Tweet
The Depression has clues about coming films
Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic
Friday, April 17, 2009
One grain of good news can be gleaned from today's mountain of ghastly economic tidings. If the slide continues, we're almost sure to see double-digit unemployment, epic human misery, rampant homelessness and ... some of the best films in decades.
Are great movies guaranteed in an economic meltdown? Not exactly, but like Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, I'm basing my projections on Great Depression models.
The pervasive myth about the Depression is that it was an era of escapist entertainment. When people think of Depression-era movies, they tend to recall Ginger Rogers dressed in coins and singing "We're in the Money," in a fantasy of sex and prosperity that could only have sprung from the imagination of Busby Berkeley.
But what people don't remember is how that "We're in the Money" number ends: The police come in and bust up the rehearsal before the dance is even over! The backers have all gone broke, and all the costumes have to be returned. The sequence - the classic opening to "Gold Diggers of 1933" - might begin with Ginger singing about loads of money. But it concludes with her in street clothes, remarking sarcastically to a friend: "It's the Depression, dearie."
The truth is, during the Great Depression Hollywood confronted what was going on in the country, sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely. Movies got tougher - and better. Keeping that in mind, here are five things we can reasonably expect from Hollywood if the economy worsens:
Anti-authority themes: At the height of the Depression, businessmen, politicians, police officers and judges became movie villains. People no longer trusted any organized authority. Expect to see more movies such as "The International," in which the villains are evil bankers and in which the hero can succeed only by going outside the system.
Shady heroes: In Depression movies, heroes were shady and lived by their wits. Sometimes they were gangsters. Sometimes they were fast-talking press agents or journalists with mob ties. The idea was that the system was rigged, so if you played by the rules you were a chump. I don't expect modern movies to get quite that cynical, because people are not that disillusioned (yet). I do expect, though, more wise-guy actors in the protagonist slot (e.g. Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke). Likewise, I expect more scripts that allow Sean Penn, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Leonardo DiCaprio and others to pull from their shady, playful side. Good guys will break the rules in pursuit of good causes. We saw a hint of that with Penn in "Milk," and more than a touch just this week with Russell Crowe in "State of Play."
Social protest dramas: Tough times bring out the social protest dramas. The Depression gave us "Wild Boys of the Road," "The Grapes of Wrath" and a slew of films by Richard Barthelmess, who was sort of the Robert Redford of his time. In prosperity, middle-class people don't identify with the oppressed because they expect to be rich by next Tuesday. But in hard times, they see breadlines and picture themselves on them. Expect more films like "The Pursuit of Happyness" (but without the fairy-tale finish) and more like "Wendy and Lucy," which was like an Italian neorealist film, American-style.
Political themes: In Depression movies, government was not to be trusted, and rugged individualists were valued. Yet political heroes were invariably liberal, sometimes extremely liberal by our standards. The movies reflected people's desperate desire for government to intervene, if only to preserve their opportunities for individualism and autonomy. They saw government, not as an ideal long-term companion, but as a necessary short-term partner. We're seeing this combination - of libertarianism and liberalism - in our politics today. Therefore, within the next two years, expect movies in which the government comes to the rescue of middle America.
Zaniness, harshness, strangeness: At the height of the Depression, Warner Bros. made a movie called "Parachute Jumper," in which the hero (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) tries everything to make money - including smuggling heroin in a small airplane. The comedy ends with his shooting down government patrol planes guarding the Canadian border - and he's the good guy. Expect similar zaniness, harshness and strangeness from our films. We're already seeing it, for better and worse - slashers in which everyone dies ("The Strangers"), thrillers in which it's better to be a hit man than a decent human being ("Wanted") and comedies of shocking (and sometimes delightful) nastiness ("Observe and Report").
In the coming months, comedy will become even harsher, and the usual moral markers that make up our movie formulas will vanish. Good guys won't be good guys, and bad guys won't be bad guys. There will be confusion - the kind of confusion that sometimes leads to fresh, focused thinking and rich, complex filmmaking.
One more thing to expect from the next wave of movies - expect to feel better watching them. After all, Hollywood helped Americans make it through the Great Depression by inserting hope even into the bleakest of films. I keep thinking of the ending of "Heroes for Sale," in which Barthelmess ends up homeless and broke. What does he say when he is rousted out of his pathetic shelter by cops and forced to walk aimlessly into the night?
"Anyhow, we got one thing to be thankful for," he says with a smirk. "It stopped raining."
Wow. That smirky resilience. It makes you proud to see it, almost to the point of goose bumps. That's 100 percent American and precisely the attitude for getting through a Depression.
