Chapter Five - The 50's: Film Noir
Chapter Five
Welles' dark vision in Citizen Kane was a harbinger of things to come in American movies, but World War II interrupted the evolution. The explosion of atomic bombs reverberate America forever. Victory had a dark price-an undercurrent of cynicism and uncertainty that bordered on despair.
Hollywood's response was film noir, a genre populated by hapless detectives and down-on-their-luck ex-cons trapped in an immoral world. These B-films dove more deeply into the soul of America than any A-picture, uncovering more disconcerting images of an alienated society than many cared to see.
The prosperous 1950's were ushered in by the McCarthy hearings. These witch-hunts provided the country with an enormous dose of paranoia that was broadcast as the first television news spectacle. These hearings were ignored by Hollywood A-pictures, but not by the noir tradition, which stayed at the front lines of this paranoia and political intrigue.
Some filmmakers would return to skewering the press and the media, especially television, to warn the American public that what was happening in their papers and on the evening news could have dire consequences.
Billy Wilder's Ace In The Hole features Kirk Douglas as an out-of-luck reporter struggling to get back into the major leagues of journalism. When a local mine disaster traps a miner, Douglas keeps him there to milk the situation for headlines. The miner dies, but not before the tabloid culture is exposed as uncaring manipulators. On the cusp between an era governed by newspapers and controlled by television, TV crews were only on the film's periphery.
Elia Kazan's A Face In The Crowd, scripted by Budd Schulberg, takes us into the world of radio and television. A charming rural gospel singer, played by Andy Griffith, is discovered by a group of ruthless broadcasters who give him a pulpit on national TV. As his popularity grows, so do his power and lust for control. The film planted a seed of doubt in viewers' minds about the power of television, making it impossible to look at preachers and politicians in the same way again.
Welles' dark vision in Citizen Kane was a harbinger of things to come in American movies, but World War II interrupted the evolution. The explosion of atomic bombs reverberate America forever. Victory had a dark price-an undercurrent of cynicism and uncertainty that bordered on despair.
Hollywood's response was film noir, a genre populated by hapless detectives and down-on-their-luck ex-cons trapped in an immoral world. These B-films dove more deeply into the soul of America than any A-picture, uncovering more disconcerting images of an alienated society than many cared to see.
The prosperous 1950's were ushered in by the McCarthy hearings. These witch-hunts provided the country with an enormous dose of paranoia that was broadcast as the first television news spectacle. These hearings were ignored by Hollywood A-pictures, but not by the noir tradition, which stayed at the front lines of this paranoia and political intrigue.
Some filmmakers would return to skewering the press and the media, especially television, to warn the American public that what was happening in their papers and on the evening news could have dire consequences.
Billy Wilder's Ace In The Hole features Kirk Douglas as an out-of-luck reporter struggling to get back into the major leagues of journalism. When a local mine disaster traps a miner, Douglas keeps him there to milk the situation for headlines. The miner dies, but not before the tabloid culture is exposed as uncaring manipulators. On the cusp between an era governed by newspapers and controlled by television, TV crews were only on the film's periphery.
Elia Kazan's A Face In The Crowd, scripted by Budd Schulberg, takes us into the world of radio and television. A charming rural gospel singer, played by Andy Griffith, is discovered by a group of ruthless broadcasters who give him a pulpit on national TV. As his popularity grows, so do his power and lust for control. The film planted a seed of doubt in viewers' minds about the power of television, making it impossible to look at preachers and politicians in the same way again.
posted by Xavier Casto | 02:00
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