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Chapter 7
Movies and the Impact of Images
In this chapter, we examine the rich legacy and current standing of movies. We will:
• Consider film’s early technology and the evolution of film as a mass medium
• Look at the arrival of silent feature films; the emergence of Hollywood; and the development
of the studio system with regard to production, distribution, and exhibition
• Explore the coming of sound and the power of movie storytelling
• Analyze major film genres, directors, and alternatives to Hollywood’s style, including
independent films, foreign films, and documentaries
• Survey the movie business today—its major players, economic clout, technological
advances, and implications for democracy
• Examine how convergence has changed the way the industry distributes movies and the way
we experience them
Preview Story: The Star Wars franchise is responsible for the development of new technologies
in filmmaking, innovative promotion of movies, and lucrative merchandising tie-ins with both
media– and nonmedia-related products. From the first film (in 1977) to most recent (at the end of
2017), Star Wars has had an indelible impact on culture in the United States and throughout the
world. Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012 is an example of the economic power of large
corporate conglomerates in the culture industries. (Two other important movie brand acquisitions
for Disney were its purchase of Pixar for $7.6 billion in 2006 and Marvel for $3.96 billion in
2009.) The first Star Wars film released by Disney, The Force Awakens (2015), quickly became
the most successful film in U.S. box office history. Disney released anthology films in 2016 and
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2018 and the eighth Star Wars film (The Last Jedi) in 2017. The story continues in Episode IX,
expected in December 2019.
I. Early Technology and the Evolution of Movies
A. The Development of Film
1. Muybridge and Goodwin Make Pictures Move
2. Edison and the Lumières Create Motion Pictures
B. The Introduction of Narrative
C. The Arrival of Nickelodeons
II. The Rise of the Hollywood Studio System
A. Production
B. Distribution
C. Exhibition
III. The Studio System’s Golden Age
A. Hollywood Narrative and the Silent Era
B. The Introduction of Sound
C. The Development of the Hollywood Style
1. Hollywood Narratives
2. Hollywood Genres
3. Hollywood “Authors”
D. Outside the Hollywood System
1. Global Cinema
2. The Documentary Tradition
3. The Rise of Independent Films
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IV. The Transformation of the Studio System
A. The Hollywood Ten
B. The Paramount Decision
C. Moving to the Suburbs
D. Television Changes Hollywood
E. Hollywood Adapts to Home Entertainment
V. The Economics of the Movie Business
A. Production, Distribution, and Exhibition Today
1. Making Money on Movies Today
2. Theater Chains Consolidate Exhibition
B. The Major Studio Players
C. Convergence: Movies Adjust to the Digital Turn
D. Alternative Voices
VI. Popular Movies and Democracy
Examinging Ethics: Breaking through Hollywood’s Race Barrier
Global Village: Beyond Hollywood: Asian Cinema
Media Literacy and the Critical Process: The Blockbuster Mentality
LECTURE IDEAS
Preview Story
• “It’s official: J. J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the highest–grossing film of all
time in North America, not accounting for inflation.” So begins Pamela McClintock’s article
in the Hollywood Reporter on the latest film in the Star Wars franchise and the first since
Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012. In its first twenty days, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
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earned $764.4 million. By comparison, the previous top North American film, Avatar, took
seven months to earn about $750 million. (It also earned more than $10 million in later
rereleases in movie theaters.) By the middle of 2016, The Force Awakens had topped $935
million in U.S. sales and more than $2 billion worldwide. It’s not at all certain that Star
Wars: The Force Awakens will ever break Avatar’s global record of nearly $2.8 billion
(Pamela McClintock, “Box Office: ‘Star Wars: Force Awakens’ Tops ‘Avatar’ to Become
No. 1 Film of All Time in North America,” Hollywood Reporter, January 6, 2016, available
at http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office–star–wars–force-852274).
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens relied less on new types of digital effects and more on
narrative. Compare films heavy on special digital effects with those more focused on
character development and stories.
• The enormous success of the 1977 Star Wars, produced, written, and directed by George
Lucas, changed the culture of the movie industry. As the late film critic Roger Ebert
explained: “Star Wars effectively brought to an end the golden era of early-1970s personal
filmmaking and focused the industry on big-budget special–effects blockbusters, blasting off
a trend we are still living through. . . . In one way or another all the big studios have been
trying to make another Star Wars ever since.” The blockbuster mentality spawned by Star
Wars formed a new primary audience for Hollywood— teenagers. Repeat attendance and
positive buzz among young people made the first Star Wars the most successful movie of its
generation and started the initial trilogy that included The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and
Return of the Jedi (1983). The youth-oriented focus begun by Star Wars is still evident in
Hollywood today, with the largest segment of the U.S. movie audience—the twelve– to
twenty-four-year-old age group—accounting for 38 percent of theater attendance.