E-mail Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com.
Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic
Friday, April 17, 2009
One grain of good news can be gleaned from today's mountain of ghastly economic tidings. If the slide continues, we're almost sure to see double-digit unemployment, epic human misery, rampant homelessness and ... some of the best films in decades.
Are great movies guaranteed in an economic meltdown? Not exactly, but like Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, I'm basing my projections on Great Depression models.
The pervasive myth about the Depression is that it was an era of escapist entertainment. When people think of Depression-era movies, they tend to recall Ginger Rogers dressed in coins and singing "We're in the Money," in a fantasy of sex and prosperity that could only have sprung from the imagination of Busby Berkeley.
But what people don't remember is how that "We're in the Money" number ends: The police come in and bust up the rehearsal before the dance is even over! The backers have all gone broke, and all the costumes have to be returned. The sequence - the classic opening to "Gold Diggers of 1933" - might begin with Ginger singing about loads of money. But it concludes with her in street clothes, remarking sarcastically to a friend: "It's the Depression, dearie."
The truth is, during the Great Depression Hollywood confronted what was going on in the country, sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely. Movies got tougher - and better. Keeping that in mind, here are five things we can reasonably expect from Hollywood if the economy worsens:
Anti-authority themes: At the height of the Depression, businessmen, politicians, police officers and judges became movie villains. People no longer trusted any organized authority. Expect to see more movies such as "The International," in which the villains are evil bankers and in which the hero can succeed only by going outside the system.
Shady heroes: In Depression movies, heroes were shady and lived by their wits. Sometimes they were gangsters. Sometimes they were fast-talking press agents or journalists with mob ties. The idea was that the system was rigged, so if you played by the rules you were a chump. I don't expect modern movies to get quite that cynical, because people are not that disillusioned (yet). I do expect, though, more wise-guy actors in the protagonist slot (e.g. Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke). Likewise, I expect more scripts that allow Sean Penn, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Leonardo DiCaprio and others to pull from their shady, playful side. Good guys will break the rules in pursuit of good causes. We saw a hint of that with Penn in "Milk," and more than a touch just this week with Russell Crowe in "State of Play."
Social protest dramas: Tough times bring out the social protest dramas. The Depression gave us "Wild Boys of the Road," "The Grapes of Wrath" and a slew of films by Richard Barthelmess, who was sort of the Robert Redford of his time. In prosperity, middle-class people don't identify with the oppressed because they expect to be rich by next Tuesday. But in hard times, they see breadlines and picture themselves on them. Expect more films like "The Pursuit of Happyness" (but without the fairy-tale finish) and more like "Wendy and Lucy," which was like an Italian neorealist film, American-style.
Political themes: In Depression movies, government was not to be trusted, and rugged individualists were valued. Yet political heroes were invariably liberal, sometimes extremely liberal by our standards. The movies reflected people's desperate desire for government to intervene, if only to preserve their opportunities for individualism and autonomy. They saw government, not as an ideal long-term companion, but as a necessary short-term partner. We're seeing this combination - of libertarianism and liberalism - in our politics today. Therefore, within the next two years, expect movies in which the government comes to the rescue of middle America.
Zaniness, harshness, strangeness: At the height of the Depression, Warner Bros. made a movie called "Parachute Jumper," in which the hero (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) tries everything to make money - including smuggling heroin in a small airplane. The comedy ends with his shooting down government patrol planes guarding the Canadian border - and he's the good guy. Expect similar zaniness, harshness and strangeness from our films. We're already seeing it, for better and worse - slashers in which everyone dies ("The Strangers"), thrillers in which it's better to be a hit man than a decent human being ("Wanted") and comedies of shocking (and sometimes delightful) nastiness ("Observe and Report").
In the coming months, comedy will become even harsher, and the usual moral markers that make up our movie formulas will vanish. Good guys won't be good guys, and bad guys won't be bad guys. There will be confusion - the kind of confusion that sometimes leads to fresh, focused thinking and rich, complex filmmaking.
One more thing to expect from the next wave of movies - expect to feel better watching them. After all, Hollywood helped Americans make it through the Great Depression by inserting hope even into the bleakest of films. I keep thinking of the ending of "Heroes for Sale," in which Barthelmess ends up homeless and broke. What does he say when he is rousted out of his pathetic shelter by cops and forced to walk aimlessly into the night?
"Anyhow, we got one thing to be thankful for," he says with a smirk. "It stopped raining."
Wow. That smirky resilience. It makes you proud to see it, almost to the point of goose bumps. That's 100 percent American and precisely the attitude for getting through a Depression.
E-mail Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com.