The BeginningsWhen Harvey Wilcox bought a piece of land in Southern California in 1887 and named it ‘Hollywood’, he had no idea that only a few years later filmmakers would make this spot the movie center of the world. However, it was Thomas Edison who laid the first milestone in American cinema history by inventing his Kinematoscope in 1891. In 1894 Edison presented his film Black Diamond Express to the audiences which set the foundation of the new entertainment. The first genius in early film history was D.W. Griffith who realized that the static camera was not enough to mediate his vision and by starting to use close-ups, cross-cutting, fade-outs and other camera technique he invented movie editing. While he was also the first person to shoot a film in Hollywood, namely In Old California (1910), his greatest success remains The Birth of a Nation (1915), a three-hour epic of the Civil Warand its aftermath. The movie remains controversial: movie historians acknowledge its pioneering approach to visual storytelling as well as its technical achievements, but criticize the explicit racist depiction of blacks and the glorification of the Ku Klux Klan.Among the earliest movie stars we find the impersonation of innocence or ‘America’s Sweetheart,’ Mary Pickford, also Gloria Swanson, and Douglas Fairbanks, whose most popular films were The Mask of Zorro (1920) and Robin Hood (1922). In the 1920s more and more people went to the nickelodeons (the early movie theaters where the admission fee was a nickel) to watch such epics as, for example, Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1923).The mild climate and the year-round sunshine drew more and more filmmakers to Southern California, where the center of American film industry gradually emerged. SamuelGoldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, the Hungarian-born Adolph Zukor and William Fox, and the four Warner brothers dominated the production side of the business and established their own movie studios. The studio system was to rule the film market in the following three decades. The five major studios, or the Big Five as they were called at the time, were Warner Bros., 20th CenturyFox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount,and RKO, while among the then smaller studios we count Columbia, Universal, and United Artists. In the 1920s a new genre, the slapstick comedy started to gain ground in film production with such names as Fatty Arbuckle or British-born Charlie Chaplin who eventually became his own star, director, and producer. He developed the character of the Tramp, a comic but also pathetic figure in overlarge gentle man’s clothes, bowler hat and grotesquely big shoes, and made several movies in this role: TheKid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), etc. Chaplin kept making basically silent movies in the sound era as well, e.g. Modern Times (1936), but his talkie The Great Dictator (1940) with its caricature of Adolf Hitler was also a popular success. Chaplin’s greatest rival was the stony-faced Buster Keaton who always played the perfect scapegoat and was famous for never smiling on screen. His best film is considered to be Steamboat Bill (1928).Besides slapstick comedies, the major genres were swashbucklers, historical films and melodramas, although filmmakers were experimenting with all kinds of genres throughout the decade.The premiere of The Jazz Singer in 1927 launched a new technological breakthrough, the talking picture, or talkie, with the result that the silent film had practically disappeared by the 1930s. The careers of many actors were broken as they couldnot live up to the demands of this new way of moviemaking. Among those who survived we find Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, or Gloria Swanson. Also in 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was founded and the first Academy Awards (popularly known as Oscars, after the nickname of the statuette given to the winners) were presented in February 1929.The Golden Age of American Cinema: the 1930s to the 1940sThe 1930sWith the appearance of the ‘talkie’ a new era of filmmaking began in Hollywood. The most popular genres of the time were the western, slapstick comedy, musical, animated cartoon, biopic (biographical picture), etc.As opposed to today’s practice producers, directors, actors, technicians, etc. were kept on salaries at the different studios, each studio having its own personnel. The studios also owned hundreds of theaters in cities and towns where they were able to show their own films. Big business went hand in hand with infamous relationships and scandals, and by the beginning of the 1930s Hollywood came to be known as the most sinful city. As a countermeasure General Will Hays introduced the Production Code (not enforced until 1934) to set the guidelines for films concerning sex, violence, and religion.In the 1930s also new genres appeared such as the adventure or fantasy movies. This was the time of Johnny Weissmuller’s first film, Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), which was followed by Tarzan and His Mate (1934) and several others. David O. Selznick, one of the most famous producers of the period, introduced the first classic monster in movie history, King Kong, in 1933. Another greatadventure hit came when Charles Laughton came to Hollywood after the success of The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and played in the Mutiny on the Bounty (1935).Another new development of the decade was the horror film. In 1931 the Hungarian Bela Lugosi appeared as a vampire in Dracula and Boris Karloff as the monster in Frankenstein, laying the foundation of a long tradition. The 1930s also saw the unfolding of the gangster movie genre with