From the Great Depression, Vietnam war, Women Rights movements, deep economic crisis to landing a man on the moon and from being shot in a single scenario, narrated linearly, without ellipses or time jumps, without close-ups,without adequate technology to creating Fusion systems and 3-D cameras, cinematography has responded to moments of change and turmoil in American and worldwide society, often with the best, most creative films in the post-modern canon. The changes are obvious and constant.

Of all the transformations or innovations that cinema has had throughout its history, almost none has been so radical to the point of the breakup or to be considered a revolution. Two of them, linked to the technology of cinema, have managed to shake it and to some extent redefine it: the arrival of sound and the recent development of the digital image. But the only change of shock that has taken from the conscience of the people of cinema to redirect the way they do it and conceive it, is the author’s policy, which was developed in the criticism, but had to be materialized from films , and these films were the ones that, as a whole, were named after the French New Wave. New camera angles, new use of photography, in black and white, which is served indoors in a indirect, bounced lighting, to generate a realistic environment making the camera follow the actors more naturally. Hunter O’ Neil shows the techniques the director Mel Brook used to create a great atmosphere on the movie Young Frankenstein. “The film has a gothic style, following the visual formula for most black and white horror movies. This was a conscious choice on the director’s behalf in order to create a dark atmosphere that served to pair with the artistic style of the film” .These techniques are almost handcrafted, with a small technical team, no major stars and an improvised performance by young actors. In their rebellion against what they perceived as Hollywood’s filming style, the directors of the New Wave used to bow to stories that had open endings and were not neatly closed at the height of the climax; these directors always seemed to approach reality and tackle social and political issues.

The relationship between the movies and their relation to social and political impacts looks to always be parallel. Starting with Bonnie and Clyde, although filmed in 1967, the content was related during 1932-34, in the midst of the Great Depression that followed the crack of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929. I relate Young Frankenstein, 1974 with the Women Rights movements during the early 70s, on the movie we have something unusual, a love relationship between a woman and the creature. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre tackles historical events like Vietnam war and strong economic recession during the 70s in the US. Giallo, an Italian production treats Women Rights and discrimination against women. At the end we have a movie that tackles modern issues and which we face today. With the global warming happening and nature destruction, we have Avatar which raises awareness regarding environmental issues. Nicole Evans has the same issues on her essay about Blazing Saddles. “Released in 1974, the US was going through a time of upheaval and huge change after the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s abdication. With the changes and upheaval came more freedom and understanding, there was great experimentation and daring innovations in film.”

The movies made on a particular historical, political or social event will share similar pathways and genre. On the earlier years of cinematography we have the movies Bonnie and Clyde and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This movies are both made on rough time during different crisis. Therefore I could not expect a romantic movie and with zero violence. These movies are a reflection of what these people have been through and how their life was impacted through that time. Their budget was low but the success was big. Moving on, later we see an experimental cinematography with a different style. Creature and aliens started appearing more often. Non realistic and beyond imaginative ways to make a movie were being used. On this time we see a not very common genre, known as science fiction. The budget was still not as big comparing to nowadays, but its success was. Young Frankenstein and Aliens both experimented with this style and both achieved great success on the box office. The modern cinema mostly belongs to blockbusters with super advanced technology. Nowadays a movie’ success depends on the technology it uses. These movies will mostly be conventional with high budgets, and with tackle issues that will be the most interesting to us. Avatar tackles environmental issues and Giallo tackles gender discrimination, both top topics nowadays on the world problems.

