The Importance Of Film And Film

It was estimated that by the late teens of the 20th century, Zukor held 75% of the best talent in the filmmaking business. I was baffled by this statistic when I read it. For one studio to hold ¾’s of the best talent in the industry is nearly a monopoly. Another thing I found interesting was that Fox worked on 70 mm wide-screen techniques. This was thought provoking to me because this summer I saw the film Dunkirk, and my friends and I saw it with the 70 mm wide-screen edition. I had never seen a movie with this wide-screen 70 mm and it was definitely different from a regular screen. Another thing that caught my attention was the connection between film and politics. I was interested to learn that MGM used a film to bring down Upton Sinclair as he was running for office. I was also shocked to read that Charlie Chaplin was not let into the United States because of his progressive political views. I was baffled that a man that was once called the “king of comedy” in the United States was denied entry because of his political

Around this time another popular form of entertainment was movies. The movies were visited by about ninety million Americans per weekend during the 40s .These movies also showed many war influenced programing. An example would be the “Doolittle Raid”, this movie celebrated one of the first American war victories. Another example of the influenced of the war was that most popular movies and cartoons spotted war themes.

This paper was prepared for Introduction to Film History, Module 1 Homework Assignment, taught by Professor Stephanie Sandifer.

A great change came during WW1 and WW2. War images were not the only way war was portrayed, but motion pictures also came along. The motion pictures gave a whole new perspective on war to the American people. Thus, by seeing this influence, many powerful leaders saw an advantage. They saw, “the tremendous potential of movies for propaganda and

Rarely has a film impacted an audience and held the test of time as the film Gone with the Wind. I have always been curious if director, Victor Fleming and producer, David O. Selznick and screenplay writer, Sidney Howard knew what they were creating a masterpiece and how this film would have such an enormous impact on audiences for years to come. Interestingly enough there were some who thought the film should not be made, as Irving Thalberg said to Louis B. Meyer in 1936, “Forget it Louis, no Civil War picture ever made a nickel” (Ten Films that Shook the World).

“Ads implied that if you bought a war bond your sacrifice was on par with that of the man in the front lines.” (74) The US government and industry played on Americans’ sense of patriotism in order to get them to support the war or buy their products. However, “Advertising had inherent problems as an educational tool. It is by nature emotional, rather than intellectual; it sells feelings rather than ideas.” (73) Government propaganda and business advertising were not the only factors in forming the inaccurate myth of the Second World War. Hollywood made films where “people get blown up with their clothes and fall gracefully to the ground” (100). Through the realism of motion pictures, such as 1998’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and 2001’s ‘Pearl Harbor’, Americans were falsely led to believe in a glorified war.

America’s political climate during the Cold War greatly influenced America’s depiction of glory in American World War II films from 1949-1980. The three American war films that were picked are films that come from three separate decades of American history. The first film comes from a time where America is plagued by mass hysteria caused by the Red Scare. The second film was developed during the Vietnam war this event created great public distrust in the American government. The third comes from a America that has come to terms with Vietnam and wants to forget and yearns for classic American heros. American Cinema’s portrayal of glory during the Second World War was greatly

During World War II, ¨[h]undreds of short films, featurettes, and feature films were produced.¨ (ibblio.org.) The OWI produced 267 of these newsreels between 1942 and 1946. These ¨[n]ewsreels averaged 10 minutes in length and consisted of...events from the home front.¨(WWII UN Newsreels) These newsreels were often shown in movie theaters before the feature film, in order to make people pay attention and be completely ´informed´ about the war. A famous example of a newsreel is D-Day, about a decisive battle where the Allies invaded German controlled Europe in their campaign to liberate

The films of the World War II era were much more than just stories about life or love; each unique film showed a different portrayal of the war effort. Although the films showed aspects of the war such as American involvement and cultural aspects, it was not always obvious to see the propaganda behind the façade. Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, is a wartime film that promotes American involvement and contains subtle propaganda.

Hollywood underwent this transformation extremely well and by supporting the war effort they showed to be extremely successful. This proved to be true by its production of better quality movies. As well informing and providing propaganda to American soldier and civilians. Hollywood profited largely financially. World War 2 proved to be in fact a great time for Hollywood. This was evident in the fact that the Big Eight combined profits rose from 20 million in 1940 to 35 million in 1941.There profits then rose even more in 1942 and grew even more in the next three years after.

“The effective war film is often the one in which the action begins after the war, when there is nothing but ruins and desolation everywhere…”

As already mentioned, the United States readily took part in the propaganda parley of World War II. The threat of subversive Nazi propaganda on U.S. soil caused private citizens to use their contacts to pressure the government into counteracting the “attack on democracy” (Laurie 30-32). This spurred the creation of government organizations such as the U.S. Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The role of these organizations was to oversee the propaganda released on behalf of the government (Laurie 45). The military naturally became involved in the creation and implementation of propaganda films to promote anti-Nazi feelings across a nation immersed in a global war. Also, the hope was that these films would act as a morale booster necessary in a nation that had just experienced the horrors of Pearl Harbor (Fyne 12).

War has been present since the beginning of human history. Likewise, war movies have been present since the movie industry began. Just like most other genres of film, war films have been created as a form of entertainment to profit a person or organization. More people are willing to spend their money and time on a feeling of action, excitement, heroism, and patriotism than gruesome and horrid images of real and common human destruction. Propaganda has been used by governments for a very long time and when motion pictures came into existence, governments almost immediately saw the new medium as an opportunity to influence the public. Governments such as the United States of America, cooperate with the movie industry to

No matter who a person thinks invented the motion picture camera, whether it was Louis Lumiere or Thomas Edison, I'm sure they had no idea what it would become at the turn of the century. Motion pictures, has become an entertainment medium like no other. From Fred Ott's Sneeze to Psycho to Being John Malkovich, the evolution from moving pictures to a pure art form has been quite amazing. Different steps in filming techniques define eras in one of the most amazing ideas that was ever composed. Silent to Sound. Short to long. Black and white to color. Analog to Digital. All were important marks in the History of Motion Pictures. "It's different than other arts. It had to be invented"

My pursuit is to become the best at filmmaking. I have always enjoyed movies ever since I was a kid and have always dreamed of making them when I got older. In high school I made several short films/ videos for my class and for different events. To reach this goal I want to learn from the best schools that dedicated to film. Daniel Wager writes in his book, Expanding the Menu: ReImagining Film School for an Evolving Landscape, that film education is falling behind the changes happening in the film industry (Wager 117). I want to be at a school that strives to be ahead of its competitors because without a school that is ahead there is no point in going to film school. Duncan Petrie and Rod Stoneman write in their book, Educating Film-makers: Past, Present and Future, that alumni of film school students traditionally pass on their skills and knowledge to other up and coming filmmakers (Petrie 4). After my education I would like to teach others what I have learned so that they may enjoy filmmaking as much as I do.