Cinema Catala Hollywood Movie Review

Posts Tagged ‘doubt’

As far back as the early to middle part of the 20th century, Hollywood produced a number of films that are remembered today as being classics. There is no doubt that these movie memories will continue, and deservedly so, to be thought of in this way. The time period stretching from the 1920s through the 1940s brought a great many changes to Hollywood and the motion picture industry.

The 1920s brought to film what is probably one of the most significant changes in movie history – sound. While the majority of motion pictures continued to be silent on the screen, the latter part of this decade would see a surge in the number of pictures being produced with sound. America loved going to the movies, and this was the beginning of a beautiful love affair that continues today. As with all love affairs, there were some bumps in the road. The stock market crash of 1929 brought to an end the financial security that many people had during the decade. Fortunately, Hollywood was not immediately affected by the economic changes.

The 1930s, although a difficult time economically, really defined a lot of what Hollywood has become. Sound in motion pictures was now commonplace and color began to show it’s glorious screen potential. The publics movie going imagination was being fueled by the likes of John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, Shirley Temple, and a great many more all destined to become legendary. Unfortunately, the addition of sound to film was not kind to everyone. Many of the silent film stars were unable to successfully make the transition. The 1930s also helped to usher in some classic horror movies. Characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Mummy continue to be popular with today’s monster movie fans.

With the 1940s came war. The United States, along with most of the world, was now immersed into World War II. Hollywood did their part in supporting the effort and the war movie genre exploded onto the scene. Many popular war titles, including Casablanca and The Battle of Midway, would earn a spot in classic movie history. Even after the wars conclusion Hollywood continued to produce postwar films such as The Best Years Of Our Lives that depicted the difficulties faced by many returning veterans.

It is these three decades that have had the most profound influence in shaping Hollywood as we see it today. In many ways the spirit of these decades still exists today, as this was an historic period in motion picture history and the Hollywood movie memories that it provided are destined to always be remembered but can never be duplicated.

In the 1880s, the American stage was dominated by ‘Vaudeville shows’ which was cherished by the residents of North America. Being the primitive genre of variety entertainment, these shows differed from burlesque or minstrelsy. But as entrepreneurs started experimenting with their movie-making skills, these shows lost all their glory.

In 1910, director D.W.Griffith and his troop started filming in downtown Los Angeles. While searching for a more apt location, they found it in a village miles northward — ‘Hollywood’. The first movie shot by Griffith in Hollywood was In Old California, a melodrama of California. Thorough research work identified a number of points which helped in establishing Hollywood movies. But it was Griffith’s ‘Birth of a Nation’ which was the pioneering movie.

Gradually, with the growth of Hollywood industry, films were exhibited in Nicholodeon halls. Ambitious people in the production side emerged as controlling heads of movie studios. They aided the internationalization of films to reduce American provincialism. In no time, the industry produced about 400 movies a year, with an audience of 9,00,00,000 Americans per week.

The American studios, however, confronted major difficulties when their sound productions were rejected in various foreign language markets. Also, the synchronization technique was too primitive. In the 1930s, parallel language versions of films were produced to provide a befitting solution to the problem. With rapid advancement of synchronization, dubbing also became more realistic.

During the Golden Age of Hollywood (1920-1950), the film industry was at the peak of its success. Adherence to the formula of western slapstick comedy was the formula and musical animated cartoon contributed to it. The same creative team worked on films made by the same studio.

The most renowned studios were Warner Bros., MGM, RKO, etc. Each studio had its own specialized characteristics, a trait not seen today. Yet, each film was unique in its own flavor, since the moviemakers were all artists and creative people. The release of classics that enriched the industry, were Wutheirng Heights, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, and such other masterpieces. In the late 1940s, the separation of the production of films from their exhibition and the advent of television led to the decline of the studio system.

The postclassical cinema gave birth to directors from a new school of thought. They introduced new filming techniques and strategies and developed upon the prevailing ones. Films like Jaws, Godfather, Psycho, and other modern blockbusters have no doubt added a new dimension to Hollywood. With independent films, another new generation of moviemakers came forward with films which were often innovative, critical, unconventional, and contradictory. However, for their considerable financial success and crossover into popular culture, they have become a very influential part of the Hollywood mainstream films.

With the passage of generations, directors with their exclusive style and innovations have come up with intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking creations, making the history of Hollywood movies interesting as well as amazing.