Past Films

           In the past, films have meant more and gone deeper than what is viewed simply on the surface.  In the 1940’s, the economy was unpleasant and the film industry was expected to take a fall.  However, John Russell Taylor, an English critic and author said of this time, “Economic necessity pointed the way towards smaller films, depending on stronger ideas rather than higher productive values.”  Despite America’s recent economic state, filmmakers who earn a lot of money, are leaning against as a crutch not only their special effects, but the dependency that American’s will be blinded by them and won’t question the lack of a well told story.  Cinema in the 1940’s focused more on the idea of the film rather than “higher productive values.” Even with the so called “smaller films” made during these years, many of them made it to the top one hundred greatest movies of all time.   

                Casa Blanca, Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, Singing in the Rain, Seven Samurai, The Searchers, and On the Waterfront were voted to be in the top twenty best movies of all time. (Entertainment Weekly) And they are all made within a span of about fifteen years; from 1939 to 1956.  At this time, there was little use of computer animated effects.  Citizen Kane broke the Hollywood mold and using deep focus camera work, overlapping dialogue and intriguing and distinctive camera shots that had never been used before, caused it to be known as the greatest film of all time.  And many filmmakers after watching this film were inspired in their movie making techniques and even pay tribute to it in their films.  Singing in the Rain on the contrary, was loved and remembered for its wonderful songs, storyline, choreography and casting.  On the Waterfront not only had stimulating cinematography and symbolism throughout its inspiring plot, but it also had one of the greatest moral messages shown in its time.  Another inspiring movie that used very little special effects was Rear Window.  This Hitchcock classic portrayed everything from the view through Jeffrey’s window and the audience only saw what Jeffrey could see, unlike many films today where the viewer’s know more than the characters themselves do.  So much was depicted about the characters through the music and the panning and zooming and different subjective shots of the camera.  The particular way this unique film was made caused audiences to feel suspense without dramatic lighting and intense shots and special effects.  Because of the times that these movies were made in there wasn’t a lot of that sort of technology, and filmmakers had to rely on artistic cinematography in their films.  They focused on the development of the characters and the resolution and realizations at the end of the movie.  Along the same lines, they were packed with deep meanings and everything tied together to arouse more than one emotion and to inspire and eventually become classic films.  The arousing of emotions can be shown through themes, camera work, editing and/or the actors.  The Twilight series is a good example of a very unrepresentative film with unnecessary CGI and actors limited to only rendering one emotion.  Other films however can show the positively created emotion through the use of special effects without becoming overbearing.

word count: 544