The world of film is an ever-changing and evolving industry. In the last half a century, film has progressed from loose plots to social taboos, from black and white to CGI blockbusters. The world of film has come a long way since 1965; technology, economics, social and political issues and cultural/artistic developments have all shaped the films we enjoy today.

Film over the last 50 years has tackled all kinds of social and political issues. Some films choose to take a very vanilla, conventional approach so as not to offend or alienate audiences. Others throw complete caution to the wind and believe the more vulgar the better such as Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles. The Beatles debut film, A Hard Day’s Night was produced on a small budget, with a relatively unknown director and the lead characters played by a band known for their musical talents, not their acting prowess. The entire film is void of any conflict, controversial subject matter and completely inoffensive. However, under scrutiny, it could be argued that The Beatles were responsible for the demise of communism in the Soviet Union. Blogger Tamsen Malone wrote about the Beatles, “They alienated a whole generation of young, well educated, urban, Soviet kids from their communist motherland. The Beatles were the Soviets own worst enemy because they influenced political freedom, fashion, freedom of expression, and so much more.” This suggests the films undertones were not so vanilla after all and The Beatles actually sparked the demise of Communism. In the article, “Mythology, Remythology and Demythology” written by Todd.F. Davis, he argues, “…the phenomenon of Beatlemania could not and would not have been either as substantial or as durable without the identificatory process afforded by cinema.” This suggests the film was created in order to capitalize on the popularity of the fab four and was a money-making venture above anything else.

Terminator and Avatar both address political issues that cumulate in revolutions and fight against the machines or the military. Interestingly, both films are directed by James Cameron. Terminator, released in 1984 was Cameron’s first successful blockbuster hit. In 2009, he released Avatar which broke box office history by taking $2 billion at theaters worldwide. Made a quarter of a century apart, both films are of a science-fiction genre where revolution and military take-overs are the norm. The technology and film making techniques have clearly developed and changed over time, it is questionable if film genres and theme relevance have greatly deviated over time. Both films use future universes or planets and are largely removed from current reality. A review by Roger Ebert casts doubt over whether it’s the special effects or the emotion from the actors that make a film successful. Ebert says, “Nothing in the last decade’s worth of Marvel or DC movies have anything close to the power of the moment near the end of the film where Sarah Conner pulls a hunk of shrapnel from her leg. You don’t just hear and see the blood and pain, you feel it. It’s the emotion that makes the movie, and that always makes the difference.” This raw emotion is something special effects and technology just can’t create.

Cameron had a good go at it when creating Avatar as he struggled with showing emotion with each individual Na’vi that he waited over a quarter of a century for technology to develop enough to create the desired effect. Interestingly, writer Francesca noted in her essay, Action Films Then vs Now, that “...Him (Schwarzenegger) only having a few lines made the movie watchers appreciate his acting with his body and facial features.” This observation demonstrates how technology can only take us so far and to connect with audiences, films need to rely on the acting and emotion that the main characters bring to the role. Many actors when they take on a role, do lots of research on the character they are playing. It is believed that Meryl Streep learnt two languages, German and Polish for her role in Sophie’s Choice (1982) so she would seem authentic in her character. 

Forrest Gump is a film that details the extraordinary life story of Forrest Gump. An intellectually challenged young man, whose mother insists he be afforded the same opportunities as any other child. Set over the course of three decades, Gump enjoys success as an NFL star, a Vietnam War hero, a world class ping-pong player and co-owner of a lucrative fishing company. The social stigma of being intellectually challenged, struggling to find acceptance in a cruel world and only having one true friend in Jenny, Gump overcomes these obstacles through grit, determination and remaining true to himself and his country. He stumbles through so many historical events such as Watergate, surviving Hurricane Carmen and The Hippie Movement. The film hit so many social and political issues running the chance of alienating viewers, yet it was a hugely successful film. Audiences were enamored with Gump and how he stumbled through so many historic events, seemingly obliviously and unscathed by it all. The textbook, “A Short History of the Movies” notes, “…Tom Hanks plays a character elevated to mythical status without developing mythic consciousness, a blank that audiences filled with their own nostalgia for innocence.” Hanks character is portrayed as an innocent hero that audiences found relatable and fed their own personal nostalgia.

A common theme that has remained constant over the years in film, is the fight for freedom. The Beatles fought for freedom of expression through music. In The Terminator, Sarah Connor fought for freedom against the machines. In Forrest Gump, Gump fought for freedom in the Vietnam War and to break free of the stigma attached to low intellect. In Avatar, the Na’vi fought against the military and for freedom and peace on Pandora. While each film addresses freedom in different dimensions, it appears to be a recurring theme that has withstood the test of time (over half a century) that could be the key to a films success.