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Another part of the blockbuster mentality created by Star Wars and mimicked by other films is
the way in which movies are made into big-budget summer releases with merchandising tie-ins
and high potential for international distribution. Lucas, who also created the popular Indiana
Jones film series, argues that selling licensing rights is one of the ways he supports his
independent filmmaking. By 2008, the six Star Wars films had generated an estimated $12
billion in merchandising—far more than the record-breaking $4 billion worldwide box–office
revenue—as Star Wars images appeared on an astonishing array of products, from Lego’s X-
Wing fighter kits to Darth Vader toothbrushes. When Lucasfilm was sold to Disney in 2012, a
series of new films was announced (along with plenty of TV content, merchandising, and theme
park opportunities).
Star Wars has impacted not only the cultural side of moviemaking but also the technical form. In
the first Star Wars trilogy, produced in the 1970s and 1980s, Lucas developed technologies now
commonplace in moviemaking—digital animation, special effects, and computer-based film
editing. With the second trilogy, Lucas again broke new ground in the film industry—this time
becoming a force in the emerging area of digital filmmaking. Several scenes of Star Wars:
Episode I—The Phantom Menace (1999) were shot on digital video, easing integration with
digital special effects. The two subsequent movies, Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones
(2002) and Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith (2005), were shot entirely in the digital
format.
The Phantom Menace also used digital exhibition—becoming the first full-length motion picture
from a major studio to use digital projectors, replacing standard film projectors. Changing
exhibition technology will eventually move motion pictures away from bulky and expensive film
reels toward a digital distribution system via satellite or optical disks. Digital film distribution
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also threatens to bypass theaters, as films could be delivered directly to a viewer’s computer or
digital television set–top box.
• Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012 (as well as Pixar in 2006 and Marvel in 2009) is an
example of corporate consolidation and hegemony in Hollywood.
• Disney has embraced the merchandising and transmedia potential of Star Wars with the
launch of numerous books, e-books, comic books, toys, clothing, electronic games,
interactive websites, and so forth.
I. Early Technology and the Evolution of Movies
• Here is Thomas Edison’s 1911 prediction about the promise of motion pictures as an
educational tool:
[They will make schools] so attractive that a big army with swords and guns couldn’t keep
boys and girls out of it. You’ll have to lick ’em to keep ’em away.
• Here is a description of Edison’s vitascope London premiere on April 23, 1896:
The whirr of the machine brought to view a heaving mass of foam–crested water. Far out in the
dim perspective one could see a diminutive roller start. It came down the stage, apparently,
increasing in volume, and throwing up little jets of snow-white foam, rolling faster and faster,
and hugging the old sea wall, until it burst and flung its shredded masses far into the air. The
thing was altogether so realistic and the reproduction so absolutely accurate, that it fairly
astounded the beholder. It was the closest copy of nature any work of man has ever yet achieved.
—New York Herald, April 24, 1896, p. 11
• Show “Life of an American Fireman” (1903):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4C0gJ7BnLc. Discuss the beginning of narrative in
film and the innovation of editing, including the close-up of the alarm box. Point out that we
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unquestioningly trust the accuracy of this representation of a firefighter’s life. Part of the
power of film lies in our willingly suspending our disbelief. However, we must learn to
recognize that—just because we have a visual account of something—that does not mean it is
an accurate representation of its subject.
II. The Rise of the Hollywood Studio System
• Lecture on the development of the American movie industry and how the major studios
gained control of production, distribution, and exhibition. Consider drawing parallels with
the rise of other media industries.
• Between 1910 and 1920, Hollywood became the film capital of the world for several reasons:
• Film producers avoid Edison’s trust stipulations by slipping across the border to
Mexico.
• Southern California offered cheap labor.
• There was diverse scenery for outdoor shooting.
• The mild climate allowed year-round production.
