Films That Changed America

When intuition changed American mystory, Psychology of Religion. One Day University. The most acclaimed and popular professors from top colleges. They're best lectures, fascinating conversations. Hi, I'm Richard Davies. Let's learn. And so this is sort of the climate today. This is the digital age right where we just seem to have so many choices. My name is Mark LaPadula. I teach at Yale University in the Film and Media Studies program.

Today is films that changed America. There was something about the films of yesteryear that I think it's really worth and I tell my students to go back and re examine them. What is our relationship with with movies? How has that changed over years? You know, movies do tend to reflect the time in which they're made, and the best movies actually become mirrors of the world and help us to better see the world we're sort of embroiled in. Sometimes we don't see as clearly as we'd like to.

A movie can somehow, you know, open up a window and it gives you a view and you then can sort of better assess, you know, sort of what's going on. Are there like abrupt or dramatic changes that have taken place to the way we look at movies. I'm thinking very much at how a lot of people consume movies, not in movie theaters anymore, but on smaller screens and sometimes very small screens. There's sort of been a diminishment

ever since the movie palaces started to close down. In those days, you know, you wanted to get out of your cold water flat in Brooklyn, you know, might have been the Great Depression. In the nineteen thirties, about ninety million tickets per week on average were sold. People just

wanted to escape. They wanted to go to a place where there were comfortable seats to watch the movie, and with the velvet draperies that would part and the curtains that would open, they would just have an experience that was it was a special event. They got dressed up to go there. We don't really do that today at all. Right, I mean, if you do see people in the movie theater, if you even are in the movie theater, we kind

of look like we just rolled out of that. We're still in at some sort of form of our pajamas. So let's go back in time and talk about the first film on your list, which is The Jazz Singer, and that movie was the first talkie, right, Well, wasn't really the first talkie. What is surprising to people when they actually see The Jazz Singer. It's one of those movies that you feel you know enough about I need to see it. I know all about it. Um. It's a silent film except that in six scenes it has

the miracle sound. Six scenes, not many. It is credited with being the first feature length film to have sound, but it's not the first full fledged talkie. In fact, there were shorts that were made that we're talkinges even before The Jazz Singer. This was the first feature film. Now, what was it that prevented sound from coming into the mainstream. The technology was difficult to get right. The synchronization amplification

issues were enormous. It took like two decades of wanting these characters to be able to speak and be heard until they could actually sink it properly. You're gonna see in this scene from the long shot, Jolson's lips are not matching the song, but once they go inside they do. But what made The Jazz Singer so important is that, Yes, it was Warner Brothers attempt to really bet the ranch on this new technology, and if it had failed, that studio would have gone under. But because it succeeded, it

didn't succeed, you know, in a blockbuster way. It was a success, but it actually then it was like a revolution in the way cinema would now, you know, strive towards sing sound. So The Jazz Singer was an incredible gamble and also a technological breakthrough. And it starred Al Jolson, who was an extraordinary star. Tell us a little bit about his impact. Al Joelson was somebody who actually was

a hero to Black America. He was a champion of civil rights, whereas normally the orchestra was down in the pit, and he had an all black orchestra because he's singing jazz numbers. He wanted them on stage with him as equals. He didn't want them in the pit. He actually spawned certain the first play a drama ever written by an African American that went to Broadway. It got there because

of Joelston and it was called Appearances. Interesting title. Joelson was somebody who, with that voice being as great as it was, stars in a movie that actually invents the genre of the musical. I mean, obviously couldn't have musicals up until this point. But because of this performance, you're thinking, wait a minute, a new genre, not just a star is born, a new genre is born. This was something that was actually, I mean, this was a revolution this

film on so many levels. There's gonna have to be a whole new way that people act now in movies. So Al Jolson introduced jazz too many people. Oh absolutely that you would have to say that. Now, this film was not a sound movie in every venue that it played in. It was only in the major metropolis is that could actually afford the vitaphone technology. So it actually

was a silent movie for most. Most Americans probably did see it in a silent form, except those that en mass sawt in the major metropolis is But I mean it caused the transition. As a result of this, now stars now had to be able to deliver lines, and this was something that actually cut short many careers. There was also a strong Jewish theme in this film, was that in any way controversial or considered avant garde or outside the mainstream. We'll see looking back you think, wow.

