Movies are such an interesting part of our history. For as long as we have been a species we have told stories. These stories eventually turned into us creating books, and theatrical plays. As technology allowed, our story telling abilities were transformed with the creation of film. With better technology came better effects that created even more thrill in seeing a movie. Films are used to entertain, and it is a type of entertainment that draws people in for many reasons. No matter the genre you are the most into, there is a film that has a story for you.

The progress of film through time has been incredible. The story telling by Directors from all over the world has changed so much depending on the era and the values that were currently held in their respective countries, as well as current issues that may have been occurring politically. These auteurs  have pushed boundaries of the the mind, and the controversial because they had a story they wanted to tell, a art that they wanted to present to the world. This as allowed movies  to be in an entirely different place then they were even just fifty years ago.

In the late 1950’s and 1960’s there were many films coming out that would open the doors to a change in the film industry. The films from the French New Wave era and New Hollywood era were setting the pace. The movie “Breathless” from director Jean Luc Godard, was a film that was part of that French New Wave. This film portrayed a love story that audiences weren’t used to seeing on the big screen, as it was probably a relationship that would have traditionally been more hush hush. The main characters Michel and Patricia casually had sex and not much more, even though it seemed like they wanted more. Besides the unconventional relationship, Godard showed us a character that is now known as the anti-hero. In the blog post “Breathless and The Manchurian Candidate” by my peer, Nick Ilvento he states “Godard wants the audience to perceive Michel as a crook with a good heart, which fits perfectly into the category of an antihero. Godard does this by showing the contrast of Michel’s crime and love for Patricia. I think without an antihero this movie would have been stale and just an ordinary tragic love story. The aspect of a protagonist that doesn’t have pure morals or goals makes Breathless a phenomenal movie unlike anything of its time”. I full heartedly agree with Nick that without that aspect of Michel’s character the film would have been a bit stale, so it is easy to see Godard’s genius in the development of this character. This film was a true step away from the norm, and definitely in the right direction. In an interview at Cannes with Godard from 1960, he says ” I don’t think cinema influences youth. We should instead let youth influence cinema, to hold onto our desire”.

This is great advice, and I feel that it is advice that was taken to heart by others if they did not already feel this way themselves. The more our morals and values changed, the more we were willing to let our lives go in a less traditional path, and film followed suit.

Two more movies that tested the values that we had in our households were “Bonnie and Clyde” and “The Graduate”. Both came out in 1967 and were part of the New Hollywood movement. These directors of these films took from where Godard left off- these directors broke away from mainstream movies of the past and told these stories in their own way.

“Bonnie and Clyde” is a film that was based on the real life bank-robbing criminals from depression era who died in a shootout of epic proportions. The film by Arthur Penn romanticized their crimes and turned Bonnie and Clyde into anti-heroes for the ages. In this interview, Penn describes directing this film and how the setting was so important in the portrayals of his characters. Bonnie and Clyde were by nature not the best people – they did rob banks and kill people for a living. However it is his ability to put you in their shoes, during the depression that allows you to fall in love with the characters.

Penn’s version of the characters of Bonnie and Clyde as people is quirky to say the least, but that is also what helped to make the film such a great success.  In a blog post “A Hard Day’s Night vs. Bonnie and Clyde” by my peer Tiffany Herold she writes, “the film had more success than they were intending and it became a cultural phenomenon. There is also a lot of humor that the director, Arthur Penn, decided to throw into the film.  Bosley Crowther for the New York Times states, “It is a cheap piece of bald-faced slapstick comedy that treats the hideous depredations of that sleazy, moronic pair as though they were as full of fun and frolic as the jazz-age cutups in Thoroughly Modern Millie” (New York Times Review).”

In some ways this film was pure comedy, once you stepped away from their robbing and killing spree. The relationship between the characters and their attitude made it funny at times, and really helped the cause of caring for yet another antihero character.

The film “The Graduate” goes a completely different direction as far as a movie that was cutting edge and shocking for the times. In an article by Ellen Jones in the Guardian, she states, “It was the Summer of Love, the first one. Young people were making their voices heard in politics and revealing the widening chasm between themselves and their parents’ generation. The film that summed it all up was The Graduate”.

