The State of Cinema: Summer Blockbusters and How I Moved On

Since the dawn of cinema way back when, in a time where people would challenge each other to duels, cats had more rights than women, and people didn’t have cell phones (GASP!), films were made with passion and heart, stories were more character driven, art films flourished, and directors had no use of digital effects so they used their actors to their full potential. This was all fine and dandy until 1975 came. I’ll give you a few clues to what changed cinema: 1. Amity Island 2. Brody 3. A giant great white shark. Ok you got it; we’re talking about “Jaws” here and I’m not going to lie: it’s a great movie, it won a bunch of awards and helped instill fear of the ocean for many people (myself included). But as scary as “Jaws” was, what was scarier was how it almost singlehandedly changed people’s perspective of going to the movie theatre. Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” cost $8,000,000 to make and had a worldwide box office total of over $470,000,000. With these figures in hand, you can see why film producers realized they stumbled on something huge; it was called the “summer popcorn movie” and it changed cinema as a result.

Things were different after “Jaws”. Film companies began to use much higher budgets and more special effects; this is especially visible in 1977’s “Star Wars”. “Star Wars” was the most successful film of the decade and used a new tactic in film marketing: merchandising. If you can combine the success of these two films with all the money made with merchandising all of “Star Wars” toys, clothing etc., you can see why producers began to shy away from the approaches used in the heyday of great filmmaking. Why make a deep story that may destroy the audience emotionally, when you can use a high budget, throw as many flashing lights, one-liners and special effects as possible, whip out all the bells and whistles and make a ton of money? After the success of these films there were cookie-cutter copycats. Many of them flourished, such as “E.T.”, “Jurassic Park”, “The Terminator”, “Spiderman”, etc. Some of them failed (“Sahara”, “The Adventures of Pluto Nash”, “Gigli”, “Speed Racer”).

Check this site for more flops http://www.filmsite.org/greatestflops.html

The idea of a “summer popcorn movie” has always angered me. Not only do I hate getting pieces of kernel shell stuck in my molars, but summer movies generally lack substance and quality, which is just not my cup of tea. I know people sometimes just want to be entertained and once in a while I’ll indulge myself. But with all the digital effects and dizzying camera movements, I think I’ll hold out. I feel there’s a never-ending supply of quality films outside of Hollywood.

Do I want to see a rehashed sequel? No. Do I want to see an entire film green-screened? No. Do I want to see a hot lead female actress who is behind all the marketing and probably the main reason the film is successful? Maybe. Do I want to see things blow up for no reason? Maybe. Do I want to watch the film and remember it in ten years? Absolutely, which is another reason why I don’t like summer flicks: they are very forgetful.

Now as much as I hate summer movies, I am open-minded enough to understand their importance. Without them, the film industry wouldn’t be the multibillion dollar industry it is today. We wouldn’t have big studios backing these huge budget films.

If you can’t tell already, I’m really into films outside the Hollywood scope. I love foreign films and independent films. If you’re sick and tired of the big budget films or want to try to watch something you’ve never heard of, shoot me an email at Shawnreber@killergoosefilms.com I can try to recommend something for you. Or just go to your local art house theater. There’s got to be one within a half hour driving distance. Go and pick a movie you’ve never heard of and give it a shot.

In conclusion I’m going to leave you with a few tables of information; just pay attention to the dates.

Via http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/critics.html

In 1952 Sight & Sound polled the world’s leading film critics to compile a list of the best films of all time. The magazine has repeated this poll every ten years, to show which films stand the test of time in the face of shifting critical opinion.

In 2002, the magazine published its largest poll to date, receiving contributions from 145 film critics, writers and academics, and 108 film directors. The results are intriguing, both for their certainty in choosing intense personal films as the best, and for their lack of agreement about which films of recent times can compete with the greatest.

Critics’ Top Ten Poll

1. Citizen Kane Orson Welles 1941

2. Vertigo (Hitchcock) 1958

3. La Règle du jeu (Renoir) 1939

4. The Godfather and The Godfather part II (Coppola) 1972 & 1974

5. Tokyo Story (Ozu) 1953

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick) 1968

7. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein) 1925

7. Sunrise (Murnau) 1927

9. 8 1/2 (Fellini) 1963

10. Singin’ In the Rain (Kelly, Donen) 1952

AFI’s (American Film Institute)Top 10 list