You know, here's a movie about a young man who doesn't want to be a canter, wants to hang out in the clubs, sing jazz in black face, and audiences embraced it. I mean mainstream audiences. People who had no ties to the Jewish religion, had no familiarity even with Jewish individuals, they actually identified with this this story because America is all about right, coming from an old tradition, coming to a new land, trying to find your own voice,

trying to find your own way. And it's going to necessary, not necessarily be that you can do what you or for the most part, rejecting over in Europe that brought you here in the first place. You have to find a new path, and so a new path like this someone that like stood his ground and really said, I'm going to devote everything to what I love. I'm gonna follow my dream, the American dream. That was something that

audiences absolutely found easy to embrace. Let's move on to I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, which came out just five years later Warner Brothers, same studio, and technologically it's completely like a different generation. You look at it and go wow. They certainly figured out ways of telling stories and sinking sound with the visual in a way that they hadn't before. We'll see that's so important.

The silent era was obviously story driven. When it became a sound film, suddenly the movies became very a static They didn't have that beautiful narrative thrust that the silent films were well, that was what they were known for. So what you're saying is by y two, what Changang does so well is that it marries sound to the tradition of actually telling a full fledged narrative with a lot of scenes, with a lot of action, with a

lot of things going on. And I would really say nineteen thirties where they kind of nailed it, and it's it's shocking that they were able to just within three years. When you think about it, go from we're not making any movies with sink sound, suddenly most movies are now in singing sound. It's it looks like modern cinema. So this movie is about a World War One veteran, who, like so many war events from overseas wars then and up to the present day, has a really difficult time

adjusting to civilian life. Right. What's sad is that this scene is one that played out so powerfully in ninety two, and it's it's been something that audiences can relate to it since, whether it's the Korean War veteran, the Vietnam War veteran, the Persian Gulf War veteran, those veterans back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Yes, our combat veterans, they become this lost generation. Once upon a time, these guys are really valuable when there was a war to fight, but

now that the war is over, they're forgotten. Did this movie lead to any political change or any social proach? It did. Actually, people were so upset that a veteran who was a decorated war veteran was so mistreated because remember he's an innocent guy. Because the guy puts a gun on and says empty the cash register, he becomes an accomplice and as a result, during this hold up that he had nothing to do with, he sentenced to

ten years of hard labor in the chain Gang. This is a movie that caused such outrage when they saw how these convicts were beaten, how they were abused. They actually wrote in those days their congress men in the thirties and they demand a change. Well, there was a conference of writers in the night teen fifties and at the podium was the German playwright Bertold Brett and a hand went up after he gave his talk, and the

hand belonged to the Swiss dramatist Frederick dern Matt. He said, Mr Brett, is it still possible to dramatize the modern world? And Brett just looked out and he said, yes, but only if the dramatist attempts to change it. I mean, that is what has happened to so many of us in the films that we hold the most dear. That is the promise, you see, that is the greatest possible promise of the cinema, and so there were laws that went on the books as a results of this film

that was about real life. You know, art can reflect real life, right, but then real life can now take that reflection and do something that is actually beneficial to the society large. Let's fast forward more than thirty years. Um, I am a fugitive on a chain gang and talk

about a very different movie, The Graduate. I guess what's really important about this film is that young people in the sixties really wanted to have movies that would speak to their generation, and there were very few being made at this time. And here comes this young guy, Benjamin Braddock, fresh out of college. He's not really sure what he wants to do with his life. When he's asked at his graduating party, what are you gonna do now, he says, I think I'm just gonna go upstairs for a moment.

They go no, but with your life, your future, He goes, well, that's kind of hard to deterver it at this time. You know, it's such a big that's a big question. But um, they had the opportunity to say, well, you know, I want to sort of develop my own values. I want to be someone who pursues my own dream again goes back to the jazz singer um because all these themes just constantly repeat themselves. They always just resurface. You say in in the One Day University Lecturer, the graduate

changed America. Wow, there are movies that actually change movies. So every one of these movies change movies. But it also actually changed the society. This film is really single handedly responsible for launching the sexual revolution in nine sixties. It actually really stoked the flames of that young population. And remember in nineteen over half this country was under the age of eighteen. Over half the population of this

country under eighteen. This is really where the Hollywood studio system, it was fragmenting all over the place, didn't make it through the sixties. I mean, it really broke apart because television was siphoning off so much revenue. But also they were making movies that people really didn't want to see. I mean they were still making movies in the mid sixties where you know, Henry Fonda and I don't know,

like Doris Day and they got twelve kids. They go to the Cape cod for the summer and no, this is gonna be fun, and like two people saw it right, because these kids were not looking for that kind of movie. And what made it also important was nobody had ever taken the music like rock and roll or pop music like Simon and Garfunkel and actually hired them to do the soundtrack. Mrs Robinson was written expressly for the film. I remember being in the movie theater when this was

released and being stunned by the music. The music was the biggest thing for me because Simon and Garfunkel were, yes they were, they were making number one hits, but they were on the singer songwriter, folky end of popular music. And there it was as a soundtrack that never happened before, right, and that actually paved the way for Easy Rider, which is going to be like a rock concert. Before we leave The Graduate. It was a film about the generation gap.