This film broke away from all of the films we had seen in the past when the main character Benjamin moves home from college and allows himself to be seduced by the wife of his father’s co-worker, Mrs. Robinson. This goes into an even bigger twist when he falls for Mrs. Robinson’s daughter Elaine, and becomes obsessed with making her is wife. This combined with the best movie soundtrack of all time by Simon and Garfunkel makes this a movie that will not be forgotten any time soon. Director Mike Nichols style of filming and use of darkness really emphasized the relationship that was being hidden from the families of Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson. You can see some of Nichols use of lighting and camera angles in the movie trailer below.

While the trailer is good, and gives you an idea of the film. But I do have to say that the twist of him breaking off his affair to be with Elaine is where things really get interesting. The final scenes are unforgettable, and show Elaine and Benjamin running away together from her wedding. Ending up on a bus together, left to think about what they are to do next. Which is ironic as the film began with Benjamin feeling confused about what to do with himself.

This crazy story ended up being a monster success, and is still considered to be one today. “This was the kind of success that the Hollywood establishment could not ignore, and the film received seven Academy Award nominations. Nichols went on to win best director. Today it is at No 22 on the list of highest-grossing films of all-time at the US box office, after inflation, above more traditional crowd-pleasers such as Jurassic World, Forrest Gump and The Avengers” states Jones.

It was the success of this film and of these films,  “Bonnie and Clyde” and “The Graduate” that really set the precedence of what was to come in Hollywood cinema.

As film makers continued forward, movies were becoming bigger and better. Directors began doing more then just coming up with movies that were different from what we had scene in the past, they began redefining genres as we knew them. Love stories were more risqué, and horror movies became more violent. As audiences around the world progressed in their thinking, so did the movies they were turning to for entertainment.

Films like “A Better Tomorrow” by John Woo helped redefine what we were used to seeing come out of Hong Kong. “Woo sought to break from the clownish kung fu films that were being churned out at the time by Shaw Studios and create stories that were realistic and mired in the seedy world of the Triads, Hong Kong’s notorious organized crime gangs” states Abid Rahman in his article from The Hollywood Reporter. “Woo ushered in the age of “gun fu,” marrying balletic movement with furious gunplay and utilizing techniques that are now considered action clichés such as slo-mo, tracking shots and the actors wielding two guns”.

In this film it is the relationship between brothers- one a cop named Kit, and the other a gangster named Sung who makes counterfeit money that propels the movie forward. They go from loving one another to having basically no relationship because of Sung’s criminal activities. In the end though the relationship is salvaged when the brothers are united in the end during a shootout against their common enemy. The blood and violence in this film was not what was coming out of the traditional Chinese Cinema, but was certainly something that audiences were eager to see. The film became an international success and put Woo on the international stage as a director to watch out for.

The last movie I will discuss is a movie that is more wholesome than shocking is “Pleasantville”. This movie does not shock but brought up some issues that had not been portrayed in mainstream movies as often as it should have been at the time that it came out in 1998. The film stars two teenagers Jennifer and David from the 1990’s who become trapped in a black and white TV series from 1957. Once in the show they are meant to conform to the conservative values that of the 1950s. This does not go over well because Jennifer informs other teenagers of what sex is and the world begins to change from black and white to color. As people in the town begin to break out of their social norms and become more freethinking the more things and people become colorized. At first people in the town tried to ignore it, but the more things became colorized, the people who did not become colorized began to feel like their values have been threatened, and start to discriminate against the colorized people in the movie. This segregation mirrors that of what was occurring during that time frame in our nation.

In the film people who become colorized were snubbed and harassed in the film, there was even a sign put up in a store front that said “No coloreds”. In an interview director Gary Ross says Among the film’s messages directed at Conservative America and beyond: “pleasant” doesn’t always equal “good,” Ross says

 

 

 

“You can drain the life and nuances and complexity out of things by homogenizing them to make everything harmoniously dull, flat, conflict-free, strife-free,” says Ross in his interview with CNN writer Jamie Allen.
This film put political issues front and center in a discretionary way. To me it seems that this film would not have been so successful if the values of our nation hadn’t changed to being more open minded. So even though this wasn’t shocking as far as relationships, or violence, it could be viewed as shocking in terms of politics, but obviously on the mild side.

As time has gone on and the values and morals have changed, movies have been allowed the free license to show more and more. Story lines have gotten more intense and creative, and are addressing more political issues all the time. The technology has come a long way in the last 50 years as well which also has helped make current movies much more interesting and esthetically pleasing to watch. To say that movies have changed since 1965 would be such an understatement, as they have changed dramatically, and will continue to do so. A fact that  will make the next 50 years very interesting to watch.