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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Frank Capra

The film became Capra's most controversial. Capra recalls his fears:

And panic hit me. Japan was slicing up the colossus of China piece by piece. Nazi panzers had rolled into Austria and Czechoslovakia; their thunder echoed over Europe. England and France shuddered. The Russian bear growled ominously in the Kremlin. The black cloud of war hung over the chancelleries of the world. Official Washington from the President down, was in the process of making hard, torturing decisions. "And here was I, in the process of making a satire about government officials; ... Wasn't this the most untimely time for me to make a film about Washington?"

Joseph P. Kennedy, U.S. ambassador to the UK, wrote to Columbia head Harry Cohn, "Please do not play this picture in Europe."

Kennedy wrote to president Roosevelt that "in foreign countries this film must inevitably strengthen the mistaken impression that the United States is full of graft, corruption and lawlessness."

Cohn and Capra chose to ignore the negative publicity and demands, and released the film as planned. It was later nominated for 11 Academy Awards. Hollywood columnist Louella Parsons called it a "smash patriotic hit" and most critics agreed, seeing that audiences left the theaters with "an enthusiasm for democracy" and "in a glow of patriotism."

The significance of the film's message was established further in France, shortly after World War II began. When the French public were asked to select which film they wanted to see most, having been told by the Vichy government that soon no more American films would be allowed in France, the overwhelming majority chose it over all others.



https://en.wikipedia...gton_.281939.29

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Paths of Glory (1957) Stanley Kubrick

The film was banned in France until 1970.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas who also produced it, the film examines a fictional situation during WWI when French troops are ordered to achieve an impossible military objective: Climb and secure the "Ant Hill," a heavily-fortified German position.

Of course the troops are decimated. Whom to blame? General Broulard, who gave the order?

General Broulard gives a second order: Select three of the survivors, charge them with cowardice, give them a perfunctory military trial, and then execute them. Their commanding officer is Colonel Dax (Douglas) who had been an attorney in civilian life. He is ordered to be the defense counsel. After the inevitable verdict, the three representatives are executed by a firing squad.


http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/0792841409

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Ace in the Hole (1951) Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder made this film after Sunset Blvd(1950) and before Stalag 17(1953), two of his most popular works.

The idea of a newspaper man covering the story of a trapped miner, exploiting and managing the "rescue" in order to sell the story to the media, was way ahead of it's time, which is why the picture flopped at the box office.

This 1951 film seems as relevant today as it ever did. Kirk Douglas is perfectly cast as an unethical newspaper reporter who, through his influence over the town's sheriff, keeps a dying man trapped in a mine for several days longer than necessary in order to milk the story for all it's worth - a strategy he hopes will help him claw his way back to the top of the journalistic world.

Billy Wilder's incredibly vitriolic film tells many truths about how reality is manipulated by the media to serve personal and political ends without regard to the suffering caused by this agenda. His film spares nobody in its critique: those who perpetuate the lies, those who directly benefit from them, even those who uncritically consume the stories are all complicit in the wrongdoing.


http://www.amazon.co...ace in the hole

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Acting today is better but screenwriting has never been worse.

BNN: And the script is the foundation; the blueprint.

SE: They had better scripts in 1920. In general, the early studio moguls were driven — not just to make money, they were driven to do good work. They wanted respect. Remember, they had grown up poor and without respect. These were merchants, not financiers with MBAs. Their devotion was to the movie business. The people running studios today are devoted to Harvard Business School or some variation thereof.

There are also a lot of people in the business today who don’t know a lot about the movies. They don’t know anymore about Cary Grant than the average 16 year-old. It’s heartbreaking. They don’t have a real feel for the business they’re in.

To them it’s widgets. They’re manufacturing widgets with replicable parts. It worked once so let’s make eight more. There is no devotion to quality merchandise anymore. And that’s sad.

The tentpoles the studios make almost exclusively today cost anywhere from $150 million to $200 million. So what happens? No one wants to take the fall, so two-three-four financiers are brought in. They all then get a say in the picture. Then you gotta worry about pleasing China.



http://www.breitbart...the-movie-star/

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The Hays Code 1934-1964

When Catholics censored Hollywood.

The Hays Code neatly coincided with the golden age of Hollywood.

American Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church organized The Legion of Decency and in 1934 with the support of Protestant and Jewish Organizations began calling for boycotts of films deemed unacceptable.

This was the dollar that broke the camel’s back – The Hollywood studios, still reeling from the losses of 1933 due in large part to the delayed effects of the Great Depression, were forced to act.

Forbidden were scenes of passion – films had to uphold the sanctity of marriage. Adultery, seduction and rape were never to be more than suggested and only if absolutely necessary to the plot and always punished at the end. Profanity, racial epithets, implications of prostitution, drug addiction, nudity, sexually suggestive dancing and costumes were all verboten.

The code also addressed violence. It was forbidden to go into detail of a crime, display machine guns or illegal weapons or even discuss weapons on screen. Law Enforcement was never to be shown dying at the hands of a criminal and all crime had to be punished in the end.

This rigid Catholic sensibility of good vs evil was a far cry from the loose morals of the anything goes Jazz Age.


http://www.herbmuseu...-effect-culture

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On the Waterfront (1954) Elia Kazan

 

The story contains one of the most memorable and most quoted scenes in film. Brando gives his now famous "I coulda been a contenda" speech in chastising his brother for selling him out and making him take a dive so the mob could win the bets they laid on his opponent.

 

This film was a vehement and personal political statement by Elian Kazan. Kazan had just finished testifying before the House Unamerican Activities Committee, naming former associates who were affiliated with the Communist party. As a result, he was ostracized by most of the filmmaking community. "On The Waterfront" became his personal mission to justify his testimony. He looked at Terry as his own alter ego. In one scene, a union boss shouts, ``You ratted on us, Terry,'' and Brando retorts: ``I'm standing over here now. I was rattin' on myself all those years. I didn't even know it.'' This was Kazan's defiant statement in response to the vituperation of his critics.

 

For this reason the film was reviled by the Hollywood elite and Kazan vilified as turncoat. In his 1988 autobiography, he wrote about how he felt after the film won 8 Oscars: "I was tasting vengeance that night and enjoying it. `On the Waterfront' is my own story; every day I worked on that film, I was telling the world where I stood and my critics to go and **** themselves.''

 

 

 

 

http://www.amazon.co... the waterfront