The purpose of this essay is to evaluate the arguments for and against the use of the category ‘New Hollywood’. Firstly, it will describe the features of ‘Old Hollywood’ as compared to the ‘New Hollywood’ era. Secondly, it will describe the features of ‘New Hollywood’ in two phases, the ‘New Wave Renaissance’ and the ‘blockbuster’ era. Lastly, an analysis of the modern film industry is illustrated, showing similarities with the Old Hollywood in terms of production and style.
The ‘Old Hollywood’ era can also be known as the Classical Hollywood cinema. ... Hollywood was a ‘mature oligopoly’, meaning literally control by the Big Five studios, leaving directors, producers and actors little control over what movies they want to make or star in (website).
In Classical Hollywood movies, the style is characterized by motivation and conventions. ... All these justify Casablanca (1942) to be a classic Hollywood movie. ... His style was also quite different from the Classical Hollywood; he utilized an assertive mixture of looming figures, formal compositions and theatrical lighting often derived from his previous experiments in the live theatre (FB, 216). ... Overall, Citizen Kane (1941) was a movie quite out of its time, reminiscent of the “New Hollywood Renaissance’, which will be discussed later.
During the 1950s and 1960s, both economic and institutional factors helped to shape the development of Hollywood Cinema. ... The revise of the Production code (1966) and the implementation of the ratings system in 1968 shaped the way for more explicit content like violence and sexual material, previously unseen in Classical Hollywood (SR 13. ... A story about a romantic pair of gangsters that terrorized the Great Plains in the 1930s, it became an instant success, even though it defied the rules of Classical Hollywood (HBH, 128). ... The so-called ‘New Hollywood Renaissance’ was just a phase in transition, the outcome of mixture of social, industrial, and stylistic forces, only to be replaced by moneymaking and the blockbuster era. ... Vertical integration has been replaced by horizontal integration of New Hollywood’s tightly diversified media conglomerates, for which movies are one version of a product existing in several media forms (HC, 224). ... It also paved the way for global marketing of Hollywood films worldwide as they now earn more revenues internationally than domestically. ... Independent features now signify a product as distinct as opposition to Hollywood’s mainstream product. ...
All these factors make the current Hollywood not much different from the Old Classical Hollywood. Hollywood now has begun to return back to genres and repetition to earn back their profits, owing to higher advertising and producing costs (SR 4. ... The irony is that despite audiences complaining that Hollywood does not churn out intelligent, innovative films anymore; they still rush to pay and see what they have seen before (Premiere, 68). ... New Hollywood has returned to a hit-making factory, with cultural conservatism the main key to driving movie audiences (SR 4. ...
Classical Hollywood utilizes both A-class stars and pre-sold genres to produce movies and it is no different today (HOF 127, 131).
To link to this page, copy the following code to your site:
All Papers Are For Research And Reference Purposes Only!
You may not turn these papers in as your own! You must cite our web site as your source!