Bonnie and Clyde emerged and tackles the deep economic crisis that hit the United States in 1930. Written by two novice screenwriters, worn by a stalled actor, associated with an unrecognized actress, and directed by a director who had just been fired from editing his latest film, Bonnie and Clyde, an unconventional movie had a huge success on the cinematography. The movie was mostly shot using natural light, on cloudy days and to reach special effects, unique techniques were used. These effects were achieved by putting a simple mosquito net on the camera. The movie broke many taboos and brought many changes. From being classified as extreme violent and explicit, Bonnie and Clyde will be known for the changes it brought to Hollywood. The hysteria in the violence used, in which the characters shout and shout, works as a substitute for a sex they cannot practice, a love that they cannot consume. It is part of the poetry that the film shows, an energetic portrait of an America sunk in depression.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is another movie that tackles tough times in the United States. The first thing to consider is that this film takes place in Texas, which is possibly the state that best represents American culture and one of the most important states in the livestock industry and where the oil drying fields problem was present. It also takes place in the first half of the 1970s, where American society was experiencing many political, economic and social pressures, suffering the ravages and losses of the war in Vietnam and being in the midst of a strong economic recession. With a budget of only 140 thousand USD, the director was able to create a masterpiece. The scenes of violence are extremely realistic; an effort that cost a large part of the cast to suffer injuries while recording. Although there was no blood shown on the scenes, the terror was always there. Instead of betting on teaching gallons of blood in an unreal representation, it is preferred to show enough to make it uncomfortable and real. The movie shows how a distorted model of what in the United States is considered to be a normal family is used. There is even a distorted version of the dinner, an important exercise in the social core of this nation. The use of these distorted versions of the family and dinner make everything that goes on at the time feel uncomfortable, as it goes to the roots of the values, but their actions are completely contrary to what is expected. Even the appearance of the house as a dark and decadent represents an antithesis of what is moral decline in society. Jared Yates writes about horror the movie brought, with no need to show blood. “The amount of gore that is depicted in this film is all merely suggestive; an interesting take on horror films of the time. Tobe Hooper proved to the world that horror is not all about viewing the shedding of blood but what the mind creates.”

A different cinematography but similar genre, is the movie “Giallo”, yellow in Italian directed by Dario Argento. First of all, Argento is obviously not a guessing game: the identity of the murderer is not a secret, and his motives are as simple as they are clear. Comparing a genre with 35 years difference; we can see some clear changes. This movie is different, when it comes to how explicit these movies are. Beside amputated limbs, severed fingers, crushed faces, crushed jaws, dissected arms, scattered across the floor and liters of blood covering the walls, here, we have virtually blood shown on the scenes, which is usual for a director who taught violence and blood at his best. The movie’ message to the audience is different and more reliable to actual and recent worldwide problems. Gender inequalities and discrimination issues are tackled. Starting with an Oscar winner actor, and 14 million USD budget, ten times higher than “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, this conventional movie did not exceed its expectations.

As we get closer to the end of second millennium the movies started to change role. We start to see more money make machines and more attention given to the economic role of these movies. An example would be Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Steven Spilberg did not seem enjoying the make of the rest of sequels. Spilberg, known as the found of New Hollywood, will create what is known as ‘Spielberg style’ where the main focus was economic and not artistic. The purpose would not be always achieved. Some movies would face “box-office flop” and would be considered a failure if not made on the right way. An example would be Gialo, a big failure, considering its budget and cast.

As the years keep going, with new tools, styles and techniques used, I notice an exponential relationship between technology and the success of the movies. Advanced tools seem to advance the movie industry and raise its profits. When new tools are used, new styles of directing and making a movie are given to the public. These tools have been improving the viewer experience over the years. Cinema has evolved with technological innovation and, today, there is such a symbiosis that there has even been a “cannibalization” between the two terms. Avatar and its success are a clear example of how technology has been a game changer on the movie industry. From using natural light with Bonnie and Clyde to using Fusion Cameras with Avatar, now we are experiencing a new dimension on the cinematic world.

Science fiction is a literary genre that almost never hits, but with 237$ million budget, this conventional movie would become the highest grossing movie ever with more than 2$ billion. Avatar tackles different political and social issues like environmental issues, Imperialism, Militarism and Anti-Americanism. Avatar, does not even have the ideological content of ‘Where Green Ants Dream’ (1984) by Werner Herzog, although it is probably a good metaphor to warn us about the importance of respecting harmony that does not belong to us. This movie was planned to be released much earlier than it was. When Cameron brought the project back to life in 2005, it seemed that the required technique was already at hand. At the time, there was still concern that the characters did not appear real enough, and suffered the worrying “dead eyes” effect already seen in some of the early acting capture films. Cameron’s team wanted to go far beyond previous efforts, to ensure the complete realism of the characters. To achieve this, they developed a new system of “image-based facial interpretation capture”, using a camera held in the head that accurately recorded the smallest details of the actors’ facial performances. Instead of using the motion capture technique by placing reflective markers on the actors’ faces to capture their expressions, the actors wore a helmet similar to that of football players, to which a tiny camera was applied. Cameron used the Camera Fusion System to record to record live actions. Cameron gave world a movie that audience would not be able to visualize, he gave us the fourth dimension.

Looking at this half a century we left behind, I surely can say that the movie industry seems to hold lots of surprises for us. Movies are escapism, and will make us experience situations that may or may not ever experience in our own life. And this experiences may be the best ones we get to experience!