Postwar Hollywood Film Industry - Term Paper Example

Postwar Hollywood Film Industry s Visual Arts and Film Studies Department The World War II turned out to be a striking andterrifying event that changed world order and people’s entire perception of reality including value of a human life, death, social values, destructive power of new weapons and politics. Having ended in summer of 1945, the war left deep imprints in the state of many countries, though they were gradually returning to peacetime way of life switching from military equipment to consumer goods production and soldiers returning home and searching for peacetime jobs. America rapidly recovered and subsequently turned into a very prosperous state due to economic boom of the post war decade. The society was characterized by mass suburbanization and transition to consumerism and capitalism as the key directions of development. The country’s government was “deeply determined to prolong and enbance the economic recovery brought on by the war, lest the crippling depression of the 1930s return» (Cohen, 2004, p.236). Military production would be restored to a certain extent as the Cold War was announced between the two superpowers that emerged after the WWII – the Soviet Union and the United States. However, mass consumer market played a great role from then on, and economic growth of the U.S. depended much on mass consumer market. The new economic policy brought prosperity to most citizens and formed the idea of American dream as well as raised expectations of American citizens. At the same time, there still were numerous social issues undermining stability of the society: for instance, struggles to eliminate discrimination in levels like gender and race (for instance, African Americans made their efforts to challenge racial segregation on the ocurt level) and backlashes they led to. Along with the upsurge of welfare and democratization; the postwar epoch in the United States incorporated such features as dramatic growth of suburban areas; power and priority transition from the cities of upper Midwest and Northwest as well as old industrial states to the areas of West and South; and the idea of military and economic superiority of America as a guarantor of global peace and order. Film industry in the postwar period In the movies of early 1970s, postwar era in America was depicted in a rather nonobjective way – the movies such as American Graffiti shows it as a period of charm, Cadillacs and tranquility. However, the real image differs from what is seen in these movies: American society in the years following the World War II was characterized by dynamic changes, anxiety and emergence of revolutionary youth culture driven by rock`n`roll. As technologies continued their advance, cinematography became the most understandable and popular form of art reflecting realia and state of the contemporary society. According to McDonnell (2001, p.6), “since the early years of the twentieth century the Hollywood film industry has been a global hegemonic force distributing powerful images of America and its way of life to the rest of the world”. Thereby, Hollywood entered its “classical” era and turned into a huge business giving birth to numerous genres including those peculiar for the postwar period. Generally, the filmmaking industry of Hollywood underwent radical changes and therefore content, inner form and style of films produced after the war changed considerably. However, after the war, the industry entered the period of decline and decrease in cinema attendance. These changes partially came from the industry’s external factors. Many war veterans came back home, they started settling their lives, getting married and creating families, attending colleges and purchasing apartments in suburbs. Newly created families with small children preferred radio to going to the cinema having too little money because of overwhelming expenses, and students didn’t have enough time for movies. This, of course, added to the shortage in box office revenue for Hollywood. Moreover, popularization and rising affordability of television made it more popular than movie theaters, as these technologies enabled delivering entertainment directly to American households. It should be also mentioned that the postwar period was the time when Hollywood filmmaking industry became better organized and subjected to the monopoly of eight large filmmaking companies including MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, RKO, Warner Bros., Columbia and Universal, until the Court issued a resolution binding the companies to split their capacities in order to eliminate monopoly. Another considerable factor characterizing American society in the postwar period is bright anticommunist disposition. Right after the World War II, USSR and USA transformed into the world’s two opposing superpowers, whereby USSR’s communism was opposed to capitalist trajectory of the U.S., - as a result, the Cold War started turning the controversy into a frozen conflict to last almost for the rest of the century. Propaganda of the Soviet Union attacked capitalism stressing its imperialist nature and exploitation of labour (Wood, 1994, p.105). Propaganda was even enhanced with development and popularization of mass media and film industry. Therefore, as the government set the line of anticommunism promoting it among the citizens, there is nothing surprising that Hollywood produced a considerable number of anticommunist movies in the postwar period (from 1947 to 1954). Brownell (2012, p.519) writes the following about anticommunism in the postwar society: “Anticommunism emerged as a powerful ideological framework that the increasingly conservative industry used to assure that the motion picture industry retained its place in American economic and political life». This means that anticommunist ingredient in Hollywood filmmaking was the used for the industry to preserve its place in the society that it had during the war. Generally, the war left its imprints in social conscience of Americans, and therefore, Hollywood reacted promptly reflecting the peculiar state of the society. Film Noir Typically, during and after the WWII, more and more film directors sought to create objective portrayal of reality, even though it wasn’t very eye-pleasing and optimistic. As far back as in the early 1940s, a new genre emerged in Hollywood, which eventually came to respond to all people’s concerns and uncertainties, - film noir. Noir films created within the two decades of 1940-1950s’ have a crucial meaning for understanding “the formulations of postwar American identity and its relationship to the meaning of citizenship” (Hillis, 2005, p.3). The genre brightly expressed psychological confusion and disorientation of a nation that came out as a winner in the most terrible war ever yet faced even more overwhelming difficulties and uncertainties posed by peacetime. Thereby, noir