Cinema of the United States

History

Early development

The birth of cinema, as well as its radical development, can largely be traced back to the United States. The first recorded instance of photographs capturing and reproducing motion was Eadweard Muybridge's series of photographs of a running horse, which he captured in Palo Alto, California, using a set of still cameras placed in a row. Muybridge's accomplishment led inventors everywhere to attempt forming devices that would similar capture such motion. In the United States, Thomas Alva Edison was among the first to produce such a device, the kinetoscope, whose heavy-handed patent enforcement caused early filmmakers to look for alternatives.

Related Topics:
Eadweard Muybridge - Palo Alto - California - Thomas Alva Edison - Kinetoscope

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In the United States, the first exhibitions of films for large audiences typically followed the intermissions in vaudeville shows. Entrepreneurs began travelling to exhibit their films, bringing to the world the first forays into dramatic filmmaking. The first huge success of American cinema, as well as the largest experimental achievement to its point, was The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter.

Related Topics:
Vaudeville - The Great Train Robbery - Edwin S. Porter

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Rise of Hollywood

In Los Angeles, California, the studios spawned in a sleepy section of the town, known as Hollywood. Before World War I, movies were made in several U.S. cities, but filmmakers gravitated to southern California as the industry developed. They were attracted by the mild climate and reliable sunlight, which made it possible to film movies outdoors year-round, and by the varied scenery that was available. There are several starting points for American cinema, but it was David Wark Griffith's Birth of a Nation that pioneered the filmic vocabulary that still dominates celluoid to this day.

Related Topics:
Los Angeles, California - Studios - Hollywood - World War I - California - David Wark Griffith - Birth of a Nation

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In the early 1900s, when the medium was new, many immigrants, particularly Jews, found employment in the U.S. film industry. Kept out of other occupations by racial prejudice, they were able to make their mark in a brand-new business: the exhibition of short films in storefront theaters called nickelodeons, after their admission price of a nickel (five cents). Within a few years, ambitious men like Samuel Goldwyn, Carl Laemmle, Adolph Zukor, Louis B. Mayer, and the Warner Brothers (Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack) had switched to the production side of the business. Soon they were the heads of a new kind of enterprise: the movie studio. (It is worth noting that the US had at least one female director, producer and studio head in these early years, Alice Guy Blaché.) They also set the stage for the industry's internationalism; the industry is often accused of Amero-centric provincialism, but simultaneously the industry employs a huge number of foreign-born talent: from Swedish actress Greta Garbo to Australian actress Nicole Kidman, from Hungarian director Michael Curtiz to Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón.

Related Topics:
1900s - Jew - Nickelodeon - Samuel Goldwyn - Carl Laemmle - Adolph Zukor - Louis B. Mayer - Warner Brothers - Movie studio - Alice Guy Blaché - Greta Garbo - Nicole Kidman - Michael Curtiz - Alfonso Cuarón

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Other moviemakers arrived from Europe after World War I: directors like Ernst Lubitsch, Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, and Jean Renoir; actors like Rudolph Valentino, Marlene Dietrich, Ronald Colman, and Charles Boyer. They joined a homegrown supply of actors--lured west from the New York City stage after the introduction of sound films--to form one of the 20th century's most remarkable growth industries. At motion pictures' height of popularity in the mid-1940s, the studios were cranking out a total of about 400 movies a year, seen by an audience of 90 million Americans per week.

Related Topics:
Europe - Ernst Lubitsch - Alfred Hitchcock - Fritz Lang - Jean Renoir - Rudolph Valentino - Marlene Dietrich - Ronald Colman - Charles Boyer - New York City - 1940s

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Golden Age of Hollywood

During the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, the 1930s and 1940s, movies issued from the Hollywood studios rather like the cars rolling off Henry Ford's assembly lines. No two movies were exactly the same, but most followed a formula: Western, slapstick comedy, film noir, musical, animated cartoon, biopic (biographical picture), etc. Yet each movie was a little different, and, unlike the craftsmen who made cars, many of the people who made movies were artists. For example, To Have and Have Not (1944) is famous not only for the first pairing of actors Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) and Lauren Bacall (1924- ) but also for being written by two future winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), author of the novel on which the script was nominally based, and William Faulkner (1897-1962), who worked on the screen adaptation.

Related Topics:
1930s - 1940s - To Have and Have Not - Humphrey Bogart - 1899 - 1957 - Lauren Bacall - 1924 - Nobel Prize in Literature - Ernest Hemingway - 1961 - William Faulkner - 1897 - 1962

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Moviemaking was still a business, however, and motion picture companies made money by operating under the so-called studio system. The major studios kept thousands of people on salary--actors, producers, directors, writers, stuntmen, craftspersons, and technicians. And they owned hundreds of theaters in cities and towns across the nation--theaters that showed their films and that were always in need of fresh material.

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Many film historians have remarked upon the many great works of cinema that emerged from this period of highly regimented filmmaking. One reason this was possible is that, with so many movies being made, not every one had to be a big hit. A studio could gamble on a medium-budget feature with a good script and relatively unknown actors: Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles (1915-1985) and widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, fits that description. In other cases, strong-willed directors like Howard Hawks (1896-1977) and Frank Capra (1897-1991) battled the studios in order to achieve their artistic visions. The apogee of the studio system may have been the year 1939, which saw the release of such classics as The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Only Angels Have Wings, Ninotchka and Midnight.