Other films too that preceded it were about the generation gap. Ro Without a Cause is about the generation gap, because again, what is the big fear, James Dean, what is the big fear in The Graduate is that if I'm not careful, I'm going to become my dad. I'll become my mom and to that generation, kill me. Now, if that's gonna be my future kill me now, I don't want to live because oh my god. Whereas if you actually see that might be. What is so different about the movies

today is kids today for the most part. I'm not saying they aren't rebellious at times. Of course they are. They you know, everybody's rebellious that it, but they're not rebellious in the way that that generation was. I mean, they just wanted to reject everything from this fashion, the values, the music, you know, everything the politics they were because

I remember the Beatles made it. They were in their teens when they were coming up, and they were making major contributions to music in their early twenties and their best work even after they broke up. They broke up, they were still in their late twenties most of them. Everything that the Beatles did, their contributions were that was like under the age of thirty. That was an amazing generation when you think of what what they what they

did in such a short period of time. The next movie, the final movie, Jaws, directed by the great Steven Spielberg. There's an extraordinary musical build up where just before the first person is attacked by the shark. It really is one of the most memorable moments in film. Well, you'll say there are certain films where like in Psycho, Bernard Herman's score all Strings steals the show, obviously John Williams score and Jaws steals the show. Uh, people didn't want

to go to the beach. They were terrified to put a tone in the water. And so when you think about movies that affect behavior in a mass way, that is pretty phenomenal. What makes him different Spielberg is that he was the first generation of university trained filmmakers. He people like Scorsese, later, Spike Lee, George Lucas, they're going to have this kind of love of the cinema where they actually know what has come before them, they've studied it.

You say in your one day university lecture that this movie with with its happy ending, changed film Jaws is very significant. I mean Steven Spielberg, you know, he's a major talent. He has more talent in his little finger the most filmmakers would ever have in their whole body on a good day, on their best day. There's something about how this guy knows how to tell a story and then make it to his advantage. The shark malfunction

throughout the shoot. Then instead of like pulling his hair out or letting it look fake, he actually said, well, we'll hide the shark. And that hiding of the shark was the master stroke because it build up even greater suspense for when you finally do see it. No film prior to in the history of cinema had ever grossed a hundred million dollars at the box office, but Godfather, Wow, it came close. Guess what this movie not only crossed the hundred million dollar threshold, it will make in its

initial run domestically over two hundred and twenty million dollars. Wow, is right. So it was so huge that they said, Okay, we have got to figure out number one. We've got to start endowing all these m f A programs, because if this is what's coming out of these these colleges, we gotta get the next Spielberg. We gotta we gotta nurture the next generation of Spielberg's. And of course there was Lucas too. Lucas made just as much money with Star Wars and that franchise as Spielberg has made with

all of his franchises. So you create a franchise and see That's what this was the birth of because you know, Star Wars is a franchise, Jaws became a franchise. But I will say this, all of those movies right happy endings, they make a ton of money, not just for their initial commercial release, but with all the ancillary products that they actually generate, the towels, the lunch boxes, the video games, the action figures, and so there's so much money to

be made. And what what happened with Spielberg and Lucas Their success actually put the brakes on what was America's true golden age of cinema. Let me ask you about your one day university lecturers, what are some of the or giving an example of a great question you've had

from the audience. Wow, the most profound question is why aren't there movies today that actually changed American the way these Obviously, you know you made a pretty good case in the the thirties, We went to the sixties, went into the seventies, and you know you could go into the eighties. But where are they today? How do you answer that question? The way you answer it is that cinema used to have heft, It used to have prestige.

You used to be an event that you went to and it was exciting to go to this darkened room in this big theater and this huge screen lights up. It can change the way I look at things. It can change the way I feel about myself. We wanted to be transformative. We wanted to be something that makes us a different person, a better person. You walk out of that, you walk out of that movie just energized. But see today, I'm not really sure if that is necessarily the case. Because we are seeing them on our

cell phones. We are watching them at home kind of while we're doing the laundry, while we're ironing, while we're cooking. We're not really paying attention. We're kind of hearing it, sort of seeing it. Movies require us to really focus because these directors that are really careful, they're putting stuff all over this canvas, and we have to pay attention.

I'm Richard Davis. Thanks for listening. Sign up on our website one day you dot com to become a member and access over six hundred full length video lectures for the world's finest professorsh