Howard Hawks’ Scarface (1932), and the Hungarian-born director Michael Curtiz’s Angels With Dirty Faces (1938).New movie comedians also surfaced beside Chaplin: such figures appeared as the group named the Three Stooges in Woman Haters (1934), and they went on producing slapstick comedies until 1959. The best film of thepopular pair of comedians Laurel and Hardy, Sons of the Desert, also came out in 1933. After World War I numerous European artists came to Hollywood: Ernst Lubitsch, Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang and Josef von Sternberg among the directors as well as for example Marlene Dietrich among the actors. Dietrich and von Sternberg made seven films together in Hollywood out of which Morocco (1930) and Shanghai Express (1932) are the most memorable.The greatest year in the 1930s was probably 1939 when such movies appeared as The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind (winning eight Oscars that year with British actress Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in the leading roles), Stagecoach (directed by John Ford, one of the finest directors of the time), or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The 1930s also marked the beginning of the famous feature-length animationfilm production of the Disney Company with the classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Other famous cartoons of the company were soon to follow: Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).This was also the decade when the first great stars as we know them appeared: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, just to name a few, while others, for example Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were best known for their dancing talents.1940s and the Film noirAs noted above, Alfred Hitchcock came to Hollywood to direct his first American film, Rebecca (1940) under David O. Selznick. Among his later thrillers that became classics of American film history, Notorious (1946), RearWindow (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), and The Birds (1963) are considered the best by critics and fans.1941, the year in which the US entered World War II, meant shortages, blackouts, and other wartime restrictions which harshly affected the film industry. Yet, by 1946 the attendance in theaters reached the highest percentage up to that point. Many directors and producers (John Ford, William Wyler and Frank Capra among them) set out to make documentaries and training films to aid the war. The most famous, partly propaganda film of the time was Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca (1942) starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Peter Lorre. This dark romantic story illustrates the struggles of Rick Blain, a bar keeper in Casablanca who has the means to save his former lover’s husband by giving him false documents, while this way he would lose the woman he loves. Anothersuccessful film with patriotic flair was Mrs. Miniver (1942) by William Wyler about the citizens of a British village struggling to survive the war. In 1941 the twenty-three-year-old Orson Welles made his début in his own masterpiece Citizen Kane. The film shows the life of Charles Foster Kane, who begins to fight for power within the publishing industry and turns out to be a ruthless tyrant whose actions ruin all around him. The story is mediated through a reporter whose job is to find out what Kane’s last word, ‘rosebud’ could have meant. The movie was allegedly based on the life of the contemporary newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst, w ho tried to hinder the film’s appearance by all means. The film, nonetheless, became one of the greatest classics of American film history. Welles’ Macbeth (1948) was less successful and after its release the director left for Europe where he starred in Carol Reed’s film noir, The Third Man (1949).Film noir as a genre had its bloom in the 1940s. It expressed the dark and skeptical mood of the general public through its dark black-and-white pictures where lights and shadows stand in great contrast to each other, and disillusioned or corrupt characters. The first film noir to appear in the US was The Maltese Falcon (1941) which brought a turning point in Humphrey Bogart’s career. Other films followed, such as Mildred Pierce (1945), The Big Sleep (1946), or The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and the genre lived on all the way into the 1960s.In the 1940s, John Ford started to produce his most famous war movies and westerns (e.g. Fort Apache (1948), Rio Grande (1950)), besides the movie adaptation of such literary classics as The Grapes of Wrath (1940).In the late 1940s, early 1950s a paranoid fear of Communism developed in Hollywood when producers, directors and actors were expected totestify on Communist activities within the industry. Many artists were accused and put on the blacklist (the existence of which has always been denied officially) and banned from working in Hollywood. The career of many stars was broken or endangered, among them Orson Welles, Gregory Peck, Katharine Hepburn, Joseph Losey, Frank Sinatra, or Charlie Chaplin, just to name the most well-known.The end of the 40s also brought the end of the studio system, which was marked by the federal antitrust action separating the production of films from their exhibition. This meant that the studios had to give up their theater networks and had to depend solely on production.The 1950sIn the 1950s television became cinema’s greatest rival. In order to keep their audiences, studiosstarted to produce big-scale spectacular widescreen films that could only be shown in movie theaters. At the same time, as the novelty of television declined, audiences realized that it was the cinema that provided the sort of quality entertainment they were looking for, and the number of viewers began to rise again. Also, the 1950s and 60s marked the end of the Production Code thus more challenging topics, such as sexuality and violence, were also allowed to be filmed.Ever since the 1950s American films are divided more and more into two categories: blockbusters and independent films. Studios tend to make expensive, star oriented, spectacular films whereas independent filmmakers are regarded to be more innovative and quality driven, as they do not depend on the studios’ money.In the decade of the 1950s, new, rebellious heroes emerged: James Dean, Paul Newman, and MarlonBrando along with their female colleagues Kim Novak and Marilyn Monroe. Brando’s first famous appearance was in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) for which he also received an Oscar nomination. Dean played his most remembered role in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Monroe became one of the most enduring sex symbols of the century with the help of such performances as in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) or Some Like it Hot (1959).The age of rock and roll created a new kind of music film, starting with Rock Around the Clock (1956). Elvis Presley’s first appearance in a film came in 1956 with Love Me Tender, and continued with Jailhouse Rock (1957) and other films all the way into the late 60s. Among the most successful musicals of the decade we find An American in Paris (1951), Singin’ in the Rain (1952, depicting the difficulties silent film actors had to face when talkies came to be popular) with Gene Kelly in the leading role, The King and I (1956)and Porgy and Bess (1959). Besides musicals, spectacular epics also had a bloom in the 50s beginning with The Robe (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben Hur (1959) starring Charlton Heston and winning eleven Oscars out of twelve nominations, and Spartacus (1960) with Kirk Douglas in the leading role.The 1950s also saw the adaptation of the major contemporary dramas, such as Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Managerie (1950), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), or Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1951).1960sTo continue the epic tradition of the 1950s, 20th Century Fox decided to make Cleopatra in 1963, with Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatraand Richard Burton as Marc Antony. While the epic turned out to be a flop, the musical and comedy genres proved to be more successful among the audiences by this time. One of the greatest and sweetest actresses in these genres was Audrey Hepburn who won the Best Actress Award for Roman Holiday (1953) in which Gregory Peck acted as her well-suited partner. Her career was also notable in the 1960s when she shot Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) and the musical My Fair Lady (1964) with Rex Harrison at her side. Other notable music films of the decade were the adaptation of Doctor Dolittle (1967) also with Harrison, the partly animated Disney classic, Mary Poppins (1964) and the by now classic The Sound of Music in 1965 both starring Julie Andrews, and West Side Story (1961), a modern version of Romeo and Juliet in a contemporary New York setting.It was in the 1960s that Stanley Kubrick established his position as one of themost famous auteurs of the century. If his war drama Paths of Glory (1957) was considered controversial, then his films Lolita (1962), the scandalous story of an adult man’s ped ophile passion for an underage girl, or Dr. Strangelove (1964), a dark satire about the outbreak of the nuclear Third World War, aroused even more heated criticism but also a lot of critical acclaim. His greatest masterpiece is considered to be 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) which is widely hailed as the greatest science-fiction film ever made. In the late 1960s Kubrick moved to England and worked there most of the time until his death in 1999.One of the decade’s masterpieces was Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde (1967) which already showed the weakening of the Production Code: despite its graphic violence and sympathetic gangsters the film was not banned. Similarly Dustin Hoffman’s first film The Graduate (1967), depicting an ambiguous sexualrelationship between a young man and an older married woman as well as rebellion against boring suburban life, turned out to be a popular success. The code was further undermined in the 1970s. War movies were also popular in the decade and films like Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), The Longest Day (1962) and The Dirty Dozen (1967), an impossible mission in World War II with John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and Charles Bronson in the leading roles, ran with enormous success.1970sThe period between 1967 and roughly 1980, is called New Hollywood or post-classical Hollywood, which was marked by the appearance of a new group of filmmakers, such as Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese, also called the ‘movie brats’.This was the time when several new, bold, innovative but also successful films were made by the young generation. Co ppola’s The Godfather (1972) about the Corleone gangster family ruling in Brooklyn was a milestone in film history, providing numerous memorable quotes and scenes with Marlon Brando as the Don. The film was followed by The Godfather, Part II in 1974 (both the first part and its sequel received an Oscar for Best Picture). At the end of the decade Coppola directed one of the most powerful Vietnam War movies based on the loose adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness under the title Apocalypse Now (1979). Two of the most influential horror-thrillers of the decade are William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973), and Spielberg’s Jaws (1975). George Lucas’ Star Wars (1977), a science fantasy combining elements of science fiction stories with traditional fairy-tale motifs, has become one of the biggest box-office successes of all time, and created a newstandard for the industry by its high-quality convincing special effects. Star Wars later developed into a trilogy with the release of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Return of the Jedi (1983). Three more prequels –the so-called Episodes I, II and III –were added between 1999–2005. Lucas went on to produce other blockbusters such as Spielberg’s Indiana Jones series beginning with Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981.Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976) was the decade’s most shocking film with its new extremes of violence, showing how a cab driver (Robert DeNiro) tries to save a 13-year-old hooker (Jodie Foster) after not being able to find success with ‘normal’ women. The film’s realism and graphic violence, its depiction of child prostitution and the underworld was without precedent.Besides new directors also a new type of actors established themselves in the era, forexample Jack Nicholson, Robert DeNiro, or Dennis Hopper. Also during this decade the VHS video market developed, creating a new boom in movie making as many films were now produced that were not intended for the big screen but already for the new medium.Woody Allen emerged in the 1970s as an original comic genius who usually wrote, directed and played in his own movies. His directorial début came in 1969 with his film Take the Money and Run and continued with the success of Play it Again Sam (1972) and Sleeper (1973). His major breakthrough came with Annie Hall (1977), a partly biographical love comedy, which won four Oscars in 1978, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress in a Leading Role for Diane Keaton. Allen has continued to produce a seemingly endless series of films ever since, and although few of them became major box office hits –exceptions are Manhattan (1979), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) and Hannah and HerSisters (1986) – he developed an international cult following, particularly in Europe, where his ironic, intellectual, self-doubting brand of humor is more strongly appreciated. The other outstanding comedy series of the era was the Pink Panther series with brilliant British comedian Peter Sellers as bumbling French Inspector Clouseau. The first movie was The Pink Panther (1963) followed by three sequels in the 1970s until the death of Sellers.Just like each decade, the 1970s also had its successful musical films, but light-hearted traditional musicals gave way to more dramatic and darker stories like the persecution of Eastern European Jews in Fiddler on the Roof (1971) or the rise of Nazism in Germany of the 1920s in Cabaret (1972). The music of these films was also changing, showing an increasing influence of contemporary rock and pop in Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Grease (1978), and Hair (1979). Thehorror and adventure genres also continued with British director Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979, followed by sequels in 1986, 1992, and 1997) and the beginning of the Superman sequence (1978, 1980, 1983).1980sIn the 1980s it is difficult to discover any new trends in the film industry as filmmakers tended to depend on the success plan developed in the previous decade, making spectacular disaster epics, action and adventure stories, or buddy movies. This was also the time of MTV that created a new generation of moviegoers. The first producer to exploit this trend was Don Simpson who made Flashdance in 1983. The film tells the story of Alexandra Owen (Jennifer Beals) who works at a construction site during the day and dances at a bar at night, but she really dreams of being a ballet dancer. Flashdance was not the onlymovie about women transforming on the dance floor, as the audience could also witness Baby in Dirty Dancing (1987) turning into a ballroom dancer by the help of Johnny (Patrick Swayze) against the will of her parents.Simpson also started a new kind of film genre, the buddy movies, by releasing Beverly Hills Cop in 1984. The film starred Eddie Murphy whose other buddy action comedies, 48 Hrs. (1982) and Another 48 Hrs. (1990) were also great favorites of the time. Lethal Weapon (1987), the first of a 4-part sequence about a bold and sometimes suicidal widower police officer (Mel Gibson) and his aging partner (Danny Glover) also became one of the most popular action comedies of the 80s and 90s. Although in the Die Hard sequel(1988-1995) we only find one, lonesome hero, a New York police detective (Bruce Willis) who saves the citizens of Los Angeles, Washington, and New York, this series is also considered a buddy movie.Beside action comedies, many significant Vietnam war movies were also released. Among them we find the first part of the Rambo series, starring Sylvester Stallone. The first movie shows the difficulties and persecution of a former Vietnam soldier who finds it hard to settle back into society after the war. Unfortunately, the sequels degenerated into a Cold War action thriller, with Rambo fighting against the Communists in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Other films of the decade that deal with a similar topic are Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987), Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989).Other characters in movies were fighting against different evils, imaginary monsters. The horror genre