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Movie industry during the depression
Great depression film industry
Movie industry during the depression
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A variety of films were created during the Great Depression era. For the most part, the films created between 1929 and 1940 featured a better life. Although the Great Depression took a huge toll on many other industries, the film industry still managed to make large profits compared to other businesses. All these films were produced during the same time period however, they all provide different details about life during this time period; specifically, they provide a different look on how women were treated in the 1930s. Such movies include Room Service, Modern Times, and The Public Enemy. Every film is different from the next, though many have several similarities. Modern Times and Public Enemy are similar to each other because of how they feature women, while Room Service is completely different. In Room Service, women were portrayed as equal to man; while in Modern Times, no women were featured as workers in the factory.
Modern Times was unlike most movies produced during the Great Depression era because it is featuring a view on the unemployment and rough conditions that people f...
The film O brother, where art thou? is set in the Great Depression of the 1930’s and emphasizes the struggle between the upper and lower classes by using a variety of cinematic devices. Through the use of these cinematic devices and comedic relief the realities of the Depression are viewed without creating a stark, melancholy, documentary-styled film. Examples in this film of these cinematic devices used to show these realities include:
The Great Depression is seen as one of the most sorrowful and desolate times in the history of the United States. This time was the longest period of recession ever seen by this nation so far. It lasted from 1929 to 1939, over ten years of complete confusion and despondency within the people. Many Americans were affected greatly by this tragic time and sacrificed much of their lives so that they and their families may have the chance to live. This act of desperation can be seen throughout the movie, The Cinderella Man, where a professional boxer, Jim Braddock, becomes crippled by the depression, both economically and spiritually. The observer can see this through the explicit cinematography of the movie and depiction of the Great Depression made by the director. However the director left out a key aspect of the happenings of the depression, the stock market crash. Perhaps, this catastrophic event was irrelevant to the plot and message of the movie, but it is important to the actual Great Depression of the United States. Furthermore, the nation of 2010 is well on its way to repeating history. There are frightening similarities between that dreadful time of the 1930’s and the present that should not be overlooked, or the United States might condemn itself back into that horrific state it has so long tried to avoid.
During the Great Depression, people went to the movies to get their mind off things and to forget about things temporarily. Life was portrayed a few different ways during the Great Depression. Different genres of film gave different perspectives on what life was like. The three genres compared are comedy, gangster, and musical films. Room Service and Modern Times are two films in the comedy genre and they portrayed a worry-free lifestyle. The Public Enemy is a gangster film and it had a dangerous lifestyle. Last, but not least, is Gold Diggers of 1933 and it is a pretty happy film. These films all had one thing in common though; the characters all had problems with money, which greatly relates to the Great Depression.
Clara’s experience with the motion picture industry gives us a picture of what it was like in the 1920’s. It was new and intriguing, enticing and corrupt. The motion picture industry underpaid Bow, which is almost inconceivable today. The environment of Hollywood now pays actors and actresses corpulent amounts of money...but that may be the only change. The “star-maker” environment is still as enticing and corrupt as yesterday’s.
During the mid and late 1970’s, the mood of American films shifted sharply. People needed to get away from such negative memories as the Vietnam War, long gas lines, the resignation of President Nixon, and ...
An obvious difference in these films is that the 1931 version played to a Depression audience and that the Coppola version played to a modern audience. (I am being extremely careful because, obviously, the 1931 audience was modern in 1931; however, we like to think of ourselves as being more modern than past generations. There are differences in the audiences which viewed the respective versions in their time, and I hope to prove this point as the paper unfolds.)
The 1930’s and 1940’s were years in which the world was seriously concerned about economy. In 1929, The United States, the world’s economical power, was one of the most affected nations by the great depression: its unemployment rate rose to 25% and the personal income, tax revenue and prices dropped. Many families within the country started to starve and the McCourts were not the exception. Malachy could not get any work to support his family due to the difficult situation in the country, and when he finally found one, he wasted all his wages and money in the pub. Frank’s life in America has good and bad memories. However, the great depression is present in the crisis the family fell into and in the unemployment of Malachy.