• By the late 1990s, however, film production was increasingly located around the New York–
New Jersey area. One reason is that the edgy, urban moviemaking style—long associated
with the New York film world and with New York-based independent filmmaking in
general—became trendy. On the West Coast, a great deal of film production moved to
Vancouver, Canada, where production costs are often half what they are in Southern
California.
III. The Studio System’s Golden Age
• Discuss the dramatic shift from silent films to films with sound. Two feature films, Sunset
Boulevard (1950) and Singin’ in the Rain (1952), chronicle the film industry’s transition
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from silent pictures to sound. Singin’ in the Rain has a few hilarious scenes in which film
producers attempt to work with an actress trying to adapt to talking pictures. She looks good
on camera but has the most awful voice imaginable. She takes “speaking lessons,” but to no
avail.
• Explain the development of Hollywood storytelling, including Hollywood genres and the
notions of product standardization and differentiation.
• Lecture on the existing alternatives to Hollywood, including both global cinema and
independent filmmakers.
Foreign films are becoming less and less available in U.S. theaters. Even seeing foreign films in
college towns is more difficult than it used to be. The golden era of international cinema was in
the 1960s, when U.S. audiences waited impatiently for the latest films by such
screenwriter/directors as Jean–Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, and François Truffaut. At the same
time, however, there are more foreign titles being created now than ever before.
Typically, major studios try to steer clear of subtitles in movies geared for U.S. audiences. There
have been some recent exceptions, however. Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009)
and Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel (2006) both have lengthy subtitled
scenes.
• Some of Frederick Wiseman’s most recent film documentaries about institutions have been
Aspen (1991); Zoo (1993); High School (1994), an update of the high school documentary he
produced in the 1960s; Ballet (1995); La Comédie Française (1996), about France’s three–
hundred-year–old state theater; and The Garden (2005). Wiseman’s films now appear
regularly on PBS.
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Netflix has become a notable distributor of documentary films and distributes documentaries that
studios find too risky.
• Independent filmmakers got a boost when Robert Redford developed the Sundance Festival
in Park City, Utah, as an alternative (non-Hollywood) venue, which quickly became a major
launching pad for American and foreign films and their directors; it is a serious, established,
A-list industry event. In late January each year, the festival swarms with agents and
distributors looking for new films and fresh directing talent, often channeling them directly
into the control of major studios. Some say that the purpose of Sundance has thus been
compromised, and one group has even begun another “alternative” festival, called
Slamdance, across the street. National and international film festivals, however, still remain a
crucial step in getting independent films in front of audiences and attaining critical notice.
Some films that reached wider distribution after being screened at Sundance include Roger
and Me (screened in 1990), Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Blair Witch Project (1999),
Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Precious (2009), The Kids Are All Right (2010), and Martha,
Marcy, May, Marlene (2011). Sundance has recently expanded its categories to include
world cinema in its annual film festival.
IV. The Transformation of the Studio System
• Detail the transformation of the Hollywood system after World War II, including the
Paramount decision and the effects of suburbanization and television.
Consider how our moviegoing experiences have changed over several generations:
• 1931: There is no television yet. We are enjoying Mary Pickford in Kiki. What’s
more, we’re sitting in a large downtown movie palace that comfortably seats more
than four thousand filmgoers. An afternoon or evening at the movies is part of a
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weekly ritual that includes watching a cartoon, a newsreel, a film short or travel
documentary, and a feature–length movie.
• 1933: The first drive-in opened in Camden, New Jersey.
• 1946–1958: The number of drive-in theaters explodes:
Year
Number of Drive-ins
1946
102
1948
820
1958
5,000
One of the largest drive-in theaters was the All–Weather Drive–In in Copiague, New York, with
space for 2,500 cars. It also had an indoor 1,200-seat viewing area that was heated and air–
conditioned, a playground, a cafeteria, and a restaurant with full dinners. A shuttle train took
customers from their cars to the various areas on the drive-in’s twenty-eight acres.
One scholar of drive-ins, Don Sanders, argues in The American Drive-In Movie Theater (1997)
that the decline of drive-in movies corresponded with the start of daylight saving time, which
meant that movies started and finished later, well past children’s bedtimes. Color television also
added to the demise of drive-ins during the 1960s, and some theaters began showing X-rated
films.
• 1961: There are no VCRs yet. We are heading to our favorite downtown theater along
with throngs of teens and families, or we’re piling into hot rods and station wagons to
go to the drivein at the edge of town. We are watching Natalie Wood and Richard
Beymer in West Side Story.
