American Cinema: The Classical Hollywood Studios Systems

American Cinemas
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American Cinemas
1 Why was the Classical Hollywood Studio System so important in establishing the American motion picture as the most pervasive cultural influence in America from 1900 until at least the early 1950s? How did this system help Hollywood to dominate business in theaters around the world? What factors led to its decline by the late 1950s?
The classical Hollywood Studios Systems engineered to the development of American motion picture to a step that changed the culture of films in the United States and around the world. As opposed to silent films, which involved images of people without sound, the motion picture incorporated sound to its films. The incorporation of sound to films led to the growth of the film industry in the United States. It helped Hollywood to grow and secure a position as the world’s most commercial stand. With the synchronization of sound in the classical movies, Hollywood was able to develop other genres of films that made it famous and attract many produces and actors into HollywoodCITATION Kri10 \l 1033 (Thompson, 2010). The talkies or talking movies spread to the outside world cinemas and become a global phenomenon. The decline of Hollywood in the late years to the 1950s was due to the decline in the WWII, the film industry had been working closely with the government in order to support the wars campaign. The alleged involvement of the films’ most talented artists and popular actors into the communism led to decline of the industry as some of the artists faced long jail terms and others fired due to their support of communism. The industry was limited on what to produce and this lead to limited profits and shrink of audience CITATION Dav76 \l 1033 (Ragan, 1976).
2 The Pre-Code Era was shocking even by some of today’s standards. Why did the Movie Moguls and the filmmakers allow this to happen and what led to the enforcement of the Production Code? Do you feel that the strong censorship that followed for 30 years was justified?
The pre-Code Era refers to an era between the introduction of films with sound in 1929 and the Motion Picture Production Code guidelines of censorship in 1934. This era allowed all kind of intolerable behaviors on the screens such as sexual innuendo, prostitution, abortion, homosexuality, miscegenation and so on. Gangsters in most film genres were heroes to the public rather than evil. Most movie moguls and producers allowed this to happen under their watch because the public was okay with it and the movies attracted so many movie lovers, which meant more profits for them. The activities that the film industry allowed to run on screens used to happen during those times and it did not bother the viewers. In 1921, a comedian by the name Fatty, raped and murdered a young actress. A series of violence and murder that was happening on the screens turned to a reality. All forms of immorality in the film industries lose and these led to enforcement of production codes within the film industry. The catholic leader also influenced the adherence to production codes enforcement as the immoral contents were interfering with the religion and influencing the youth’s moral s...