laugh4me
10-01-2001, 09:50 AM
For your reading pleasure... ;) Here are a couple of clips out of a article discussing the current situation in Hollywood - what new films should they produce in this new wartime? It also talks about the WB cartoons from WWII and how times have changed... The complete article is here... (http://199.97.97.16/contWriter/endnews2/2001/10/01/enter/4042-0292-pat_nytimes.html)
Any comments?
http://imagem.webphotos.iwon.com/1000013852/1000013852_9142001113509PM0.327572.jpg
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Hollywood's Role to Gauge U.S. (10/01)
Greg Hernandez c.2001 Los Angeles Daily News
History has shown that even during times of war, Americans still will flock to the movies. But the conundrum facing Hollywood right now is figuring out what types of films will resonate with the public if the country indeed becomes engaged in a lengthy war.
If this were the World War II era, it would be easy to come up with product: Warner Bros., for example, could churn out something along the lines of, ``Bugs Bunny bugs bin Laden.'' After all, the wisecracking cartoon rabbit became an American icon in anti-German and anti-Japanese film shorts during the second world war.
But those types of cartoons and the patriotic wartime films popular in previous eras would be a much harder sell in today's market, industry experts say, despite the current nationwide surge in patriotism. Studios must now carefully consider how well a film will play outside the United States with international box office receipts such a critical part of a film's financial bottom line.
``You have to think of the world,'' said movie executive Bill Mechanic, former chairman of Fox Films. ``Will the world accept a common enemy? They have not accepted, to date, the Arabs as the enemy. Germany and Japan in WWII made clear-cut villains as opposed to the grayer world we live in today. This is a much more faceless enemy and not a country.''
<skipped some stuff>
Almost as soon as America entered WWII in 1941, some of Hollywood's top filmmakers began making patriotic propaganda such as Frank Capra's ``Divide and Conquer'' and John Ford's Pearl Harbor documentary, ``December 7.''
``The films were very, very anti-German and would have an angelic, young American soldier and innocent nurse with titles like 'To Hell With the Kaiser' and 'Why America Will Win,''' said Hanson, editor of the American Film Institute's Film Catalogue.
Other war-oriented films such as ``Bataan'' and ``30 Seconds Over Tokyo'' were mixed in with lighter fare such as Betty Grable films and popular film series featuring the characters of Andy Hardy, Maisie and Blondie. The war also brought Hollywood musicals back to life with such films as ``Anchors Away'' and ``For Me and My Gal.''
``There were very few films made during that time with contemporary settings that didn't at least touch on the war even if it was something mild like discussing rations,'' Hanson said. ``It really permeated the movies that were made.''
It was also during WWII that Bugs Bunny firmly established himself in the hearts of American audiences with his brash, can-do persona. Bugs and company spent the war tackling enemies such as German goats in ``Scrap Happy Daffy'' and headlined a 1944 short cartoon, the title of which included now-offensive slang to describe Japanese.
``It's hard to imagine you are going to find a war on the scale and style of WWI and WWII,'' Mechanic said. ``You won't have the level of propaganda. The country was in a different place. A lot of those movies now are impossible to watch, they are racist and so jingoistic.''
Any comments?
http://imagem.webphotos.iwon.com/1000013852/1000013852_9142001113509PM0.327572.jpg
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hollywood's Role to Gauge U.S. (10/01)
Greg Hernandez c.2001 Los Angeles Daily News
History has shown that even during times of war, Americans still will flock to the movies. But the conundrum facing Hollywood right now is figuring out what types of films will resonate with the public if the country indeed becomes engaged in a lengthy war.
If this were the World War II era, it would be easy to come up with product: Warner Bros., for example, could churn out something along the lines of, ``Bugs Bunny bugs bin Laden.'' After all, the wisecracking cartoon rabbit became an American icon in anti-German and anti-Japanese film shorts during the second world war.
But those types of cartoons and the patriotic wartime films popular in previous eras would be a much harder sell in today's market, industry experts say, despite the current nationwide surge in patriotism. Studios must now carefully consider how well a film will play outside the United States with international box office receipts such a critical part of a film's financial bottom line.
``You have to think of the world,'' said movie executive Bill Mechanic, former chairman of Fox Films. ``Will the world accept a common enemy? They have not accepted, to date, the Arabs as the enemy. Germany and Japan in WWII made clear-cut villains as opposed to the grayer world we live in today. This is a much more faceless enemy and not a country.''
<skipped some stuff>
Almost as soon as America entered WWII in 1941, some of Hollywood's top filmmakers began making patriotic propaganda such as Frank Capra's ``Divide and Conquer'' and John Ford's Pearl Harbor documentary, ``December 7.''
``The films were very, very anti-German and would have an angelic, young American soldier and innocent nurse with titles like 'To Hell With the Kaiser' and 'Why America Will Win,''' said Hanson, editor of the American Film Institute's Film Catalogue.
Other war-oriented films such as ``Bataan'' and ``30 Seconds Over Tokyo'' were mixed in with lighter fare such as Betty Grable films and popular film series featuring the characters of Andy Hardy, Maisie and Blondie. The war also brought Hollywood musicals back to life with such films as ``Anchors Away'' and ``For Me and My Gal.''
``There were very few films made during that time with contemporary settings that didn't at least touch on the war even if it was something mild like discussing rations,'' Hanson said. ``It really permeated the movies that were made.''
It was also during WWII that Bugs Bunny firmly established himself in the hearts of American audiences with his brash, can-do persona. Bugs and company spent the war tackling enemies such as German goats in ``Scrap Happy Daffy'' and headlined a 1944 short cartoon, the title of which included now-offensive slang to describe Japanese.
``It's hard to imagine you are going to find a war on the scale and style of WWI and WWII,'' Mechanic said. ``You won't have the level of propaganda. The country was in a different place. A lot of those movies now are impossible to watch, they are racist and so jingoistic.''