With such a variety of film genres, different director styles and conventional/unconventional criteria, it can be questioned if filmmaking is still a traditional art form or just a money-making enterprise. When you consider the budgets of today’s blockbusters compared to films made in the 60’s, it is a valid question, does business come before art? The Beatles debut movie, A Hard Day’s Night, was made on a minimal budget at the fab four’s request and directed by relative unknown, Dick Lester. Economically speaking, the film was a commercial success. In today’s money, a budget of $200,000 equates to a $1.6 million budget. The film took the equivalent of $20 million which means it earnt back 14 times its budget. When you compare that to the outstanding budget of Avatar, which stood at $237 million. At the box office, Avatar broke records and took $2 billion. While that is an unfathomable amount, it’s actually only 8 times greater than the budget. Compared to films such as Terminator and Forrest Gump, who’s budgets were $6.4 million and $55 million respectively. Both films took over 12 times their original budget at the box office. This could indicate that the film industry has become less of a money-making enterprise and focused more on filmmaking as an art form. Avatar was certainly a digitally crafted masterpiece; the camera technology, the use of CGI and visuals of the entire film are unparalleled to any other film in this comparison. It certainly demonstrates how far technology has developed over the last half of the 20th century, but the art of story-telling in the film was lost in a world of digital enhancement

Technology has definitely exploded over the last six decades. In the 1960’s the height of digital technology was the remote control, now we can create entire movies using CGI technology. In Isuf Bytyci’s blog post, How Technology Changed The Movie Industry he goes into great detail about the making of Avatar and the technology used to create the film. To demonstrate the emotion of the Na’vi and to avoid “dead eyes”, Bytyci writes, “The device pointed to the actors’ faces and the camera recorded facial expressions and muscle movements to an impossible degree until then. More importantly, the camera recorded eye movement, which had not been the case with previous systems. The head adjustment system allowed the actors’ facial performances to be captured with unprecedented clarity and precision.” Even though Cameron conceived the idea of Avatar in his childhood, he had to wait several years for the technology needed to be developed. The making of Avatar took nearly 7 years due to technology constantly evolving. However, films such as Terminator and Forrest Gump also enjoyed success by using technology that was available at the time. While James Cameron could be commended for his patience, Robert Zemeckis, director of Forrest Gump utilized resources available and managed to recreate multiple historical events throughout the 1950’s-1980’s. 

Without a shadow of a doubt, technology has changed the film industry. Films are produced in color, robots/machines can be given human like traits, historical events can be recreated and entire planets and parallel worlds can be digitally imagined. Technology has allowed film to move from the realistic and almost mundane, to a whole world of fantasy and make believe. When Dick Lester created A Hard Day’s Night, he employed 6 freelance camera-men and the only direction he gave them was to shoot whatever they could. There was no camera assist, just a zoom lense. The result was the birth of the music video. The camera-men captured the essence of Beatlemania with close ups of the band, the electric audience and the raw talent and passion of the Beatles. The closing scenes of the film show that fancy camera work and digital enhancement is not always needed to connect with the audience.

The Terminator shows Arnold Schwarzengger’s character as half man, half machine. He is a machine that exhibits human flesh and hair and zero emotion. He is almost invincible as he survives two explosions, repeated gun-shot wounds and multiple attacks that he is near impossible to destroy. The Terminator removes his human eye as it was badly damaged during a car chase with Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. His cyborg eye is revealed and his eyeball is now a red laser. This iconic image is used as the main focus of the movie poster. It shows audiences the Terminator as half man, half machine wielding an intimidating gun. A perfect visual summary of the films genre, action sci-fi.

           

When asked the question, have movies changed dramatically since 1965? My initial response is yes, absolutely. However, after closer scrutiny, I believe movies have fluidity and move with the times. “Movies” covers such a broad spectrum and with such a variety of genres, without change they would stagnate and no longer be the money making enterprise that it continues to be. However, some changes are a little more subtle. When exploring the economics of the film industry, even though the budgets have increased over the years, the profit percentage has remained pretty much the same. Most successful films earn back 8-12 times their budget. While different genres exude different storylines, most award winning films include some kind of romance or love story coupled with some kind of fight. The fight for freedom, the fight to break free from social stigmas, the fight against the machines, the fight to protect our loved ones or our homes and the fight to do the right thing. This formula seems to be as pertinent today as it was 50 years ago. I don’t believe movies have changed dramatically since 1965, they still tackle social and political issues that are mostly tactile and audiences can relate to. The film industry is still a lucrative business, however, the art of story-telling blended with different technological advances has allowed the industry to create a new wave of movies that keeps audiences engaged and subject matter is still relatable and relative in the 21st century.