As I am writing this I am thinking how movies have and haven’t changed over the years. Since the 1960’s movies have been made to entertain and tell a story. Movie making has always been a business with a story teller and actor hoping to make money. Since the 1960’s movies have reflected the time they are made in and its generational tensions. They have always told a story and reflected views of the generation or the movie maker. So, with all these similarities how have movies changed over the years?
Movies have changed with the times. There have always been romances, dramas, shock factor, and even sexuality in films. With the changing times movies have evolved in a dynamic manner. Over the years as technology is a key player in the world, movies have evolved. Film has turned digitized and the world has changed. With these changes the film industry learns to adapt. With all these changes the un-conventual cinema and auteurs of the world remain very much the same. The times may be changing but connecting with an audience, creating a mood or feeling does not. As the world is evolving new American cinema and un-conventual cinema is resonating with a more mainstream audience. How do they accomplish this by exploiting generational tensions with subjects like racism, sexuality and violence to reach a wide audience to make money.
The Graduate clip/ “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me. Aren’t you?”
Over the years lower budget movies like The Graduate, Pulp Fiction have accomplished this. Other movies like Ali Fear eats the Soul shot in only 15 days about a unlikely love match between a 65 year old women and a young immigrant had also resonated well with the main stream audience. Then movies like Dead Man with a strong point of view and story to tell could only grasp a select few.
The Graduate was a 1967 film based on a not well received book. The Graduate was filmed in 1967 and Directed by Mike Nichols and starred new comer Dustin Hoffman. It was adapted from a novel and was supposed to star Robert Redford which was much more like the character in the book.
This was very much new American Cinema at its best. Although it received mixed reviews was one of the highest grossing movies that year. The Graduate came out when Time magazine voted that 1966 was a generation of the year instead of man of the year. Generation of young people under 25 and under who had already shown that they would remake the world. The article goes on to speak about the huge generation gap between youth and their parents at the time and “Never have the young been so assertive or so articulate, so well educated or so worldly. Predictably, they are a highly independent breed, and—to adult eyes—their independence has made them highly unpredictable. This is not just a new generation, but a new kind of generation.” The Graduate had an attitude of the changing world at the time. Dustin Hoffman’s character is exactly what the 1967 Times describes the youth, educated, independent and unpredictable.
The Graduate is a story of a traditional middle-class college graduate who wants a different future. He has an affair with his parent’s friend and falls in love with her daughter. Benjamin comes home from college to a bunch of adults asking and telling him and telling him what he should do with his future. He comes home confused and unsure what his future should hold. The Graduate was heavily sexualized in a very tame manner which resonated well with the mainstream audience. This movie was very much the sign of the times the world was changing and so were the movies.
Roger Ebert describes The Graduate as “The Graduate,” the funniest American comedy of the year, is inspired by the free spirit which the young British directors have brought into their movies. It is funny, not because of sight gags and punch lines and other tired rubbish, but because it has a point of view.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-graduate-1967
Ali Fear Eats the soul is a 1974 New German cinema film directed by Rainer Fassbinder. This movie tells the story of Emmi played by Brigette Mira, a 65-year-old widow and the unconventional love she finds with Ali an Arab migrant worker played by El Hedi ben Salem. The movie was filmed in only 15 days but was done beautifully. Fassbinder did a wonderful job of making you feel the characters emotions and the heaviness of their relationship due to lack of acceptance by everyone else in the movie. This movie was unlike Fassbinder’s previous films being softer and not as sexualized. He claims to only have made the film as a filler in between better pictures. The film won the International Federation of Film Critics award for best in-competition movie and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.
There is racism throughout the film, ageism, references to Hitler and the way Germans felt towards migrant workers at the time. All though there is racism throughout this movie you still feel the tenderness of the two main characters and their love and uncertainty for one another. This movie is very good and leaves you feeling full of emotion for these characters.
Pulp Fiction was written, directed and filmed in 1994 by Auteur Quinten Tarantino. This movie was an un-conventual low budget film made for only 8 million dollars and ended up grossing over $200 million dollars world wide, the mainstream audience loved it. This movie had violence, bad language, overdose and a sex slave in it with great actors and a dark humor. Pulp Fiction had very mixed reviews, but audiences loved it. This movie made you like the bad guys. Tarantino glorified these criminals while making you always wonder what was going to happen next.
Pulp Fiction You Tube clip/ Best scenes
The newstatesman.com and is done in 2014 about Pulp Fiction. Unlike the previous reviews he dislikes the film. He talks about how it’s about nothing and leaves you with nothing. He also says the biggest issue about Pulp Fiction is its racism and homophobia. He claims the racism and homophobia gets laughed off with a joke or pop culture reference. He also say’s Pulp Fiction is a victim of being a bad film.
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/10/twenty-years-it-s-time-admit-pulp-fiction-bad-film
This review is by Roger Ebert in 1994. He loves Pulp Fiction and say’s Quentin Tarantino is the Jerry Lee Lewis of cinema, a pounding performer who doesn’t care if he tears up the piano, as long as everybody is rocking. He also talks about the script If the situations are inventive and original, so is the dialogue. A lot of movies these days use flat, functional speech: The characters say only enough to advance the plot. But the people in “Pulp Fiction” are in love with words for their own sake. He gives this movie 4 stars.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pulp-fiction-1994
Dead Man 1995 starring Johnny Depp as William Blake along with some other well-known names. This film was written and directed by Jim Jarmusch with a budget of $9 million. Dead Man only grossed $1,037, 847 with mixed reviews, mostly bad. Roger Ebert disliked the film saying “Dead Man” is a strange, slow, unrewarding movie that provides us with more time to think about its meaning than with meaning. I dis-agree.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dead-man-1996
Dead Man is a poetic story of human nature. I thought the film was well written and with good acting. Jarmusch’s use of the famous poet and artist William Blake is evident throughout the film. This is western unlike most done in the past Dead Man is not fast paced and does not glorify cow boys and Indians. This movie is violent and tells a more realistic version of a western and Americas obsession with guns and death. There are many lines that say “Stupid White Man” throughout.
With great actors and violence being so evident throughout Dead Man why didn’t it resonate with the mainstream audience? Allthough violent this movie was not sexual but very artistic and beautifully made. In the 1990’s I think people wanted something different with movies like Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers which made violence intriguing and sexy, Dead Man was just sad without any adrenaline . People like a rush and to feel good, sadness doesn’t sell.
The next resource is is a film review by the New York Times about the movie Dead Man 1996. They did not like this film and describe it as slogging philosophic exercise and a sardonic vision of the old west.
In conclusion the movie industry has changed and evolved when it comes to making films. The business aspect of movie making has not changed and will continue to be a billion-dollar business. Because movies must appeal to the generations when they are made, I think maybe people have changed. Now the bad guys in the movies are now seen as humans and are well liked. What used to be risky or violent films in the past is now accepted with open arms and with a younger audience.
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