Hello muckmuck~
There are a number of ways movies have had an impact upon our society.
Perhaps the most obvious impact has been that motion pictures made
those in live theatre shake in their boots. Stage actors were
convinced the stage would die at any moment, and while they were
certainly wrong (theatre is still a factor in our society today),
motion pictures have absolutely overtaken stage as a top form of
entertainment. (Later, television overtook film?s position as top
dog.)
This has several implications to society as a whole. Most profound, I
think, is that film requires much less participation from it?s
viewers. Yes, film-goers still must suspend belief, pay attention, and
follow the story line, but they don't have to interact with the
actors. Previous to film, it was not unusual to have stage shows
requiring the audience to shout out at actors or hosts, or to even
make decisions about what would be seen on stage that night. Even on
the most polite scale, the audience at a live event applauds, thereby
communicating with actors. (There?s no reason to applaud actors on a
screen, because they aren?t there to accept the gift of the applause.)
In this respect, film audiences are passive.
Films also require less work from their audiences in other ways. For
example, with the introduction of sound in film, audiences no longer
had to ?listen hard? to hear actors. (This has affected live theatre
to such a degree that it?s rare to see a professional stage production
that?s not miked; audiences simply don?t want to have to strain or
concentrate in order to hear.)
However, motion pictures made wide-spread entertainment more
democratic, too. At the beginning of the 20th century, films were a
cheap form of entertainment; anyone could afford to see a
movie--whereas not everyone could afford a theatre ticket. In fact,
early marketers targeted the poor as their biggest audience. ?By 1908
there were over 10,000 such cinemas and poorer, urban communities were
provided with a novel form of entertainment.? (?Cultural Impact,? UW:
http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/AMS/963/amst2010/proj/simon/cult1.htm )
Motion Pictures have almost always been used as propaganda, as well.
Perhaps the first time this was done was in 1898 when the Spanish-War
related film ?Tearing Down the Spanish Flag? appeared. (?Motion
Pictures & Propaganda,? USD:
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/st/~ksoroka/hollywood2.html
During WWI, there were a great many anti-German films, including Cecil
B. De Mille?s Joan the Woman. Such films helped shape the American
image of Germans as barbaric people deserving of American hatred. Once
the war ended, films helped reassure Americans that the war had been
just; films showing American troops defeating Germans leapt in
popularity.
Indeed, just as Mathew Brady?s Civil War battlefield still photos had
a dramatic impact upon society because they offered the general public
war up close and personal for the first time, film showed war even
more personally, via news reels. Of course, such reels were carefully
chosen only to show the military in a positive light, thereby creating
good morale and a positive attitude about the military in general.
In more subtle ways, films changed our ideas and values, also, even on
small matters. For example, there was a time when a woman who cut her
hair was scorned upon. But surely 1920s films depicting respectable
women with short hair made short hair for women somehow more
respectable. In a larger way, the display of strong working women in
films helped create a world where women in the workplace were more
acceptable.
Film certainly played a factor in race relations, too. Although most
early films showed blacks in an unflattering light (consider The Birth
of A Nation, as one example), later films helped us toward Civil
Rights (To Kill A Mockingbird is just one example).
Another are to consider is sex. Despite restrictions on sexual content
from the Hayes Office (throughout some of the 20th century), many
films managed to include some form of sex, from displaying Claudette
Colbert?s leg in It Happened One Night to full nudity in the 1914 film
Hypocrites. (?Sexual or Erotic Films,? Films Site:
http://www.filmsite.org/sexualfilms.html ) Over time, sexuality in
film challenged our ideas about sex and what was acceptable and what
was not.
Even language in film has had an impact upon our society. There was
once a time, before the mid-20th century, that cursing in front of
women and children was unacceptable in most circles. When David O.
Selznick begged the Hayes Office not to cut Clark Gable?s exiting Gone
With The Wind line (?Frankly, my dear, I don?t give a damn), the word
?damn? challenged this tradition. Gradually, more ?strong words? were
included in films and became social acceptable?even in front of women.
Some argue that violence in films has had a similar impact; the more
violence we see on screen, they argue, the more callused we grow
toward violence, the more acceptable violence becomes in our everyday
lives. The movie Scarface had a major impact upon society, according
to the press of the time; its violence, followed by films of similar
violence, surprised and shocked many. ?A 1933 article in The Literary
Digest compared the effects of film violence on children as comparable
to ?shell shock such as solider received in war.?? ( ?Censorship and
the Hayes Office,? A New Gangster,
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG02/gangsters/censorship.html)
In short, films have touched some of the most important aspects of our
culture, including how we view the opposite sex, how we deal with
members of another race, and what we believe in. But the impact in
these areas of our lives aren?t restricted to early 20th century
culture?we continue to feel a similar impact from films today.
Regards,
Kriswrite
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