Cinematic History: ROUGH DRAFT [unedited, unread, ramblings]

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Pre-1920

The early age of film consisted of little more than nickelodeons – moving pictures viewed for a nickel – and short silent films. This in itself was an amazing idea and concept to the American people: where black and white photographs seemed to move of their own accord and could be seen moving again and again. Many of the big name actors and actresses came from the vaudeville productions, and required only good acting skills and good looks. It did not matter how they spoke or pronounced their words. Early film had a vastly different style of acting than did the films that came after them.

This era was an era of film experimentation. Most films were under an hour in length, and of those, several were under 20 minutes. As films required reels and reels of film, it was a long and laborious process to create movies as well as to show them. It took a talented operator to connect the reels without too much of a hitch in the projections. Theatres hired musicians to play music while the film was playing, both to add drama and to drown out the sound of the movie projector, a practical use of music that would later become a staple of film.

The pirate genre did not seem to become popular until about 1915, when at least three pirate films were created, and exploded in the following years. Most of these films were subsequently categorized as adventure, comedy, or drama. Some were categorized as having more than one category, such as having drama tacked on to adventure or comedy. Drama, as a stand-alone category, held very few pirate films, instead being commonly added to another main category.

1920-1929

The 1920s was the decade in which producers began to dab into the world of sound, creating ‘talkies’, which many of the old-fashioned producers believed to be a fad and nothing more. As such, along with the late arrival of recorded sound with recorded moving pictures, most of the films from the 1920s remained silent films. As with the previous decade, the pirate genre remained a popular theme. Adventure continued to be the leading categories that the films were placed into; action, history, and romance themes began to gain popularity and made their way into being a main categorization for pirate films. Drama, on the other hand, began to fade out even as a secondary category. From this observation of the films’ classifications through time, it is reasonable to deduce the fact that pirate films began to gain more of a popularity in being meant for escape from the world than to watch more of a dramatic story.

Many of the sets for pirate films shot during this era here lavish and expensive. Since they did not have CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) animation, or even much of an advanced ability to edit the films they produced, movie makers created entire pirate ships to shoot their films on, would film at sea, and do all of their film work on location instead of back lots to give it a more realistic feel.

1930-1939

The 1930s began to understand and perfect what producers had been experimenting with in the 1920s, and started their own sorts of experiments. The 30s begin to produce mostly ‘talkies’ instead of silent films, much to the chagrin of the old-fashioned producers who had believed talkies to be a fad. They were most often produced in monotone sound, with few exceptions. Adventure began to be the dominate tone for all pirate films. Action, drama, and romance were often a secondary category for pirate films, if they were used to classify the films at all.

Actors and actresses who had once flourished on the main screen now became obsolete on the talkies. Although well suited for the silent films – pretty faces, overly dramatic movements, and the like – their voices did not transfer well to the addition of sound to movies. Many, being foreign, had thick accents or voices that would make people cringe. This began to usher in a new set of major actors and actresses, including those such as Errol Flynn and Clark Gable.

On top of having recorded sound being simultaneously played with the films, producers began to experiment now with color pictures. This was complicated by the fact that the Technicolor film that was being used was thick, and required a very skilled technician and operator to go between reels; if they were unskilled with handling such film, the film would warp out of shape and be rendered useless for playing the picture on it. Errol Flynn’s Captain Blood was nominated for five Oscars in 1935, the first pirate film to be awarded such a distinction since the first ceremony in May 1929.

The film industry was the only industry not hit hard by the Great Depression. Indeed, it prospered due to the money given to it by the government to keep up the production of escape films for people to watch. It was somewhere where those who were affected could go and forget about all their daily troubles, if only for a while. Pirate films were not as numerous as they had been in earlier decades, but instead of large numbers, they had better dramatic quality than those that had come before. Although some used back lots to do their shooting, others used old footage from older films or old set locations for their filming.

1940-1949

The 1940s were filled with spectacular pirate films, full of adventure and action, the perfect escape from reality. This was the era of classic film, good movie stars, and solid screenplays. Major stars, such as Errol Flynn, John Wayne, Tyrone Power, Maureen O’Hara, Joan Fontaine, and Bob Hope were taking on lead roles in pirate films. Most of the well-funded movies were now created in color, whereas only those with a tight budget remained producing films in black and white. The major stars were in pirate films only during the first half of the decade, when the Second World War was taking place and permeating the lives of everyone. These movies were the perfect escape from reality, taking them to places far, far away from the war in Europe. Movies began to be longer than their predecessors, now reaching up to an hour and a half to two hours of screen time in the theatres. The late 40s, on the other hand, had fewer films produced than had been in the earlier half of the decade.

[Contrary to previous beliefs, I have found that there were no Oscars, or possibly nominations, of films in the 40s. Now I am curious as to why IMDB says there were.]

1950-1959

This decade was filled with many different pirate films. Once again, the films were first based on adventure, then action. There were a few musicals and comedies thrown into the mix. The largest numbers of films were released during 1950-1955. Only one or two pirate films were released after that. Television series began to take hold during the 1950s as well, allowing people to view films in their own homes instead of having to go to movie theatres whenever they wanted an escape from reality. The films that were produced were beginning to be marketed more towards teenagers and the youth of the nation instead of the adults and older generations. Therefore they held more comedy and family themes than previous decades presented within their films. As this was the era of Joseph McCarthy, Hollywood was undergoing the Red Scare along with the rest of the nation. Some of the major stars left Hollywood, either willingly or by force, due to either holding or being believed be Communist sympathizers. This hurt Hollywood and the film industry, as major stars began to flood out of the film industry.

The early 1950s were trying to hold the attention of moviegoers by giving them escape opportunities in the movie theatres, but by the end of the decade, television and the Red Scare had all but killed the film industry, sending the next several decades into a gradual decline of movies. The film companies began to merge into fewer but larger companies, trying to keep the money coming in, but resulting in movies that lacked the grandeur earlier films had possessed as well as the well scripted screenplays.

1960-1969

Enter the era of television and foreign films. Independent films, which were beginning to become more common, were unable to have the lavish sets that the studios could produce, but the studios were more focused on having family-friendly films being produced than those targeting certain audiences. Although many pirate films were produced during the 1960s, very few of them were of American make. If English was the primary language of the film, it was common to find the film had been produced in the United Kingdom instead of Hollywood. Films during this decade tended to be short, cheap, and foreign. Television shows and made for TV movies became the norm, and left the movies to be desperately grasping for an audience that no longer existed.

1970-1979

The producers in the 70s seem to have realized that pirate films were no longer desired in the theatres. Conspiracy films were the big hits, and unless a film was a major success, few people even bothered with the theatres anymore. The few that were made were foreign, leaving only Swashbuckler and Tom Sawyer to be left to the American film industry.

1980-1989

Pirate films begin to make a comeback in the 1980s, although most are still foreign produced. For once, however, the United States was making an effort to bring the genre back for themselves. Most of these were either comedies or musicals of some sort, adding a bit to their popularity. Many of these films include a Comedy/Musical or an Adventure/Comedy mix. Escapism is becoming more important than it had been the last few decades, allowing for more attempts to bring back the pirate films. This escapism was more in the comedic aspect than a real enjoyment of the genre, accounting for more of the spoofs than serious films.

1990-1999

The 1990s, alas, appear to have kept themselves in the same rut that the previous decades had been in; the 1980s had not helped to bring back the pirate films. Besides some revisiting of old favorites (Hook being a return to Peter Pan’s Neverland, and The Return to Treasure Island being, naturally, a return to Treasure Island, a film that has seen more remakes than any poor film should ever have to endure.) The filmmakers are trying to stretch their resources between two different industries, film and television. People are working from home more, and are able to watch more television while they are at it, leaving the film industry – at least the pirate aspect – lacking.

2000 – Present

There have been more American made, pirate-related films in the last seven years than there were in previous decades. The last time such well-made films, in a relatively large quantity, was in the 1940s. Once more we are thrown into a world of adventure and action, but now with a tinge of comedy and a dash more of romance. Then again, we have had a new war break out, as well as an increase in work-from-home entrepreneurs who need to escape from the office – the office based in their very own homes. There is a need to get out of the house, get somewhere away from everything that is based in reality. People need an escape from the war in Iraq, from their jobs, from the everyday stress we have created for ourselves. People are wanting to see films that get them away from the repetitive day to day work. The film industry has been nursing its wounds and rebuilding itself, cumulating in these swashbuckling masterpieces that have captured everyone’s attentions. Peter Pan has been remade. The Pirates of the Caribbean, yes, volumes one, two, and three, have sent viewers to places they have never gone before. Treasure Planet takes them, quite literally, out of this world. What better way to escape a hard day of pillaging and plundering at the office?