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More handpicked essays just for you.
World War 2 and how it affected the film industry
Cinema during world war 2 essay
Impact of Hollywood films
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The film “Casa Blanca” portrays the war in a very good and interesting way. It shows the chaotic and confusing period of time during World War two using propaganda and other techniques. This film seems on the outside that it is a love and drama movie. However, it was made to bring inspiration, hope, and to show Americans the truth about the war using characters and the plot as symbols and themes. There are many reasons why this movie became a classical in the 1940’s when it was released. The two leading actors, Ingrid Bergman as Lisa Lund, and Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine were also a reason the movie became such a hit. “Casa Blanca” is the movie that portrayed World War two in many ways such as: using propaganda, promoting American involvement, patriotism, showing Americans and their allies, and depictions of violence. Casablanca; a film that represented World War II …show more content…
During this time films were created to encourage and promote individuals to join the war along with other forms of entertainment and advertisement. They gave positive outlooks on Americans and gave them the image of being hero's for the purpose to get American individuals to help out in the war in some ways and if many actors did not go they had the chance to play in movies to promote World War II. During this time the war was portrayed as a big deal and as it was towards the beginning when they needed American soldiers to help fight. This was to be done in a positive outlook through films as Casablanca to be an example to show people what is was like without creating fear. Within the film Casablanca, it gave us an outlook on American involvement, propaganda, how the film depicts the war, and how cultural components were demonstrated in the
The overall appeal of the cinema to the masses was particularly evident during the interwar era. Audiences worldwide wanted to watch the variety of films, particularly American produced films, and they always went back. The visibly attractive and glamorous Hollywood movies often depicted the success of the underdog over unjust authority. Values of cash over culture were often a theme in the early American films and societies with restricted social mobility, such as those in Europe, could dream of such a triumph. The working class and unemployed could fantasise about wealth, fame and freedom which America as a country was portrayed as offering.
In the film Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, a clear juxtaposition exists between Rick and America. Despite Rick’s numerous similarities to America and his deep longing to be part of the country, a physical and psychological barrier separates the two. With America practically being on the opposite end of the world, Rick understands that he cannot abandon his responsibility to aid and influence others in Casablanca. Rick is willing to sacrifice his personal comfort and well-being for the greater good of society. This juxtaposition between America and Rick foreshadows that the United States would soon become involved in the war by overtly displaying Rick’s transformation when he confronts his troubled past.
The two hour movie, partially in Spanish, is based off the autobiography of the same title written by Reinaldo Arenas with only a few notable differences. It follows the entire life of Reinaldo from his birth in Cuba to his eventual suicide in New York. Although it is difficult to understand during some scenes, the film does an exemplary job at presenting the issues of literary and homosexual oppression in Cuban through the viewpoint of Reinaldo.
The way that a movie is pieced together by the director/producers has a huge impact on the viewer’s experience. Stylistic elements are used to help engage the viewer; however, without these techniques the viewer will most likely loose interest. In this essay I will be taking a look at a scene within the movie Casablanca directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942. Casablanca is a classic film that is reviewed to be one of the greatest movies of all time. This could be due to the notable quotes used throughout the movie, or its ability to follow a historic, comical, and romantic storyline throughout the course of the film. It caters to several different viewers, making this movie favorable to many. This scene in Casablanca uses specific editing techniques
In the essay “Beautiful Friendship: Masculinity & Nationalism in Casablanca”, Peter Kunze lavishly explains the magnificence of Michael Curtiz’s 1942 film Casablanca. Kunze focuses on how the movie not only highlights an exchange of relationships, but how the film has an underlying meaning between these relationships. He also implies that there is a more complex meaning behind every character in regards to their gender, economic, and social roles. The overall thesis of his reading is “the patriarchal ideology underlying the narrative commodifies Ilsa, leading Rick to exchange her with other men in an act of friendship and solidarity as well as to dissuade any perception of queerness between the strong male friendships in the narrative” (Kunze
Throughout history, the film industry has seen many directing styles and techniques. The early part of the 20th century saw a factory style of film production, but as the years went by, director's began to employ new and untried techniques in their pictures. One such technique which these director's implemented was a new approach to the use of the camera and camera angles. "Casablanca," an Academy Award winning film of 1942 saw director Michael Curtiz manipulate the camera in ways others had not. He uses the close-up, point-of- view, and creative shot motivation methods in his film starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, to create an American cinema classic.
