I' American Film: A Short History

1
I. American Film A Short History

• SMST215-06B American Media
• Week 31 (August 2)

2

• 1888 Thomas Edison develops motion picture camera
• 1900-1909 competition over technology and patents
  (Edison and Biograph), By 1909, the USA was the
  worlds largest film market. Nickelodeon.
• 1903 The Great Train Robbery (d. Edwin Porter)
• 1915 Birth of A Nation (first feature film)
• 1919 Golden age of silent films begins

3

• 1922 The Hays Office (film censorship)
• The rise of the film star
• 1927 The Jazz Singer (you aint heard nothing
  yet!). By 1930 virtually all films were talkies
• 1928 First Oscars
• 1933 King Kong

4

• 1939 Gone With The Wind
• 1941 Citzen Kane
• 1940-1945 Film as war propaganda
• 1946 Peak of US box office (90 million
  Americans go to the movies weekly)
• 1948 The Paramount Case (dissolving
  studio/exhibition monopolies)
• 1948 Television arrives in America

5

• 1950s The rise of the teen audience sci-fi
  (Cold War paranoia)
• Decline of the studio system.
• 1960s Films incorporate more sexual and
  violent content on the big screen. Rise of the
  art film.
• 1968 MPAA movie ratings introduced
• 1970s The New Hollywood (rise of the
  director), The rise of the big-budget
  block-buster (Star Wars, Jaws)
• 1980s VCR for home use multiplex cinemas

6
The 1990s

• 1995 Toy Story. First completely
  computer-generated film
• 1997 DVDs introduced
• 1997 Titanic. Most expensive film
  ever/highest grossing (single) movie ever
• prequels and sequels (Star Wars)re-makes and
  re-releases indie cinema