I've studied film for more than thirty years now, both in college and just for my own amusement. I'm not what one would call a preeminent scholar on the subject by any means--my knowledge of foreign films is pretty limited, and I've only read a handful of books about cinema. I just watch a lot of movies in a lot of different styles and genres. I know what I like, I know what I don't. Really, I'm more of a nerd than a scholar, but nerds and scholars tend to share the same passion.
"Everybody knows when you go to the show, you can't take the kids along.
You've gotta read the paper, and know the code of G, PG, and R, and X.
And you've gotta know what the movie's about before you even go.
Tex Ritter's gone and Disney's dead and the screen is filled with sex."
--The Statler Brothers, "Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott?", 1973
One thing that scholars and a humble nerd like myself do agree on is that cinema drastically changed in the 1970s. While I've not seen actual documentation on this, my theory is that it had to do with the ratings system that was implemented in the late 1960s when the Hayes Code became effectively unenforceable. Starting in the late 1960s, there was a movement, especially in independent films, to make things as "real" as possible. In Bullitt (1968), Steve McQueen insisted on it, going so far as to shoot hospital scenes in an actual hospital and using real doctors and nurses instead of actors playing doctors and nurses--and, of course, he did all his own driving. Movies suddenly no longer had to just refer to more unseemly topics like sex and drug use--they could actually show them. Characters in movies could suddenly talk the way normal people talk--people curse in real life. M*A*S*H (1970) is considered the first American film to drop the dreaded "F-Bomb." (And, if I may say so, it's one of the funniest lines in the whole movie.) If any content in someone's movie might be considered "taboo" in any way, shape, or form, you could just slap an R rating on it, say it's not appropriate for children, and we never looked back.
The violence became bloodier which made films, especially crime dramas, like Dog Day Afternoon (1975) and Taxi Driver (1976) more visceral. Science fiction films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Alien (1979), and especially Star Wars (1977), created new special effects technologies in order to visually tell stories that took place in environments we can only imagine. Filmmakers were essentially free to tell the stories they wanted to tell without having to censor themselves. (Of course, fights over the ratings of those films continue to this day. For more on this you can read my blog post from 1 July, 2017.)
A couple of films of the 1970s are looked at today as having predicted certain elements of the media landscape that we have today. The big one was Network (1976), which, while a satire that focused on corporate greed and the media's willingness to do anything for ratings, is considered by many today to be prescient for its time--maybe even too prescient. Nothing in that film seems too outrageous today. Frankly, I'm kind of surprised that some of the events in the film, particularly the ending, haven't actually happened... yet.
I only just recently saw this week's film for the first time. The film was inspired by the PBS documentary series "An American Family" (1973), which followed the Loud family (that's their name, not necessarily a description of them) as they actually navigated their real day-to-day lives. In this movie, Albert Brooks plays Albert Brooks, a filmmaker who decides he wants to film his own American family for a full year. After an extensive amount of research and testing, he decides to film the Yeager family of Phoenix, Arizona. He sends them on a vacation to Hawaii and, while they're gone, outfits their home with high tech hidden cameras and recording devices. He even buys the house across the street, so he can be nearby monitoring the action at all times, aided by two social scientists.
From the moment he picks up the Yeagers at the airport, things go comically wrong. Dr. Warren Yeager (Charles Grodin), a respected veterinarian, is clearly aware of the presence of cameras and tries to paint as rosy a picture as possible. His wife Jeanette (Frances Lee McCain) begins having reservations almost immediately and even seems to try to undermine the whole project in order to spend just a little time by herself.
Today, the concept of "reality TV" is commonplace. Over the last few decades, we've watched famous families like the Osbournes and the Kardashians open up their homes and not so famous people in competition to see who can rough it on some remote island. But when this film was made it was pretty outlandish. Even the technology used in the movie, which seems kind of clunky and science-fictional for its time, is nothing special by today's standards.
Albert Brooks had already established himself as a groundbreaking comedian and director of short films, particularly for "Saturday Night Live." This was the first feature film he directed, which he also co-wrote with Monica McGowan and the great Harry Shearer, who also plays Pete the cameraman. From 1979, please enjoy Real Life.
Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
No comments:
Post a Comment