was blooming in this period. Among the most important sequels we find A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984-2003), introducing the monstrous Fred Krueger (Robert Englund) withhis dirty green-grey shirt and glove with sharp knifes as fingers, killing those to whom he appears in their dreams, Friday 13th (1980-2003) or Halloween (1978-2005) which begins with a six-year-old boy brutally killing his sister on Halloween night, and fifteen years later, as he escapes from the mental institution, he continues what he started.Seeing the success of the Star Wars sequence, Spielberg set out to direct another sci-fi fantasy, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), about the adorable alien who after being stuck on Earth is found by the ten-year-old Elliot. Eventually Elliot helps E.T. contact his species and he is taken away from Earth while Elliot stays here. After this successful movie, the production of the Back to the Future sequel (1985, 1989, 1990) brought Spielberg even more fame as audiences found traveling back and forth in time a fascinating idea, especially in the comic way it is illustrated in the film. Other popularscience-fiction or cartoon based stories of the time were James Cameron’s The Terminator (1984) and Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) which also turned out to be a sequel all the way into the late 1990s. In all these movies the studios were concentrating on blockbusters with famous stars, simple stories stuffed with more and more special effects that ‘everybody had to see’ regardless of the films’ real quality or meaning.Beside sci-fi and horror films, we can of course find popular films with serious themes, among them Milos Forman’s surprise hit Amadeus (1984), about Mozart the great composer. In 1988 Rain Man won four Oscars, among them the Best Actor in a Leading Role award to Dustin Hoffmann, who provides a fascinating performance in the role of the autistic Raymond. Bruce Beresford’s Driving Miss Daisy (1989) starred the then 81-year-old Jessica Tandy who received an Academy Award for her role as Miss Daisy. The film is set in the South before the civil rightsmovement and tells the story of an old lady and his African American chauffeur in a society full of prejudices. For younger audiences Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society (1989) was a movie of major significance, showing how an unconventional teacher, John Keating (Robin Williams) teaches his students to stand up for themselves, form their own ideas, and find their own ways no matter what those around them think about it.1990s and after 2000It was in the late 1980s and early 1990s that independent films (or ‘indies’) became more and more successful. The term independent film covers movies that are made by uncompromising directors and writers who make low-budget original films outside the studio system. The new generation of independent filmmakers includes Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh,and Quentin Tarantino just to name the most significant. Soderbergh proved his talent and independence from mainstream movie making by sex, lies and videotape(1989) and his breakthrough Erin Brockovich (2000, bringing an Oscar to one of the decade’s most famous actresses, Julia Roberts). The film is about an unemployed single mother who gets a job at a lawyers’ office and eventually disco vers how a powerful company poisons the water of the town of Hinkley. Spike Lee concentrated on the Black questions of the last few decades, making such movies as Do the Right Thing (1989) and Malcolm X (1992) set in the 1960s when the renowned black leader (played by Denzel Washington) was assassinated. This was also the time when such shocking films as Se7en (1995) or Fight Club (1999) introduced David Fincher’s alternative thinking to Hollywood. Yet, it was Quentin Tarantino who dominated among these young directors. His film Pulp Fiction (1994), anultra-violent story told in a non-linear, surprisingly unique and absurd way, with renowned stars in the leading roles (John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson) established him as one of the best directors of the age. His first commercial success was followed up by Jackie Brown (1997) and Kill Bill (2003, 2004). Besides violence, a new philosophical thinking also wriggled its way into the market by the help of the Wachowski Brothers. Their film sequence The Matrix (1999, 2003) was not only thought provoking but also unique in its visual style, which was, of course, supported by abundant visual effects. The story evolves around Neo who is called to free humans living in the Matrix, an artificial reality, exploited by sentient machines.Other than the independents, already acknowledged directors were also active in the decade. Among them we need to mention again Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993) and The Lost World: Jurrasic Park (1997) about the re-creation of long lost dinosaurs was a great success by the audiences, while his films Schindler’s List (1993), about a German businessman who saved over 1000 Polish Jews from death camps in World War II, and Saving Private Ryan (1998), a shockingly realistic account of the Omaha Beach landing on June 6, 1944, hit a much more serious tone. George Lucas, on the other hand, based his filmmaking on the success of the Star Wars fantasy saga and created the so called prequel trilogy, that provided the beginning of the story filmed in the 1970s and 1980s. The three part of the trilogy are The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith.Most of the above mentioned films made increasing use of the developing digital technology and special effects; animated films ran along a similar course, utilizing computer-based。