Related Topics:
Citizen Kane - Orson Welles - 1915 - 1985 - Greatest movies of all time - Howard Hawks - 1896 - 1977 - Frank Capra - 1897 - 1991 - 1939 - The Wizard of Oz - Gone with the Wind - Stagecoach - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - Only Angels Have Wings - Ninotchka - Midnight

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Changing post-war realities

The studio system succumbed to two forces in the late 1940s: (1) a federal antitrust action that separated the production of films from their exhibition; and (2) the advent of television. The number of movies being made dropped sharply, even as the average budget soared, marking a change in strategy for the industry. Studios now aimed to produce entertainment that could not be offered by television: spectacular, larger-than-life productions. Though television broke the movie industry's hegemony in American entertainment, the former would prove advantageous, in its way, to the movies. This is because public opinion about the quality of television content soon declined, and by contrast, cinema's status began to be regarded more and more as an serious art form as worthy of respect and study as the fine arts. This was complimented with the Miracle Decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States reversed its earlier position and stated that motion pictures were an artform entitled to the protection of the First amendment.

Related Topics:
Television - Fine arts - Miracle Decision - Supreme Court of the United States - First amendment

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Nevertheless, the drive to produce spectacle on the movie screen has largely shaped American cinema ever since. American films have become increasingly divided into two categories: blockbusters and independent movies. Studios have focused on relying on a handful of extremely expensive releases every year in order to remain profitable. Such blockbusters emphasize spectacle, star power, and high production value, all of which entail an enormous budget. Blockbusters typically rely upon star power and massive advertising to attract a huge audience. A successful blockbuster will attract an audience large enough to offset production costs and reap considerable profits. Such productions carry a subtantial risk of failure, and most studios release blcokbusters that both over- and underperform in a year.

Related Topics:
Blockbusters - Independent movies - Advertising

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Studios supplement these movies with independent productions, made with small budgets and often independently of the studio corporation. Movies made in this manner typically emphasize high professional quality in terms of acting, directing, screenwriting, and other elements associated with production, and also upon creativity and innovation. These movies usually rely upon critical praise or niche marketing to garner an audience. Because of an indpendent film's low budgets, a successful independent film can have a high profit-to-cost ratio, while a failure will incur minimal losses, allowing for studios to sponsor dozens of such productions in addition to their high-stakes releases.

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Modern period

A major change to American filmmaking occurred during the 1970s when a new breed of young directors who had degrees from film schools and who had absorbed the techniques developed in Europe in the 1960s emerged. Directors like Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian de Palma, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg came to produce fare that paid homage to the history of film, and developed upon existing genres and techniques. Their movies were often both critically acclaimed and/or successful at the box office. Coppola, Spielberg, and Lucas in particular are credited with shaping the blockbuster model in its current form, with the colossal successes of The Godfather, Jaws, and Star Wars, respectively. These movies, which each set the all-time box office record during their releases, induced studios to focus even more heavily than before on trying to produce humongous hits.

Related Topics:
1970s - 1960s - Francis Ford Coppola - George Lucas - Brian de Palma - Martin Scorsese - Steven Spielberg - The Godfather - Jaws - Star Wars

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Another major upheaval occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when another new generation of moviemakers, including Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, and Quentin Tarantino revitalized American independent film with movies like, respectively, Do the Right Thing, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and Pulp Fiction. In terms of directing, screenwriting, editing, and other elements, these movies were innovative and often irreverent, playing with and contradicting the conventions of Hollywood movies. Furthermore, their considerable financial successes and crossover into popular culture reestablished the commerical viability of independent film. Since then, the independent film industry has become more clearly defined and more influential in American cinema.

Related Topics:
1980s - 1990s - Spike Lee - Steven Soderbergh - Quentin Tarantino - Do the Right Thing - Sex, Lies, and Videotape - Pulp Fiction

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To a lesser degree in the 2000s, film types that were previously considered to have only a minor presence in the mainstream movie market began to arise as more potent American box office draws. These include film present in foreign languages such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Passion of the Christ and documentary films such as the films of Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11), Super Size Me and March of the Penguins.

Related Topics:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - The Passion of the Christ - Documentary film - Michael Moore - Bowling for Columbine - Fahrenheit 9/11 - Super Size Me - March of the Penguins

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Rise of the home video market

The 1990s saw another significant development. The full acceptance of video by studios opened a vast new business to exploit which allowed many acclaimed films which performed poorly in their theatrical to find success in the video market such as The Secret of NIMH and The Shawshank Redemption. It also saw the first generation of film makers with access to video tapes emerge. Directors such as Tarantino and P.T. Anderson had been able to view thousands of films and produced films with vast numbers of references and connections to previous works. This, along with the explosion of independent film and ever-decreasing costs for filmmaking, changed the landscape of American movie-making once again, and led a renaissance of filmmaking among Hollywood's lower and middle-classes—those without access to studio megabucks.

Related Topics:
1990s - Video - The Secret of NIMH - The Shawshank Redemption - P.T. Anderson

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The rise of the DVD in the 21st century has quickly become even more profitable to studios and has led to an explosion of packaging extra scenes, extended versions, and commentary tracks with the films.

Related Topics:
DVD - 21st century - Commentary tracks

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