Have you ever wondered how much movies have changed or how far they’ve come? How the style, storyline, technology, female roles and much more evolved over the years or stayed the same. Movies were made to entertain people, tell stories and as an escape from the ‘real’ world. They were the next best thing other than the theater.  When movies were first invented they told short fiction stories and were adapted from theater. Today they expand to a whole variety of things such as science fiction, thriller, drama, action, horror and many more.

Technology

As far as technology goes it has improved a fair amount. From radios to IPhones it had a great impact on the world and in the movie industry. A great example of this is Avatar, a fantasy/science fiction film which is set on a different planet in the future. The film uses plenty of CGI and from an article by The Guardian it “has been one of the most hyped movies of the decade”.  The visual effects were phenomenal in the film, from glowing trees to floating pieces of land. The film also came in 3D, the director hoped it would start a new trend and become normal for movies to be in 3D.

Although Avatar was a success, some people were skeptical about the movie before it came out due to how much editing and CGI was in it. Rumours began to spread, such as the budget was double the stated amount, the 3D effects were making people nauseous; that the film, two hours and 40 minutes long, was a complete car crash. But once the movie was released the director, James Cameron, was relieved that people could go see the film and get their own opinion.

Another example of technology improvement is the film Terminator, this is an older film that is set in the future and had very decent effects for the 1980s. In the movie robots and humans are at war, and to save humanity the humans need to protect someone from the past. This film has action and plenty of explosions, but at the end they use CGI for the robot(terminator) movement. It was one of the best effects of the decade since most movies didn’t do CGI. In an interview with the director he talks about about how films are better today because they don’t have the same texture quality as they did in the 1900s.

Lastly, in the older days the directors had to find an actor for each character of the film. However, today you can use the same person to act as two characters or more by overlaying the videos. In the movie The Social Network they use this technique and have most people fooled. There are twins in the film and they are played by one person, Armie Hammer with some help from Josh Pence. An article by The Guardian says, “They acted out the scenes together, then swapped places and did the scene again.” The cinematographers had to film each scene with Hammer twice as much as any other scene. Also, after the film came out many people thought the actor actually had a twin. Here is an interview with Armie Hammer talking about how they prepared him for the role and the aftermath of the movie.

Female Roles

Another way the film industry has evolved over time is the female roles. In the middle of the 19th century females roles weren’t as important as male roles, the male were seen as the ‘heros’ of the film while the females played a damsel in distress. In the first Terminator actress Linda Hamilton plays Sarah Connor, an innocent girl who lives an ordinary life. She worries about her hair/makeup and doesn’t know what she’s in for. Throughout the rest of the movie her life has dramatically changed, she is frighten most of the time and she relies on John to save her. In the second movie, however, Hamilton transforms her character into a buff action hero who can clearly take care of herself. When John is sent to the past to save her he is truly surprised to see she is not that same damsel in distress as in the movie before. An article by Mental Floss states that “Hamilton worked out for months preparing for the role, dieted to lose weight, and took martial arts and weapons training from an Israeli commando”. Also in a blog post by classmate Tiffany Herold stated that “THE TERMINATOR was also a breakout film for actress Linda Hamilton because most of the action movies in the 80’s had male roles. Linda Hamilton’s character of Sarah Connor was a first for the action film genre because female lead roles were uncommon at the time” (Herold). Currently more and more films today have strong female leads, such as this year’s Wonder Women and even child movies like Moana, where the females characters can take control of the situation and take care of themselves.

Stereotypes (Boy meets Girl)

There are many stereotypes in our society today, but the main one is boy meets girl. In films where this happens a boy meets a girl and they usually become smitten for each other. This is one of the things that haven’t changed much throughout the years of film. For example, in the movies Bonnie & Clyde(1967) and The Social Network(2010) a boy meet a girl, but, they head in different directions. In the 1967 film Clyde meets Bonnie and they hit it off, while also robbing stores and stealing cars. Classmate Dustin Woodstock mentioned in his blog, “BONNIE AND CLYDE had a mix of romance along with a criminal relationship that they would connect with in a way of love”(Woodstock). Although, the film is also a ‘exciting gangster saga’ according to an article from Variety. Here is the trailer for the movie:

Also, in The Social Network, Mark meets up with a girl in the beginning of the movie. However, it doesn’t goes so well. And from that experience Mark created Facebook so it will be easier to interact with other people, especially girls. Doing this made him the youngest billionaire, maybe it was a good idea that he didn’t get along with the girl in the first place. Over the past century many directors have used this stereotype to create a good film and are still using it today.

Conclusion

In general, movies have improved drastically since 1965, from technology, female leads and much more.  Current movies are about fantasy or the present, and most of them connect or relate to many people. Films are meant to entertain and/or teach people, whether it’s a superman film or a documentary on animals, every film is has a purpose. Plus the variety of genres are endless, and through time films will continue to get better, so who knows what they will be like in 50 years!