Hollywood Recovery
Essay Preview: Hollywood Recovery
Report this essay
“Hollywood Recovery ”
In general, the American film industry was unprepared for the accelerating pace of change in the 1960s. In the early 1960s, Hollywood was not apparent in demonstrating a remarkable capacity to shape social myths and mediate perceptions of public events through memorable narrative fictions like that it used to do before. Management turnover and continuing box office decline left the studios with inexperienced leadership and an uncertain sense of their audience. In addition, Hollywood was perhaps least to respond to the civil rights movements of social changes. All these problems caused the deep economic and genres depression in Hollywood industry. Fortunately, the filmmakers breakthrough on social subject and the representation of understated daily events in their movies led to the Hollywood recovery from its economic crisis in the early 1970s. Nevertheless, three major factors that led to Hollywood recovery were a significant shift in marketing strategy, the invention of home video and the development of the new conglomerates in the Hollywood industry, and perhaps the least revolutionary aspect of the United States filmmaking success in this period of time was what appeared on screen. Moreover, in a very brief period, half a decade at most Hollywood entered its authentic “Golden Age” era.
1)The early factors that led to the beginning of Hollywood recovery from its great depression in the late 60s were: the rating system, the innovation of new genres or genre revision, the “Movie Brats”.
— The Rating System was a new self-regulating device that was used by producers in order to habitually turn to sensational content in their movies in an effort to attract patrons. Filmmakers replaced the code in 1968 by a rating system. The original rating included “G” for general audience; “M” suggested for mature audiences- adults and mature young people; “R” restricted, persons under 16 years admitted with an adult; and “X” no one under 16 admitted. Rating administration looked at finished films rather than supervising scripts or lyrics, as the Productive Code administration had done. The rating categories reflected specific standards with regard to such subjects as profanity or illicit sex, but overall their application has seemed arbitrary to many filmgoers. This revolution in the films censor attracted the new audience and initiated interest to the Hollywood movies.
2. Innovation of the political films and exploitation films that broke down the boundaries of social and sexual subject matters in Hollywood Films. In the midst of the divisive political struggles of the late 1960s, it was less likely that filmmakers could construct popular fictions with the originality. The eras convulsive event, the Vietnam War, was largely avoided as subject by American feature filmmakers for over a decade. But the principal exception was “The Green Berets” (1968), directed by Ray Kellog; this film changed the Hollywoods ideology toward Vietnam War. And the greatest challenge for political cinematography was “Medium Cool” ( 1969). The film combines actuality footage of protests at the 1968 Democratic Party national convention in Chicago with a fictional story of a television cameraman whose perception that his work is simply technical is altered by his discovery of the moving images ideological power and political complicity. Also through the 12960s, exploitation films broke down the boundaries of sexual subject matter along with, but consistently ahead of, Hollywood films. And eventually by the early 1970s, exploitation had largely become sexploitation- and transgression had turned into pornography, defined as “soft-care” or “hard-core” depending on the degree of explicitness. Moreover, exploitation films became big business in the 1970s, bringing the Hollywood industry billions of dollars.
3. The revision of genres was Hollywoods way of Participating in the cultural tumult of the Late 1960s. Nearly everywhere in American society the fundamental tenets of social relations and ideology were being held up to scrutiny; Hollywoods version of such basic doctrines was the traditional system of genres. In a sense, genre revision had been going on throughout films history, a constant and continuing process that kept genres vigorous through self-critique and self-parody. But genre revision in the late 1960s drew greater attention because of its in involvement in the eras cultural debates, as well as its role in the film industrys period of crisis.
2. In the Western the Vietnam War overseas opened up questions about historical conflicts over territorial expansion and warfare against indigenous nonwhite peoples. Freed from Production Code restrictions, issues of violence and racism entered the late 1960s Western Film. The 1st new Western was “The Wild Bunch” (1969) that made “Bonnie and Clyde” treatment of violence appear tame. It presented a strikingly different viewpoint on violence, in “The Wild Bunch” violence appeared fundamental to human behavior. The film opens and concludes with the most graphically bloody scenes yet to appear in an American film. Critics hail it the greatest Western ever made. “The Wild Bunch” ended the genre depression for the Western. Also “Little Big Man” (1970) turned to Western revision the Hollywood industry by reimagining the historical West through the reminiscences of Jack Crabb( the only survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. “Little Big Man” (1970) is one of several films from the period that sought to redress Hollywoods traditional treatment of Indians as murderous savages. Instead it brings to the foreground actual instances of atrocities against Indians committed by U.S. forces in the historical West.
3. Television shows like “M*A*S*H” (1970) retain their fresh striking originality. In “M*A*S*H”, the characters and setting attained worldwide familiarity through a weekly series of the same name that became one of the most popular shows in American television history. The film brought together the Vietnam eras disillusionment, Hollywoods new candor about sex and violence, and the stylistic daring of the European art film to create a surreal dark comedy of war. This film was the first mordant commentary on war in the Hollywood history that was able to transform into cinematic entertainment.
Kubrick and Science Fiction: A Space Odyssey (1968), marked not so much a revision of the genre as a reinvention. In the 1950s and 1960s, the science fiction films remained a relatively