• 2001: Our filmgoing experience stars a group of teenagers gathered at a multiplex
near a major highway intersection on the outskirts of a city. Video games line the
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entrances that lead into twenty or more tiny theaters featuring projection screens not
much larger than an oversized double-door garage but perhaps with new stadium-
style seating. There are only a few families in the theater, although there would be
many more if we were attending on a weekend afternoon. Most families are at home,
watching movies like Shrek 2 on their VCR or DVD player and home theater system.
• Today: We download movies (legally and illegally) onto our iPads and laptops and
order Netflix films from our online account. We are also becoming creators, ripping
scenes from digital copies of movies, editing mash-ups with increasingly affordable
digital editing software, and sharing them with friends. Teenagers are still the main
audience for movies, but movies compete with video games for teens’ attention.
Meanwhile, on-demand digital home–entertainment options increase with instant
streaming by Netflix, Hulu, and the like, and with movie downloading options from
Amazon and iTunes, which in turn keep more of us at home rather than in theaters.
(Blockbuster, a video/movie rental business, filed for bankruptcy in September 2010
after being unable to keep up with Netflix’s delivery and instant streaming service.
Although Blockbuster made an attempt to meet the digital age by introducing its own
mail service (even including video games), Netflix’s wide range of films and instant
streaming option made that company more popular with consumers.)
• In 2010, Netflix made deals with major studios—including Warner Brothers, Fox, and
Sony—to delay providing actual DVDs of new releases for twenty-eight days in exchange
for more content for instant streaming. This arrangement benefits both sides: Studios have
longer to push DVD sales, and Netflix’s streaming business (arguably the future of home
video distribution) grows stronger.
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V. The Economics of the Movie Business
• Outline the current major Hollywood studios, their former Hollywood origins, and their
increasing horizontal and vertical integration.
• The time it takes for a film–to–video release has decreased from six months to between four
and five months. The reasons behind the rush to video differ depending on the film. If a
movie does terribly at the box office, it has to go straight to the video store before people
forget about it. High-volume video rental is necessary to recoup the millions spent on the
film. For blockbusters, the rush to video is crucial because more people are buying films as
holiday gifts. Megahits are now released to the multiplexes in the late spring and early
summer to be ready for their video sales during the holidays.
• Lecture about one or more of the effects of the digital turn on Hollywood and moviemaking:
• Compare and contrast the impact of the digital revolution and media convergence on
the movie and music industries.
• Discuss the importance of digital downloads and streaming to the current film
industry.
• Detail the many ways in which digital technology has impacted the film industry,
from digital distribution to digital video and digital film restoration.
• The New York Times published a compelling essay in 1999 comparing the movement in
film from celluloid to digital with the transformation in painting from fresco to oil paint
on canvas, which took place in the fifteenth century. The piece was written by Walter
Murch, a sound-mix editor based in Hollywood (and an Oscar winner for editing and
sound mixing for The English Patient).
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Fresco was a “painstaking process whereby damp plaster is stained with pigments that bond
chemically with the plaster and change color as they dry.” Because so many variables needed to
be controlled, the technique required amazing preparation and a precise knowledge of pigments.
No revisions were possible, and it was a very “expensive effort of many people and various
interlocking technologies, overseen by the artist who took responsibility for the final product.”
The shortcomings of creating frescoes, Murch argues, are similar to those of working with
celluloid film.
When oil paint on canvas was invented, it freed artists to paint wherever and whenever they
wished, without having to worry about the paint color changing when it dried. They could paint
over areas they didn’t like and have more control over every aspect of their work, thereby
intensifying their personal vision. Because it was so liberating, oil on canvas transformed
painting, the images that were created, and the purpose of the medium. According to Murch,
digitized filmmaking will have a similar impact on cinematic art. The technique can be
controlled by one person because previously disparate components are able to coexist on the
same platform. A digital filmmaker is liberated to shoot without hordes of technical helpers, and
working with the equipment takes less time. Although certain auteurs will be able to put their
exact vision on the screen, the collaborative process of filmmaking (a positive for many
filmmakers) will be lost. (See Walter Murch, “A Digital Cinema of the Mind? Could Be,” New
York Times, May 2, 1999.)
• Digital filmmaking has significant advantages:
• A foot of film costs $1 to buy and process versus 1.5 cents for digital tape; the cost of
processing a conventional film is roughly one hundred times that of producing high-
definition video.