MOVIES

Steven Spielberg called them the “most powerful

weapon” in the world .
Motion pictures , the photography of movement,
are the most important cultural phenomenon of
this century , an invention arguably exceeding the
atom bomb in their political impact and certainly,
their cultural impact. If the world were deprived of
the motion picture , life for the most of us, would
be less knowledgeable and less pleasant.
 Movies as a communication medium
• As with most tools of communication, no one person invented the motion
picture.
• No indication had been found that anyone involved in the early growth of
motion picture had any concept how important it would become- a means
of story telling that would entertain, enthrall and influence billions of
people around the world.
• The public played an important part in what the movies became for
movies are both an art and an industry.
• Like all media, motion pictures have substituted for direct contact with
other people. Time spent in watching a film is time away from other
pursuits, including family and friends.
• Films are information, a component of our information age.
• More and more people are making movies at every level. Production and
distribution are decentralized as never before.
• Motion pictures have been a force for knocking down barriers among
races, religions and nationalities.
• Motion pictures cannot be isolation. Their impact on society has been far
too great.
 Nickelodeons
Short films being strung together in random
fashion as a program started the nickelodeons.
Its name reflects the price of admission (a
nickel). Nickel theaters appealed to shoppers,
workers during lunch break, women.
The cinema brought affordable entertainment to
the poor, who had neither the disposable
income nor the time for other paid
entertainments, But only the white poor for the
blacks were barred from nickelodeons.
 Fear of revolutionary ideas
• The wealthy did not frequent the
nickelodeons, but from them came
expressions of worry that uneducated
workingmen and women were being fed
revolutionary ideas.
• Suggestions were made that nickelodeons be
regulated, censored or even suppressed.
• Eventually nickelodeons would indeed be put
out of business but only by better quality
theaters and better shows.
 Political Issues
• During the great American economic depression in
1929-1933, poverty was rampant after international
economic collapse occurred. As a form of
distraction the American public preferred light
comedy and adventure films that gave them a form
of escape from their poverty stricken lives.
• During WW2 Hollywood aided the war effort with
patriotic films.
• After the war Hollywood films tackled social issues
like racism and anti-semitism, alcoholism, prison
brutality and the horrible conditions in insane
assylums.
 Motion Pictures in other Countries
• France –experimented in unusual forms of expressions, notably avant-
garde art that looked at the world in symbolic ways.
• Russia- Lenin said “Cinema for us, is the most important of the arts”. To
this effect agitprop trains roamed far and wide carrying propaganda films
to the remote regions of Russia extolling communism.
• Germany-focused on the focused on the depression affecting a once
proud country that eventually lent massive support to the Nazi Party that
promised salvation from the situation.
• Great Britain- suggested government solutions to the economic
depression but injected much needed humor.
• Italy – after WW2 originated a school of neorealism which was opposite to
Hollywood glitter, showing documentary reality on the situation of the
poor people.
• Japan- in the movie Rashomon (1950) focused on Japan’s medieval period
of the samurai and projected cultural highlights .
• India- developed its distinctively Indian Bollywood signature in movies and
films.