Beginning roughly with the release of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Stopped Worrying and Loved the Bomb in 1964, and continuing for about the next decade, the “Sixties” era of filmmaking made many lasting impressions on the motion picture industry. Although editing and pacing styles varied greatly from Martin Scorcesse’s hyperactive pace, to Kubrick’s slow methodical pace, there were many uniform contributions made by some of the era’s seminal directors. In particular, the “Sixties” saw the return of the auteur, as people like Francis Ford Coppola and Stanley Kubrick wrote and directed their own screenplays, while Woody Allen wrote, directed and starred in his own films. Kubrick, Coppola and Allen each experimented with characterization, narrative and editing techniques. By examining the major works of these important directors, their contributions become more apparent.
Often, the 1930s are classified as the age of economic depression. Although true, the decade has proved to be a time of reform and hope. In the midwest a series of windstorms occurred accompanied by a harsh drought causing the Dust Bowl, while in the more industrialized north, citizens struggled to find jobs. From song lyrics to baseball cards, artifacts from the decade rejuvenated the once crushed spirits of the American people. However, not all Americans regained a sense of hope, and instead some resorted to toxic ways to ease their minds. Moreover, as the Great Depression trudged on through the 1930s, American citizens searched for a way to escape their hardships, yet remained hopeful for a brighter future.
Before the Second World War began Hollywood’s purpose lied within entertainment for the American people. After the war started, the main focus shifted to wartime propaganda. Film was used to display the war in a way that did not show its true colors—including the censorship of soldier causalities and other negative connotations that are a simple fact of war. There was even a time in which some actors became better known to America than politians. Through films, Hollywood began to make a statement of their anti-Nazi beliefs. They began to make motion pictures for American recruitment into the Army as well as many that supported the war effort, and intended to make other Americans more aware of the war’s effect on the United States, and how people can get involved. Many European countries banned these Hollywood films, as they began to affect not only America but many other countries that were involved in the war as well.
The 1930’s brought about economic disaster for the United States. Unemployment levels soared to 25%. (SSA) Suddenly there were all types of people who were unable to meet their own needs. People could no longer justify economic failure as moral defects. Economic disaster became so widespread during the Great Depression th...
During the Great Depression, entertainment was a necessity during these hard times. Movies were one way many families could entertain themselves. During this era, Shirley Temple’s movies were quite popular among kids and adults. Another way many adults entertained themselves was by dancing. Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire’s movies took over the nation and many people wanted to be able to dance like them. Dance competitions were held and there were many advantages. There was only a small fee to compete, food and shelter were provided, and if you won you would get a large cash prize. Sports were other ways people used to be entertained. In 1932, the Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid, New York which provided people entertainment.
After watching the movie “Cinderella Man” I was quite impressed by the way the director, Ron Howard, portrayed the life of the famous boxer James J. Braddock. The movie was set during the Great Depression of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s and dealt with the struggles associated with the time. What first caught my attention was how director Ron Howard insured that the movie set and costumes were so authentic to the time frame of the great depression. In the movie they had James J. Braddock go through everyday struggles that would be very authentic to the timing. For example James J. Braddock had to go through the struggle of losing his home and children by not having enough money to pay for the basic necessities to life, such as food or
Many thinkers such as Charlie Chaplin, Fritz Lang, and James Cameron have stood against the obsession with human progress through the use of films. Charlie Chaplin specifically started and directed the film Modern Times in order to portray the struggles and conditions the working class was going through during the industrial revolution. He played a character that has a nervous breakdown because he works day in and day out in an assembly line factory. Using satire, Chaplin film portrays the notion that man has become a machine and while the blue-collar workers are trying to progress and succeed they won’t due to capitalistic needs. Similar to Chaplin, Fritz Lang, director of Metropolis, shows us that extreme measures as a society are willing
The film “Modern Times,” directed by Charlie Chaplin, is set in the mid nineteen thirties. This time frame places the characters in the middle of the Great Depression and the industrial revolution. The film depicts the lifestyle and quality of living for people in this era by showing a factory worker who cannot take the monotony of working on an assembly line. The film follows the factory worker through many of his adventures throughout the film. The film’s main stars are Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard.