Lecture%206:%20Los%20Angeles,%20Movies%20and%20Cars

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Lecture 6 Los Angeles, Movies and Cars
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis

• Professor Michael Green

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This Lesson

• The Rise of Car Culture
• Los Angeles, Movies and Car Culture
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit

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The Rise of Car Culture
The Los Angeles Freeways

• Lesson 6 Part I

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The Los Angeles Freeways

• Even though L.A has fewer lane-miles per capita
  than many other major metropolises, freeways are
  one of the major trademarks of Los Angeles, along
  with beaches, palm trees and movie studios.
• They have become part of the Los Angles myth,
  represented ad infinitum in thousands of movies,
  television shows and other media.
• CHiPS
• O.J./White Bronco freeway chase

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Suburban Sprawl

• Extensive and complex freeway networks
  criss-cross the still fast-growing region,
  connecting urban centers with their suburbs and
  exurbs as well as the areas of urban sprawl
  between them.
• Remember, that L.A was built on a real-estate
  boom before industry existed to support it.
  Unlike most cities, which grow outward from their
  cores, L.A. was dealing with suburban sprawl from
  the beginning.

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The Growth of the Auto in the U.S

• During the postwar years, as never before, the
  automobile became the dominant factor in American
  life.
• Among other things, the car became the metaphor
  from which Americans drew their self-image of
  potency and strength.
• Highways spread across the landscape like a
  gigantic concrete blob, isolating rural towns,
  carving up neighborhoods and destroying street
  culture, bringing congestion to all major
  cities. Marty Jeezer, The Dark Ages
•  

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The Destruction of Mass Transit

• The destruction of mass transit by monopolistic
  business practices made sense for GMs corporate
  policy. Efficient mass transit was a barrier to
  expanding corporate profits. It was inevitable
  that GM would move to drive out all competition
  and increase the market for its private
  vehicles.
• Jeezer
• Check out the website, The Streetcar Conspiracy
  linked to the lesson.

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The End of Mass Mass-transit

• At the end of World War II, the U.S. still had a
  healthy railroad system and the potential for
  modernizing its mass transit.
• In 1944, Congress passed the Defense Highway Act,
  with the construction costs to be split 50-50 by
  federal and state govs.
• Though the government cited national security,
  the real impetus for the program came from
  intense lobbying by the auto industry and its
  allies in oil, rubber and steel.

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Cars for Everybody

• As early as the 1920s, cars had begun to
  saturate the economy on the basis of one car per
  family, leading the automakers, especially
  General Motors, to adopt a new marketing
  strategy. Continued expansion could only come
  through planned obsolescence so a family would
  have to buy a car every few years and through
  encouraging two-car families and by making the
  automobile necessary for commuting.
• Jeezer

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Making them Bigger

• Despite urban congestion and the problem of
  parking space, the size of cars was increased
  throughout the postwar period.
• Automobile manufacturers resisted bringing out
  small, compact cars because big cars mean bigger
  profits and because their motivational research
  departments reported that consumers craved
  bigness as a psychological need.

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Example
1958 Super Oldsmobile with the 371 Rocket engine.
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Cars and the Frontier

• The lure (and myth) of the American Frontier,
  with its emphasis on rugged individualism, has
  always encouraged privatism and isolation.
• Detroit manipulated and exploited these
  traditions with a vengeance.
• Such myths play particularly well in Los Angeles,
  since, more than East Coast cities, L.A. has
  retained its identity as a frontier.

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Another Version

• In Mass Politics and the Adoption of the
  Automobile in Los Angles, Scott Bottles argues
  that the historical record does not support
  evidence of a corporate conspiracy, despite the
  fact that this version has become firmly lodged
  in the public consciousness.
• Bottles argues that Angelenos adopted the
  automobile in protest against the inefficient and
  seemingly corrupt railways.

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Poor Mass Transit

• Southern California residents during the first
  three decades of the twentieth century constantly
  complained about the quality of rail transit.
  From the publics point of view, the railways
  sought to benefit at its expense.
• Among other things, the railways deliberately
  ran too few cars, refused to build vital
  crosstown lines, bribed public officials and
  abused their franchises.
• Bottles

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The Car as Democratic Symbol

• The car became a symbol of democratic technology
  freeing the citizenry from the shackles of the
  monopolistic railways.
• Los Angelenos felt that cars were private and
  offered flexibility and convenience.

