In Times of War, Bring on the Magic

Fads in fashion. Movements in art. Revivals in music. These are
all elements of pop culture that evolve time and time again, and
the public is very conscious of this evolution. But film, film is
perceived as old and faithful. There will always be a new comedy, a
new thriller, a new tearjerker.

Still, there is a method to how the major moguls choose to fill
those quotas. They put more consideration into where they shell out
their money than we’d like to think. In fact, the state of
the nation could very well play into decisions about which movies
should be given the green light.

When you look at the types of films that people want during low
points in history, the numbers tell a clear story: action down,
comedy up. They say that films are one of those contrary
businesses: when things look down, the movie business looks up. In
the depression, for example, one of the only businesses to thrive
was the motion picture industry. People use film to alter their
mood.

Because domestic affairs have such an influence on the film
industry, it’s easy to spot trends. The post-Sept. 11 society
in which we live does not give us much choice but to look to
fantasy realms or lighthearted comedies in order to take our minds
off everyday stresses. The current war-drama taboo has caused us a
marked decline in the number of war films that enjoyed public
attention during the Clinton-era, like Saving Private Ryan
and Black Hawk Down.

While action movies depicting war and terrorism may have been
down, science fiction and fantasy have seen a boost. Some of the
top-grossing films in the tumultuous year of 2003 were fantasies,
though the number of fantasy releases roughly stayed the same.
The Return of the King, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban, The Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Matrix
Reloaded to name a few, were films which saw grosses hovering
around $300 million in 2003. Additionally, the giddy
computer-animated fish-flick Finding Nemo had a stint at the
top of the box office, illustrating the nation’s ever-growing
animation fixation and need for a good laugh.

If 2003 is any indication, we flock to the films that make us
feel the best when the country is at its worst. Last year’s
box office also tells us that we are perhaps closer to previous
generations than we might like to think. We rely on movies to carry
us through hardships, escape reality and provide a sense of
stability in this changing world just as our grandparents did when
they went to see Gone With the Wind.

Another shift has also been the rise in the number of
documentaries, many political in tone, seeing wide-release. This
presence of political films points to the public’s growing
concern with the state of our nation, and the world. People are
looking to get more connected, and, as usual, they are looking for
a quick fix. Films like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Going
Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry, expose certain political
biases that may or may not help Americans decide who to vote for in
this year’s election, or in a larger sense, what kind of
beliefs they wish to hold.

Beyond looking for the standard “feel good” movie,
we are now looking to film to help us understand politics. Every
four years, in the midst of our national elections, we are asked to
reconsider our ideological and political views, and never before
has film had the opportunity to have such an impact on an election.
Politics and pop culture have always been inextricably linked, but
now, thanks to filmmakers like Michael Moore and Robert Greenwald
(director of Outfoxed) the connection is more blatant than
ever.

Back in the Newsreel era of the early 20th Century, people were
given a healthy appetizer of world news before their feature
presentation. This kind of exposition to the facts seems more
equitable than the highly polarized films we see in movies today,
which often take an anti-this, pro-that stance. Moviegoers have,
and continue to enjoy films that recount actual historical
occurrences under the cloak of fiction.

Whether it’s because we want our political news to come at
us from the bigscreen, or because we are trying to avoid the
problems in the world, films provide us with an escape and a sense
of stability. It’s good to know that even if our taste
evolves, apparently the Hollywood studios are willing to change
too.