100 Years of Movie History

Written By: mike on September 9, 2010 No Comment

Turner Classic Movies remembers 100 Years of movie History with this short film that goes all the way back to 1894 in revealing the evolution of commercial cinema.

What started as crowds looking in to a viewfinder to check out the first moving images would later become the billion dollar industry known as Hollywood. Commercial considerations aside, this compilation reminds us all in loving fashion of the great filmmaking that has defined America and influenced the world at large.

In a little over 9 minutes, snippets of the greatest movies ever made are shown. While only 20 are mentioned by name, director Chuck Workman does a great job of paying homage to all classics from yesterday and today—well, 1994 anyway which is when the film ends.

Workman reminds us that great movies did exist prior to 1939’s Gone with the Wind, which to date is the most successful film ever made when factoring how many tickets were actually sold. While there’s no doubt the Civil War drama set a profound benchmark for commercial and critical success, it was preceded by an onslaught of arguably greater films such as the 1923 epic Greed, shot and released before the “talkie era” began. Four years later, The Jazz Singer would mark the decline of silent films with the first ever sound project to feature synchronized dialogue.

In 1933, as America struggled with the economic turmoil of the Great Depression, audiences found a welcome escape in the delightful musical 42^nd Street based on the novel by Bradford Ropes. It was a time when the nation needed a break from unemployment woes, poverty, and starvation. They would continue to get away from the rigors of life when the romantic comedy It Happened One Night appeared the following year.

By 1936, films such as San Francisco, in which the great earthquake of 1906 was recreated in horrifyingly realistic fashion, reminded audiences that their fictional counterparts could also suffer. Despite the unpleasant subject matter, the film was a success and opened a new genre to the Hollywood zeitgeist: the disaster movie. To say entries such as 2012 and Armageddon owe a debt of gratitude to director Woody Van Dyke’s classic is an understatement.

In 1942, America was in the midst of World War II, and escaped once more to the movies only to fall in love with Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) as they fought the Nazis in Casablanca, a film that won three Academy Awards including Best Picture, and still stands as the quintessential romantic drama. Coming out of that war, America needed a pick-me-up, and they got it with 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life, a beloved Christmas classic about a man who gets a chance to see what the world would be like without him.

As the world continued to heal from the real life horrors of war, 1948 announced the arrival of John Wayne to superstardom with the western drama Red River. Marlon Brando stood up to the establishment in 1954’s On the Waterfront. And 1962’s Lawrence of Arabia took audiences back into battle to remind them that when it comes to war, there are no black-and-whites, a message that the youth of America would pick up on during the Vietnam protests.

With the brewing generational disconnect, the independent film Easy Rider would speak to younger crowds and also announce to filmmakers everywhere that you didn’t have to be a part of the Hollywood system to make a film that would earn the empire’s respect.

In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola would use the mob to tell a Shakespearean story about one man’s struggles with his legacy, his family, and his mortality, in the Oscar-winning The Godfather, also starring Marlon Brando and featuring a hot young up-and-coming actor named Al Pacino. The film also spawned two sequels and revitalized the gangster picture that was so popular during the 30’s.

For much of the 70’s, America’s cynicism grew in music, television, and film. The Vietnam War seemed to suck the optimism that had once defined the country out of each and every citizen. Then Rocky came along in 1976 and reminded us that no matter how down-and-out we are, the American Dream is still out there, and if we give it our best shot, great things can still happen.

While Rocky’s star and creator Sylvester Stallone used a boxing ring to illustrate his story of hope and redemption, white-hot filmmaker Martin Scorsese used it to tell a much darker tale with 1980’s Raging Bull. Dramatizing the life of boxer Jake LaMotta, Scorsese’s film shows how talent and opportunity can be stifled by one’s own demons.

It’s only fitting that the footage should begin with 1915’s Birth of a Nation and end with 1994’s Schindler’s List. Birth of a Nation, considered one of the first great films, was an epic directed by D.W. Griffith. It is as much maligned for its bigotry as it is respected for its craftsmanship. In it, Griffith depicts African-Americans as deviants and the Ku Klux Klan as heroes. Just 79 years later, Schindler’s List shows how far Hollywood’s social awareness had come with the moving portrait of a German man during World War II, who risks everything he has to save the lives of thousands of Jewish people from Nazi tyranny.

Workman’s compilation reminds us that Film boasts many more great movies than birthdays. With a reverent and sparkling eye on the past, he accomplishes two things: 1) He makes us want to revisit the good and catch up on what we’ve missed; and 2) He challenges the establishment to make sure the next 100 years are as good as the last. Should the industry only halfway hit the mark, they deserve our gratitude.