Reaganite Cinema

In the 1980s to 1990s the hustle and bustle of everyday life felt too much for any American to withstand. Many people looked back to the 1950s where life seemed too simplistic to even be real. Back then people only had to worry about work or the family and things didn't become much more complicated. Whether or not this stereotype is actually correct, theaters picked up on this profound interest and produced several unique movies. People would later dub this movie genre the Reaganite Cinema.

In the famous Back to the Future (1985) movie, a young boy named Marty (played by Micheal J. Fox) accidentally travels back in time and disrupts his parent's relationship, causing them to not get married. In order to save himself from fading out of existence, he's forced to interrupt the 1950s and reunite his parents. The docile world that they come from almost seems alien to Marty. This time period and alienation he receives, is symbolic of a parents inability to understand teenagers and what they go through. At the end of the film his visit to this utopian past does more then just cement his existence, all of his family struggles and financial problems are now gone.

Like many of the politicians of the time, movies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries gave extremely high focuses on rejuvenation from past experiences. By going to or learning from people in the past, many Americans felt they could fix their modern day problems. Although this seemed like a valid solution it was more of an escapist reality to not deal with modern day issues many people had never faced before. The movie Cocoon (1985) approached this issue and stated that the rejuvenation people were looking for should be spiritual and not physical (which many people wanted), because a physical rejuvenation won't change anything.

Indy Films: Donnie Darko

Although American films have changed, fluctuated, and created new medias/genres, they have kept a consistent flow. The area of movies to brake this consistent cycle have become known as independent films. What an independent film is varies from person to person and critic to critic. But one thing they all have in common is a break of the normal Hollywood Studio production. One of the most famous independent films in recent years has been Donnie Darko by Richard Kelley.

Like most indy (independent) films, Donnie Darko wasn't successful upon it's original release. The film was considered a flop and practically nobody went to see it. But thanks to the Internet and recent rise in interest with indy films by critics, the films DVD sales slowly rose over several years. Like many underground films in recent years, the movie has a sense of cinematography and creativeness rivaled only by the film noir generation. Many films like it have altered how larger box office pictures are done, newer movies now tend to take the deviant movie approach of experimentation. Now on the market we have more films like this then ever.

If you haven't seen Donnie Darko, Eternal Sunshine in the Spotless Mind, or Mirriormask, I highly suggest heading over to amazon.com or your local Internet movie provider to grab a copy/copies. These films all have elements rarely seen up until a few years after their releases, where major movie makers started adapting their ideas. Indy films have also grown in popularity thanks to the Internet (youtube.com especially), because it allows people to more easily view films not controlled by the mass media.

Donnie Darko Trailer

Counter Culture

In the 1960s, American cinema was at it's all time low attendance. Hollywood was pouring more money then ever into films and getting the least bang for buck known to man. A few films were slightly successful, but overall the film industry was dieing and television was still consistently growing. Deciding to take a risk with an experimental film, Columbia pictures would distribute the most successful film seen in years.

Dennis Hopper's Easy Riders was extremely experimental (therefor risky), but even cheaper too make. It would become an immediate success since it was geared towards a younger generation that no films had targeted. Previous films were marketed to older generations and companies hadn't thought of selling their products with younger crowds. The film was an amazing success and Hollywood discovered the potential of kids backed by the International Bank of Mom and Dad. It was an untapped gold mine that future generations of marketing and massive corporations would follow. Since the films were so cheap many other movies would quickly follow suite.

Today Easy Riders is still considered one of the greatest breakthrough films. It approached issues in society relevant to a younger generation, in a way that had never been done before. It also saved the theaters and production studios from having to close. People today are now seeing a similar occurrence with independent films on the market.

Hollywood in the Age of Television

For a long period of time, movie theaters ruled what the public saw with an iron fist. But the innovation of the first commercial televisions in the 1930's changed how the public interacted with the media. For one fee you could purchase a television and never need to leave your house except for work and food. This meant that people didn't have too go to the theaters every week and fork over more money. Although Hollywood realized great financial possibilities lied in showing films on the TV, they also noticed the major problems it would pose.

Televisions originally had extremely small screens that made it impossible to fit any motion picture onto it. Because of this, many films had to crop their images down and cut out part of the picture. Towards the 1960s and 1970s televisions started catching up with movie pictures sizes but didn't use a widescreen format, causing the edges to be cut off. Widescreen formats have been standardized for movies since the 1930s, but just recently (2000) started airing for televisions. Another technological advancement over time has been the creation of standardized televisions. Like computers the original televisions had parts you could walk into a store and buy to fix your TV. As time went on the parts became more standardized and integrated because of the reduction in price manufacturing and maintenance.

Today's TVs sound so much more like computers then the ones we use. Perhaps as time progresses people will find that television slowly catches up with the cinemas. TVs currently aren't too far behind their technology, maybe they will surpass them in the future.