan’.
The 60’s were a time of dramas and musicals but they were also very hard times. The time of the assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. whose impact was shown in the movies made during that time.
The 60’s were controversial and racially motivated; ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’, ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ and ‘The Manchurian Candidate’
The 60’s were musical; ‘Mary Poppins’, ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘West Side Story’
The 60’s were dramatic and action packed; ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’, the original ‘Italian Job’ and ‘Bonnie and Clyde’
It was the time that Bond, James Bond hit the theatres.
‘Midnight Cowboy’, made in the 60’s is the first and by far the only X-rated movie to ever win a Best Picture Oscar. Jon Voight plays a male prostitute. Jon Voight is Angelina Jolie’s father. And, on a personal note, I have not seen this movie!
The next 2 decades followed from pleasing the young audience in the 50’s and controversy and promoting racial equality in the 60’s to some similar but very important themes.
According to Philip Jenkins, author of ‘Decade of Nightmares’(2006), the 70’s and 80’s created:
A new world for women - ‘Terms of Endearment’, ‘Hannah and her Sisters’.
rise in gay rights - ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ and ‘Dog Day Afternoon’.
These were the times when a lot of hard hitting movies like ‘Taxi Driver’, about poverty and ‘Pretty Baby’, about teenage prostitution and ‘The Color Purple’, about racial equality were widely appreciated for portraying the realities of life.
The Vietnam War of the 70’s also caused movies such as ‘Platoon’, ‘Apocalypse Now’ and ‘The Deer Hunter’.
And talking of the 70’s and 80’s, I can’t forget the Godfather series.
Moving on;
to the times that most of us remember: the 90’s. Thinking back, they were a really great time for movies, weren’t they? The 90’s were young and mature at the same time. There was a sort of stylistic sophistication that came with the new technology of film making. This was the time that brought together themes from the 50’s to present.
It was the time of the political and liberal dramas like ‘JFK’ and ‘Philadelphia’ but also young adventurous movies.
It was the time when the big blockbusters started surfacing; ‘Terminator 2’, ‘Independence Day’, ‘Titanic’, ‘Jerry Maguire’.
Animated movies became more prominent because of the technology; ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Aladdin’, ‘Mulan’, ‘Lion King’
I would like to say that these days, anything goes. And everything works. There have been the meaningful movies like ‘Capote’, ‘Juno’, ‘Crash’, ‘Monster’s Ball’ and ‘Traffic’. On the other hand, there is mild exploitation in some genres. There are too many remakes, sequels-prequels, slasher movies and Broadway musicals coming to the big screen. Not to mention the over doing of romantic chic-flicks and comic books brought to life. To name some would be insensitive since bricks of names should already be falling on your brains. If not .. ask me!
Reference List
Christensen, T. & Haas, P. J. (2005). Projecting politics: Political messages in American films. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
Dirks, T. (2008). Film history of the 1950's. Retrieved March 11, 2008 from http://www.filmsite.org/50sintro.html
Jenkins, P. (2006). Decade of nightmares: The end of the sixties and the making of eighties America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Roundhay Garden Scene, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2008). Retrieved March 11, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundhay_Garden_Scene
Top movies of the 1950's at TopTenReviews.com (2008). Retrieved March 12, 2008 from http://movies.toptenreviews.com/list_d1950.htm
Top movies of the 1960's at TopTenReviews.com (2008). Retrieved March 12, 2008 from http://movies.toptenreviews.com/list_d1960.htm
Zoerner, T. (2008). Gidget (1959). Retrieved March 11, 2008 from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052847/plotsummary
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