Over time, movies have constantly been evolving in more than one aspect. Films have been changed through genre, special effects, editing and even the way the music plays in the background to make you feel a certain way. But one of the most affective similarities I found is that the romance factor seems to be in a lot of films, using romance in different ways as well. Specifically, BONNIE AND CLYDE, JOURNEY TO ITALY, PLEASANTVILLE, and THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON all have some type of romance throughout the films.
For example, earlier movies such as JOURNEY TO ITALY had really noticeable jump cuts. In this scene (besides it being a picture) when the camera is rolling, it is very noticeable to see that the scene was jumped cut because both actors were in slightly different positions in a matter of a few milliseconds.
Another major issue that movies don’t have now is the shakiness of the camera. When watching older movies, it is very distracting when the camera is shaky as well as starting a new scene with a funky camera angle. Its almost like watching a video off of someones phone that they recorded. It really takes away from the focus of the film.
Despite the shaky camera footage and jump cuts, these movies are amazing to watch and will always be a classic for anyone that wants to watch them. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON does an absolutely amazing job at filming. When I watched the film, I was really trying to look and see if I could find any film errors but I couldn’t spot one. This also has to do with the time period the film came out. TCCOBB came out 40 years later than B&C which is another reason why the film was so much cleaner.
If someone was to watch a movie from 1965 and 2017, they would 100% be able to tell which film was made when. Why? Because of the scenes, background music and special effects. BONNIE AND CLYDE was a film with very little special effects. It was very easy to see that the gunshots and shootouts were fake. During the making of the film, Arthur Penn wasn’t sure that he wanted to make a movie about these two but then realized that this is exactly what people would pay to see. Take a look.
When comparing these four movies, I really began to notice something. I noticed that PLEASANTVILLE had a significantly huge amount of special effects (more then I had seen for B&C and JTI combined).
This poster for PLEASANTVILLE really shows the contrasts between the black and white and how certain objects are beginning to change color.
PLEASANTVILLE is a film about teen brother and sister that live in the 90’s. They are sucked in to a 50’s television show with a special remote that a TV repair man gave them. They ruin a perfectly perfect world that creates change such as color from black and white. The black and white theme to color was amazing. This is a type of special effect that could not have been possible back in the 50’s and 60’s because of the technology. This specific film really helped defined what “digital revolution” was all about. This link explains everything about how much time was spent in just the colorization alone and how they did it. http://tech.mit.edu/V118/N52/pleasantville.7.1.52a.html
Even though these movies are all completely different, they all share one big idea that I have noticed- romance. Like I was talking about earlier, romance can be used in so many different ways. JOURNEY TO ITALY used it for conventional purposes. The film used romance because that is exactly what people wanted at the time. The film was an Italian Neorealism film which focuses on the differences between class. Globe Correspondent Peter Keough, explains in this article how the film has “constant bickering”, which is another reason people of the 50’s could relate. This article explains more about the “Italian Neorealism” genre.
From the start of the film, you could easily tell that this couple were in the higher class because they had fancy clothes, nice hotel rooms, and butlers. But thats not why people liked the film. People likes the film because it focuses on the “real-life” aspect that people could relate to. The whole film, these two were arguing and even talked about getting a divorce because things weren’t working out for them. The tension between these two is what made the film so good and towards the end is when the romance factor took place. They realized that they were seeing their marriage the wrong way and ended up figuring out their problems. BONNIE AND CLYDE had a different approach with romance.
Arthur Penn decided that he was going to incorporate a bond between the two criminals in a way that the audience could relate as well. This film was conventional because it related to what was going on in the world at the time. This movie was part of the “New Hollywood Films Era” and just hit it off. Bonnie and Clyde were amazing at what they did (robbing banks) and figured out that they had a bit of romance going on as well. Penn delivered this bond throughout the whole movie which made more of a connection to the film with the audience. The ending was quite the shocker. Bonnie and Clyde were shot dozens of times out of nowhere.
The director had a very great idea about this scene because he used a freeze frame of the two robbers dead.
PLEASANTVILLE was much different romance wise then JTI and B&C. PLEASANTVILLE was both conventional and unconventional at the same time. The film was conventional because the beginning was set in the 90’s (when the film came out). It had a 90’s setting of a highschool as well as the characteristics that came along woth 90’s people. The film is later all unconventional because it takes a turn back to the 50’s where everything is black and white.
Actor Reese Witherspoon explains in an interview by ScreenSlam what the film is all about.
George and Betty Parker are having a hard time keeping their relationship together when Betty figures out more about herself and her personal life. George gets very upset and thinks something is wrong with Betty when he comes home and there is no dinner on the table. This is one reason why the film was unconventional as well- in the 50’s women would always make dinner for their husband and family. George and Bettys relationship was amazing until she found her true colors and thats when George started to worry. Their son, Bud, helped George find his true colors which made Betty happy and himself. George realized that change wasn’t bad and that it actually opened his eyes to new opportunities as well. Despite them having their visual differences at first, their relationship ended up being okay. TCCOBB was a very happy story, but their relationship just couldn’t work out for one very odd reason.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON was a tale about the life a child that was born looking old and would age the opposite of everyone else. TCCOBB was more of a love story between two very different people. Daisy and Benjamin and Daisy were the same age and always shared a special connection. The only problem was that Benjamin looked like he was 80 and Daisy looked like she was 15. Benjamin left his home where Daisy lived to go look for work. Wherever Benjamin went, he would send a postcard to Daisy to let her know he still cares about her. As Daisy grew older, Benjamin grew younger and the only way they would ever be able to have a relationship, was right in the middle when they both looked the same age. Of course they wanted a forever lasting relationship, but they couldn’t because of the aging process.
This is a picture of the two when they looked the same age.
This film had amazing special effects. Throughout the movie, Brad Pitt (Benjamin) had constantly kept looking younger and younger and the makeup artists couldn’t of done a better job.
In conclusion, it is noticeable to tell the difference between older movies and recent movies. The special effects make a whole lot of difference as well as the editing of the entire film. No matter what the type of movie, there will always be something that can be related back to both of them. For example, I looked at Keenans post for “Ghost Dog vs. Hard Boiled” and he said that in HB the story was building up character for one individual just like in the film I watched, A BETTER TOMORROW. I used the romance/ relationship factor for my similarities but there are dozens of connections between each movie. I could have used the relevance of vehicles in my films because in each one there was at least one scene where the characters are traveling to another destination.
So have movies changed from 1965 to Now? I definitely think..yes.
Movies have changed in so many different ways. They have changed because the trends and hot topics have changed through time just like visual effects and framework has changed as well. I think that now, a lot more movies have to deal with how the actual film looks rather than the meanings behind them. Almost all of the films that I have watched in theaters in the past 2 years have used a significant amount of special effects which isn’t a bad thing, but I think it takes away some of the meaning that certain movies like JTI and B&C had.
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