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Opening Up the Suburbs

• According to the alternate version, the public
  turned to automobiles because it felt the
  streetcar industry had failed in its promise to
  open up the suburbs to development.
• The automobile, people thought, could complete
  the job of lowering urban densities, therefore
  creating the ideal low-density metropolis. The
  key to suburban utopia was an efficient street
  system and inexpensive automobiles. 
• Bottles

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Los Angeles, Movies and Cars
The Fast and the Furious (2001)

Directed by Rob
Cohen

• Lesson 6 Part II

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Cars in L.A. Movies

• Not surprisingly, the Los Angeles obsession with
  cars and driving has been prominently represented
  in Hollywood movies.
• The movies both reflect and feed the real-life
  chases that regularly occur on the Los Angeles
  freeways.
• Many car chases are captured on video, with news
  helicopters ready to tape the incidents. Many are
  broadcast live. Some news websites have footage
  of car chases.

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Some L.A Movie Chases

• The Terminator (1984) and Terminator II Judgment
  Day (1991)
• To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
• Fletch (1985)
• Set it Off (1996)
• Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)
• Charlies Angels (2000)
• The Fast and the Furious (2001)
• The Lethal Weapon movies (1987-1998)
• Pause the lecture and watch clip 1.

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To Live and Die in L.A.
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) Directed by
William Friedkin
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Other Examples

• Falling Down
• Michael Douglas, sick of the gridlock, climbs out
  of his car during rush hour.
• Pause the lecture and watch clip 2
• L.A. Story
• Steve Martin communes with a freeway sign.
• Pause the lecture and watch clip 3
• The movie lampoons road rage on the L.A.
  freeways.
• Pause the lecture and watch clip 4

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Pulp Fiction

• In Quentin Tarantinos alternate L.A, the car is
  a prominently featured motif. Some examples
• Vincent picks up Mia in a 1964 Chevy Chevelle.
• The booths at Jack Rabbit Slims are all classic
  cars.
• Jules and Vincents relationship is established
  in a car. A crucial turning point occurs in the
  same car.
• Winston Wolfs drives an Acura NSX.
• A body (and a car) are disposed of in a car
  crusher.
• The Bruce Willis section of the movie features a
  Checkered Taxicab, a Honda, a Camaro and a Harley
• Pause the lecture and watch clip 5.
• Check out the website linked to the lesson.

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis

• Lesson 6 Part III

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Background on The Movie

• Directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future,
  Forrest Gump, Contact) and written by Jeffrey
  Price and Peter S. Seaman, based on a novel by
  Gary K. Wolf.
• It was revolutionary for its time. Though not the
  first attempt to combine live action and
  animation Mary Poppins and Song of the South
  had done it, among others it was the first to
  do it so comprehensively and with such
  technological sophistication.

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Influence

• The movie started a new era in animation more
  specifically revived animation as a viable
  commercial form, and introduced CGI.
• Tiny Toons, Animaniacs
• The Simpsons, South Park, Beavis and Butthead
• Disney feature animation renaissance
• The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin
• Can be argued that the success of the film led to
  Disney being receptive to Pixars proposal for
  first animated feature, Toy Story.

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Brand Synergy

• The movie featured an amalgamation of characters
  from Disney, Warner Brothers, and many other
  studios, as well as an executive producer credit
  by Steven Spielberg.
• This became more important to the blockbuster
  filmmaking 1980s, especially as ancillary markets
  became a huge deal.
• Warner Brothers would only allow the use of Bugs
  Bunny, if he received equal amount of screen time
  and lines as Walt Disney's biggest star, Mickey
  Mouse.

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Course Concepts

• Race, Class and Gender
• The toons have been allegorized as second class
  citizens and Toontown allegorized as a ghetto.
  See the essay linked to the course.
• Film Noir
• Detective film with all the typical tropes
• Murder
• Femme Fatale
• Conspiracy at the highest levels
• Down and out, cynical detective
• Pays homage to Chinatown

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Course Concepts (continued)

• Cars and Freeways
• The film fictionalizes the conspiracy from your
  reading, in which corporations try to put street
  cars and public transportation out of business.
• Also features a talking car, many chases, etc.
• Self-reflexive Hollywood and Los Angeles
• Many insider jokes about Hollywood
• Many references to Hollywoods golden age of
  animation.
• High Concept
• You will learn about this in the next lesson

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End of Lecture 6