Effect of Film on History (1920s-1940s) (Click to select text)

The evolution of film throughout time has been a fascination to many. Just like retracing the steps of famous painters, poets and authors, following the history of film, actors and directors is a science in itself. Throughout the century the art known as film making has evolved as directors such as D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille Orson Welles, and Steven Spielberg have all left their mark on the film industry and the hearts of millions. As time has gone by film has changed drastically. The arrival of sound at the end of the twentieth century completely altered the state of film. Movie studios such as Paramount and Universal were made and broken during this time period and the movie industry people know today was born. Films have come and gone but some have left their marks more than others have. Epic films such as The Ten Commandments and unforgettable, action packed stories like Star Wars have made their mark on generation after generation of movie goers. People have always been entertained by movies and have been fascinated by the lives of the imaginary characters that fill them. What prompts writers and directors to put out the films they do? During the twenties and thirties different kinds of films were produced for different audiences. While some people pushed for films that depicted utopias and perfection, others wanted to see reality and current events discussed in films. It is through this that film makers began to express their opinions on current issues and offered different ideas to their audiences. Starting with the post World War I era, throught the Great Depression and with a short look at gangsterdom, it is easy to understand that film makers drew their inspiration from real life and the events going on around them. While films in the early twenties presented the dreams of a populous fresh out of war, the films of the depression offered a sobering cup of reality to their viewers. In both cases, films became an interpretation of the world around their makers and became more important to people than they had before. The �gRoaring Twenties�h, as they were called, brought about a time of prosperity in America that was sensed all around. People felt they had been bound by unjust laws during the war years and broke free during the twenties leading to a period of �gsexual promiscuity, faithlessness in marriage, divorce, bad manners, the hip flask and general cynicism (Jacobs, 399)�h. No one cared about their responsibilities anymore but instead tried to stay as far away from them as possible. The times were changing and so were the tastes of the public. People became more interested in recreation that serious activity. Opinions were changing and the public was now in control. The movie industry came in and reinforced the public opinion constantly putting out movies dealing with the decade�fs new hot topic: sex. Although some motion pictures were clinging to old �goutdated�h pre-war values, the shift towards a more rebellious theme to films was felt all around. With the arrival of such important films as The Miracle Man and Male and Female it became even more apparent that things were changing. The Miracle Man told the story of a racketeer and materialist portrayed by Thomas Meighan. The film �gopenly acknowledged sex magnetism (Jacobs, 400)�h and placed a strong emphasis on it, which paved the way for a new breed of films. Meanwhile, Male and Female was the story of a lady and a butler stranded on a desert isle and their intimate relationship. The film �gproved�h to the public that class barriers were useless when it came to sex and that infidelity was okay. Along with countless others, films such as Male and Female continuously reiterated the same points: traditional morals are obsolete. The films of Cecil B. DeMille, the decade�fs premier director, always depicted some sort of sexual intrigue and challenged the traditional views of women and their role in the home. Such DeMille films like Fool�fs Paradise and Adam�fs Rib did that and the public agreed with it. As this advertisement read for Adam�fs Rib it easy to understand the film�fs motives: The modern girl in a new light�cWith all the luxury of beautiful gowns and magnificent sets that are an integral part of C. B. DeMille�fs art, Adam�fs Rib reveals the modern girl in her true color, and in a story crammed with action, interprets her impulsive heart to all who wish to appreciate her for what she is (Jacobs, 410). Stemming from this new brand of film came hundreds of others that also challenged the traditional roles of women and promoted social equality between men and women. Films such as The Misfit Wife and The Amateur Wife dealt with a woman�fs rights during marriage. How women should be continuously loved during a marriage or they would run off to other men since their husbands starved them of love. Such films as these reflected public opinion but also helped mold it. These films became increasingly popular because so many people agreed with their content. The stage was set for a new age of films based on public opinion and emotion: The Jazz Age. During this period, films began to focus more on the lavish parties in society, which were occurring at the time. Films became increasingly daring with each turn always pushing the limit always portraying this sin, as it would be called in the pre-war era, as attractive and enjoyable. Not only did films take real aspects of life and presented them on the screen but they showed the public how to live life and were very influential. Maurice Maeterlinck predicted it very early in the twenties when he said: �cat no time in history has there been such a means of influencing the spirit of men and particularly of women and children. �cAll ideas of duty, justice, love, right, wrong happiness, honor, luxury, beauty, all ideas regarding the goal of life�care ideas implanted by movies (Jacobs, 415). Throughout the decade films were influenced by people�fs and in turn influenced the people right back but this period of �gupbeat-ness�h could not last forever and the grim reality of things was thrust in people�fs faces with the arrival of the Great