Over the past two weeks I watched and analyzed two films, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. These movies were both extremely important to their genres. They both improved and set the bar for future films to come. Texas Chainsaw Massacre raised stakes for horror movies obviously by being scarier than any before it, but also by adding new aspects like extreme gore mixed in with suspense. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the same regard added an international aspect and a deeper meaning rather than just being another Chinese Kong Fu film.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a horror film that premiered in 1974 and was directed by Tobe Hooper. Hooper is a highly regarded director that specialized in the creation of horror films. http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/576425-foraging-for-subtext-the-texas-chain-saw-massacre-1974 This article talks about Texas Chainsaw Massacre and what made it so good. One of these factors was the influence of Hooper and how he created the perfect horror film. Hooper’s career took off after the direction of this movie. His success can be attributed to the unique qualities of the film that turned this low budget film into a horror movie that would change the genre forever. Some of these qualities include gore and the exaggerated build-up of suspense.
The gore throughout Texas Chainsaw was bone-chilling and was something the American audience has never seen before. It made audiences cringe and created an intense emotional response. This response made the movie powerful and intriguing, which was uncommon and very challenging for most horror movies to accomplish with their limited budget. http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=1970s This source gives an in-depth look at all famous horror movies through the decades. It is no coincidence that the more iconic movies have come after Texas Chainsaw Massacre and have gotten more and more gruesome as the years go on.
The other aspect that was so effective at shaping the horror genre also comes directly out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This aspect is the extreme amount of suspense. Not only was there tons of suspense within the film, but it never ended. It seemed as if the tension in the film was exponential and once it got to the end the movie became completely unpredictable. This is a common theme in recent horror movies now, especially the “pop up” scare. The few moments before the scare are essential. The director must decide how long he wants to let the suspense build in the audience before the actual scare actually happens. Hooper is notorious for letting the suspense build up as long as possible and in some cases nothing ever happened so the audience was on the edge of their seat for the rest of the movie.
The other highly influential movie I watched was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This movie is about Chinese movie based on the art of Kong Fu. The film was directed by Ang Lee and put him on the map as a director. http://www.indiewire.com/2012/11/retrospective-the-films-of-ang-lee-103889/ This resource talks about how Lee is known for directing all different types of movies and how he was successful at whatever he did. This shows that Lee was capable of anything while directing and showed his range of skills perfectly in Crouching Tiger. What makes this movie so influential is the different emotions Lee was able to produce.
Within Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, there are emotions such as anger, love, sorrow, and intensity. This film also perfectly combines aspects of violence and love to take the audience through an emotional roller coaster. The shift in the audience’s emotions is what keeps them wanting to watch more and is what put American people in the theater even though the movie was internationally made and came only with English subtitles. No other Kong Fu movie had shown this range of feelings which put Crouching TIger in its own teir when talking about these kinds of movies. This film really opened Americans up to the idea of international films because they can often portray much more than one strong emotion.
Both of these movies en-captured audiences with their cause of emotions within the audience. They also set bar for their genres with these emotions and demonstrated what it took to create an amazing film. Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon will always remain iconic movies that created a standard for their genres.
Two innovative films, but one was a first movie and the other a part of a career that went though a lot of changes.
Tobe Hooper was less successful at bigger budgets (except for POLTERGEIST).
Ang Lee had already done movies in Chinese and English about complex family relationships: some like SENSE AND SENSIBILITY were huge successes; but then THE ICE STORM was not.
CROUCHING TIGER is sort of that–plus martial arts.
But Lee’s INCREDIBLE HULK did very badly at the box office.
Finally, there are people who say cinema since 1960 is more about INTENSITY than story, so you are really hitting on something significant there.
This gives the broad idea: https://networkologies.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/towards-a-cinema-of-affects-a-manifesto-part-i/
I think you made some excellent points in your essay. One that I specifically like in the unique qualities that directors sometimes have to have when there is a low budget,
“Hooper’s career took off after the direction of this movie. His success can be attributed to the unique qualities of the film that turned this low budget film into a horror movie that would change the genre forever. Some of these qualities include gore and the exaggerated build-up of suspense.”
I watched PULP FICTION, that had a budget of 8 million and grossed over 107 million.
You also mentioned a correlation with love and violence in films. I think this is really interesting to look at films and including my own, such as PULP FICTION. Butch Coolidge and Fabienne’s relationship is so sweet and then there is VIOLENCE.