movies typically unfold the atmosphere of cynicism, frustration and disappointment – a hallmark of American society during the Great Depression and in the years of the World War II. Although the name of the genre originally came from French critics, the genre is outstanding as one of the most authentic and innovative genres in American movie industry. The typical feature of film noir are criminal plot, air of cynic fatalism and pessimism, blurred line between personalities of the protagonist and the antagonist, relative realistic nature of actions, dark lighting of scenes (mainly nighttime scenes). Women are often portrayed as deceitful characters that cannot be trusted; on the other hand, women often act as motivators for actions of male characters. However, in relation to these feature, some scholars criticize the entire idea of making noir into a separate genre, for instance, Leonard refers to a number of scholars adhering to this position and and writies the following: “I think we can say what came to be known as film noir was initially an attempt to inject new life into the tired form of the crime story” (Leonard, 2014, p.7). The war triggered large-scale changes in the life of American society, raising standards of living, changing race relations and position of women, making population more mobile and yet imposing general air of pessimism on people. Noir films serve to reflect many of anxieties of American society: fear of the new terrible weapon – nuclear weapon; paranoia connected to the beginning of the Cold War (possibility of the full-fledged war with USSR); concerns regarding rising significance of women in the society; disorientation of war veterans who came back from the war (often with severe psychological trauma). The world portrayed in noir films was filled with threats, ambiguities, inevitable murders, deceit and corruption. Here, one of the most famous movies is Maltese Falcon filmed in 1941 and possessing most of the typical noir features: its visual side offers a dark faded picture (and it looks even more sombre in black and white); the plot involves murders (even at the beginning one of the detectives is mysteriously murdered), strong criminal element and a deceitful woman, Brigid O’Shaughnessy, who “ had lured Archer into an alley that first night and had shot him with Thursby’s revolver” (Delaney, 2014); the overall atmosphere of the film is dominated by uncertainly, deceit and paranoia. Moreover, camera work in this movie is characterized by dim close-ups and frequent crowded scenes that create an impression of entrapment. Another classical noir film released in 1955 is Kiss Me Deadly, which incorporates key elements of film noir genre. The protagonist is – again – a private detective surrounded by mysteries, threats and women. Dark lighting, multiple murders, romantic affairs, lies and suspense – these are the most obvious noir features characterizing this movie. The detective in the movie is a “redemptive figure”, as in most noir movies (Hill, 1995, p.148). Moreover, this paranoia movie seems to reflect the Cold War as confrontation of America and USSR and fear of nuclear weapons typical for American society. According to Hoberman’s review (2011), the main character “was the personification of rage, a self-righteous avenger whose antagonists were gangsters and Communists». In addition, the plot involves a mysterious box with radionuclide substance that eventually explodes. Teen Genre In the postwar period, a distinctive feature of movie audience was its splitting and fragmenting into subgroups, each of them being interested in certain social problems cultivated by the movie. Thereby, a new genre emerged focusing primarily on problems and lives of teenagers as a new subgroup. As the society was becoming more homogeneous due to mass consumerism, the opposition between conformity and rebel appeared, and teens embodied this rebel on the screen. “The tension between these two threads – rebellion against society versus acceptable performance of “American” social values» - was the basis for teen genre (Fallon & Hurm, 2007, p.9). As the genre depicts its target group, teen genre emerged as a portrayal of the contemporary youth and their concerns and cultural attitudes (Shary, 2003, p.39). The movie Rebel without a Cause (1955) featuring an icon of the 1950s James Dean is probably the most illustrative teen movie of the postwar period reflecting issues relevant for the youth. The protagonist embodies the concerns and issues relevant for that time’s teens – he is rebellious, he is a hooligan drinking lots of alcohol and having problems with police. The fifties gave the very first real teenagers to the world, and rock-n-roll music became an accelerator in children’s alienation from their parents as well as multiple misunderstandings caused by differences in lifestyles and tastes. Besides, rock-n-roll music wasn’t understood, let alone liked, by the older generation and “was considered to be utterly unsuitable for children” (Diggs, 2005). Thereby, the characters of Rebel without a Cause illustrate the most typical teen problems including bullying in school, hostilities between “cool guys”, difficulties in socialization, alcohol as a new type of addiction for younger Americans and, of course, teens’ alienation from their families. James Dean’s character feels anxious about something, yet later realizes that it is misunderstanding with his parents that gnaws him. The atmosphere of rebellion and insecurity of the younger generation reflects the state of the contemporary American society of the 1950s. Conclusion Enjoying advancing technological means, Hollywood produced a great number of topical films as a response to changes in the state of American society and its perceptions. Emergence of new genres like western, film noir and teen films signified the transformation of the society and was a prompt response to its changing needs and tastes. Therefore, the key features of the postwar period such as anxiety, uncertainty, confusion and new division of social groups were reflected in Hollywood film production. References BROWNELL, K.C. (2012) “Movietime U.S.A”: The Motion Picture Industry Council and the Politicization of Hollywood in Postwar America. Journal Of Policy History, 24, 3, pp. 518-542. [Online] Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost. Available from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.adams.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=70ed38ab-cecf-48c7-a7f5-6d64d936b03f%40sessionmgr4003&vid=0&hid=4103 [Accessed April 6, 2015] COHEN, L. 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Available from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.adams.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=6f3305c0-a789-41c4-b199-64876280ef17%40sessionmgr4003&vid=0&hid=4103 [Accessed April 6, 2015] WOOD, J. (1994) History of International Broadcasting, IET. Read More