Depression. The beginning of the Great Depression sent America tumbling into a seemingly bottomless downward spiral. With the coming and passing of �gBlack Monday�h a chain reaction was set off and America fell into depression leaving many wondering what would happen. The mood of the American public changed radically from one of happiness during the �gRoaring 20s�h to one of discontent during the 30s. Along with the Great Depression came enormous numbers of laid-off workers, many with their wages reduced so drastically that they could not sustain themselves or their families. After and entire decade of prosperity in many areas, America found itself against a brick wall and things changed for the worse. The mood of the country was a dark one and the depression was felt all over with the exception of one portion of our culture: motion pictures. With the arrival of new sound technology, studios struggled to survive as they were drained of money. The change into a sound based studio from a normal �gsilent studio�h included massive amounts of money and relied heavily on bank loans. With the depression and its resulting economic disruptions being thrust upon America and the world, studios fell apart and needed money in great amounts to survive. In order to make money, a policy of avoiding all depression topics was introduced in film. It was believed that by presenting the public with happy and upbeat plots for movies, people would be drawn to them and would forget about their problems. The popular motto of the nation in 1930 was expressed in the titles of three films of those post-stock-market-crash days: Let Us Be Gay, Strangers May Kiss, A Free Soul (Jacobs, 508). This popular belief among movie studios turned out to be the �gwrong idea�h, as the returns for these films were not great and it was apparent that people were no longer interested in watching movies about passionate flings and the like. It was time for movies to become serious and challenge the public opinion. Movies had to draw the public in and make them think�cmovies had to be REAL. Perhaps what best exemplified this was statement made by legendary filmmaker, Cecil B. DeMille. I am not a radical but now things are a question of right and wrong. The public have been milked and are growing tired of it. It is not speculation alone. There is something rotten at the core of our system. We have to get back to the simple true principles that our government was founded on (Jacobs, 509). The movie industry was due up for a radical change. Now almost two full years into the Great Depression, American movie making was about to change into a more �greal life�h based environment just to satisfy the needs of the viewers. During the period of time between late 1930 and the middle of 1932, the movie industry began its change over to �greal-life�h film-making by producing an abundant amount of gangsters movies to examine the deep and dark underground of this �gbig business�h in the late twenties. Gangster movies such as Mervyn LeRoy�fs Little Caesar, based off of a book of the same name by W.R. Burnett, and Scarface, the final and perhaps most legendary �ggangster film�h which depicted the life and crimes of the notorious Al Capone, dominated the two year period until the genre was exhausted and it was time to move on to more current issues such as: The Great Depression. Starting off with Gentlemen Are Born, the story of four men just graduating from college only to find that there was no employment available to them in the fields they worked and trained so hard in, a small subset of movies, which included Wild Boys of the Road, delved into the subject of how young people were forced to live out their lives �gby their wits�h as the economy had turned to rubbish and there was nothing for them to grow in. Another subset of movies dealt with placing the blame of the depression on different parts of society. Films like The World Changes and Conquerors pointed the finger towards those how wanted to make a quick buck and made the rest of the nation suffer for us. In Conquerors�f case, the blame was placed on organized crime and all of the underhand political play that went along with it. Another school of thought, depicted in such films as The World Gone Mad and Washington Merry-Go-Round pointed the finger towards machines and how the growth in technology had forced workers into unemployment, a fear that still exists in some today as computers become such an important part of our lives. Films of the depression era had now become full-fledged �greal life tellers�h but something was still missing. For every problem there is an answer and the next goal, accomplished in between 1933 and 1934, was to offer people a solution to their problems. Various �gremedies�h, as Lewis Jacobs calls them, were drawn up ranging from returning to a moral rural, �gsmall town�h lifestyle, which was depicted in movies such as Daily Bread and State Fair, to turning America into a dictatorial state, as seen in Gabriel over the White House. The movie depicted the rise of a normal politician and his election to be president until he is involved in a car accident which changes him. The new president then proclaims himself dictator and through radical actions, such as gathering all crime bosses on Governor�fs Island and shooting them to eliminate the nation's crime problem, saves America from the certain doom that plagued it. By offering these �gremedies�h movie studios were challenging their audiences to think about what was going on at the time and have a more relaxed view towards the world surrounding them. Movie studios were offering people different lights to examine the events around them and made life easier for them. As Will Hays perhaps best said it: No medium has contributed more than the films to the maintenance of the national morale during a period featured by revolutions, riot and political turmoil in other countries. It has been the mission of the screen, without ignoring the serious social problems of the day, to reflect aspiration, achievement, optimism and kindly humor in its entertainment. Historians will not ignore the interesting and significant fact that the movies literally laughed the big bad wolf of depression out