Robert B. Ray categorizes Casablanca as "the most typical" American film. Ray uses Casablanca as a tutor text for what he calls the formal paradigm of Classical Hollywood as well as the thematic paradigm that addresses the conflict between isolationism and communitarian participation. The film is typical in its appropriation of an official hero Laszlo, who stands for the civilizing values of home and community, and an outlaw hero Rick, who stands for individu...
Classic film noir originated after World War II. This is the time where post World War II pessimism, anxiety, and suspicion was taking the world by storm. Many films that were released in the U.S. Between 1939s and 1940s were considered propaganda films that were designed for entertainment during the Depression and World War II. During the 1930s many German and Europeans immigrated to the U.S. and helped the American film industry with powerf...
The portrayal of art cinema is to some extent accurate when considering the time period of this film. Art film was first introduced to the American film industry during the period of time when this film came out. Art cinema utilizes its own set of artistic expression. Hollywood classical films on the other hand, are at odds with the artistic concept, and are considered to be mainstream. When we look at Classical films, we think of the basic Hollywood movie where there is a beginning, middle and end, and the whole movie comes together at the end, with a little bit of romance. In this specific movie, the audience is faced with a confusing dilemma of choosing whether this movie is an art film or a classical film. Most even think it has a documentary approach, but what makes this movie even more successful and even more entertaining, is that it is both art cinema and classical cinema.
Despite not being considered as the traditional ‘hero’s journey’ which is outlined in Joseph Campbell’s argument of ‘separation-initiation-return’, Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick Blaine, in the 1942 film Casablanca, can be argued to follow this twelve-step journey. Campbell states “whether the hero be ridiculous or sublime…” (p.38), on this basis, Rick Blaine qualifies as a hero. These twelve steps are: Ordinary World; Call to Adventure/Disruption; Refusal of the Call; Meeting with the Mentor; Crossing the First Threshold; Tests, Allies, and Enemies; Approach to the Inmost Cave; Ordeal; Reward; The Road Back; The Resurrection; and Return with the Elixir. Although in some parts stages may overlap, this essay aims to argue that Casablanca still
...is story, Hemingway brings the readers back the war and see what it caused to human as well as shows that how the war can change a man's life forever. We think that just people who have been exposed to the war can deeply understand the unfortunates, tolls, and devastates of the war. He also shared and deeply sympathized sorrows of who took part in the war; the soldiers because they were not only put aside the combat, the war also keeps them away from community; people hated them as known they are officers and often shouted " down with officers" as they passing. We have found any blue and mournful tone in this story but we feel something bitter, a bitter sarcasm. As the war passing, the soldiers would not themselves any more, they became another ones; hunting hawks, emotionless. They lost everything that a normal man can have in the life. the war rob all they have.
Although I am yet to know serious effects of war, I know what it is like to want to escape from something and to find that escape in watching a movie. For many people in the 1940’s watching Meet Me in St. Louis was they’re escape from violence in society at that time. It makes perfect sense that a movie in which the biggest conflict is whether or not a family leaves their home together would be a success in a time when family unity was not as easy to come by. Vincente Minnelli directed it and provided the audience with singing and dancing, themes of love and romance, and overall a great deal of good values. His film represents the importance of family and relationship and he is able to show us this very well on screen.
This is one of the most important movies in the history of Mexican cinema. It may not be one of the best movies ever made in this country, but defetly it became a catapult of the movies made in mexico in the new century. It became the watershed of the movies that came. The audiences from the aztec country start believing in the new productions made in the country and this movie was the end of the new industry that has lost the support form its main audience. The process was long and started with movies like "Como Agua para Chocolate" almost a decade prior to the release.
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
When considering a source to consider, when looking for films that portray Latin American lifestyle or values, I choose one film in particular. A Walk in the Clouds, directed by Alfonso Arau came to mind. When one watches this film, it is plain to see the interaction and struggles between a traditional Mexican family and the lifestyle of a United States California lifestyle. I have watched this particular film in the past, but now with a different pair of lenses to watch through, it became more exceedingly distinguished to my new found perception of Latin America. Unknowingly to myself, I did not know that the director was the same who directed Like Water for Chocolate. One review describes it as follows, “Alfonso Arau has a somewhat easy time of it in A Walk in the Clouds. The Mexican filmmaker who made kitchens look like boudoirs in Like Water for Chocolate transports that same fairy-tale feeling to this romance set in Northern California.”. With further reflection I can see the connection now after watching the later.