of the public. (Jacobs, 517). The coming of the depression at first did not change films but as time went on, the industry adapted to the current surroundings and events occurring throughout the nation and changed things for the better. Throughout two decades of film, in one more than the other, making one subject continuously came up as it was ever present in the minds of the American public: organized crime. With such classic films as Scarface, in the depression era, and Chicago, in the twenties, helped the public get into and understand the secret world of gangsters. During the late twenties, when gangesterism was a much more critical problem, movies such as The Big City and The Street of Forgotten Men gave much more realistic and often sordid depictions of this underworld. These such movies explained that since city life was so complex that organized crime and racketeering were almost impossible to avoid and normal. Meanwhile movies like The Drag Net and Alibi illustrated the �ggangsterdom�h as a plague on society. One of the last films dealing with racketeering in the twenties was Lewis Milestone�fs The Racket. The film, unlike any other before, delved into the actions of police forces against organized crime. Milestone depicted the efforts of the police as perfunctory and believed that if their actions would be so spiritless that the police might as well not act at all. As time went on, directors and movie studios decided to diverge away from the gangster film genre but eventually returned to it during the early thirties. People had grown tired from the fantasy like films that had littered the movie industry for song long and were craving reality. When Little Caesar came out in 1930 people were confronted with one of the most realistic films they had been faced with in a very long time. This �gin your face�h film depicted the rise of an egotistical and aggressive man. The film portrayed how power was attained and maintained with an iron fist through car chases, gun fights, and excessive violence. People had been slapped in the face with a tremendously real assessment of America and how rule by force had surmounted any ideals America had attained in the past. The films following Little Caesar maintained this �greality theme�h and were always eagerly anticipated. The previously hated and despised gangster later became heralded as a great hero to all. Actors like James Cagney and Gary Cooper were praised for their great roles in The Public Enemy and City Streets in which each, respectively, portrayed likable characters who used their toughness and wits to get them to the �gtop of the food chain�h. The theme of these films changed to one of condoning gangsters�f actions because of their intelligence. People were inspired and even admired these new heroes whom they believed had earned their keep. This in turn was the mentality of the times, one of mixing aggressiveness and smarts to attain power. As gangster films evolved with the mentality of the public�fs opinion toward gangsterdom, it was apparent that there would be an inevitable end to this endless stream of gangster films. That end came with the release of Scarface in 1932, the �gepic�h tale of fabled gangster Al Capone. This depiction of Al Capone�fs life made people lose their interest and belief that gangsterism was heroic but indeed was crime that had to be punished. This statement, by the producer of the film, was tacked on to it: This is an indicment against gang rule in America and the careless indifference of the government�cWhat are you going to do about it (Jacobs, 513)? It was statements like these and further analysis of movie titles like The Public Enemy that made the public realized gangsterism was wrong. Along with that came several gang related events that made the decision to end gangster films final. When Vincent Coll was killed by machine gun fire in a New York City drugstore on February 7, 1932 and the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped March 1, 1932, people realized the time to glorify gangsterdom was over. When people realized that, so did the movie industry and thus the promotion of gang violence on the silver screen was over. By examining the twenties and thirties it is easy to come to the conclusion that the issues of the time were depicted by film but does this hold true today? While some movies such as Primary Colors and Seven Years in Tibet make the answer yes it is much easier to look at the countless numbers of movies that fill movie theaters today and have nothing to do with current issues. Film today has turned into a form of pure entertainment sometimes filled with social commentary that is often overlooked by a less educated public. Different people draw different things from the same films. While one person simply enjoys watching special effect sequences in an action packed film, others look around this and examine the world surrounding characters and draw different conclusions. Films today have become a matter of interpretation. As society splits into many more different sections than it had during the twenties and thirties individuals see different things from films as they would have had seen as a whole during those time periods. A popular trend in today�fs cinema seems to be looking back in history and searching deeper into past events. Recent films such as Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line go back and examine the lives of soldiers during war. As time passes by more is revealed and more can be examined. Areas of history that could not have been discussed before are now being dissected and people are learning about it through film. No matter how one looks at it films are still a way of expressing one�fs self. During the twenties and thirties films depicted public sentiment but as the new millennium approaches films deal with individual perspectives. The movie industry has turned into a business in which the meaning to films might be there but the ultimate goal is to make the most money and hence appealing to the public. Films have changed over the past sixty five years, some say for the better while some say for the worse but those are conclusions that can only be reached by an individual and not a whole.