The Collapse Of Hollywood In The 1960's

They say a journey of a million miles begins with a single step. Simple tasks lead to complex odysseys of discovery, failure, and eventual success. In the areas of business and entertainment, the old adage that ‘the customer is always right’ drives the actions of all participants. This is true for the motion picture business since its inception in the late nineteenth century. From the advents of moving images to capturing sound on films, the prospect of capturing a story in a permanent manner has fascinated, enthralled, and employed many. As films increased their presence in the American psyche, they have changed in both production style, content, and tone. They ask us questions about the times we live in and how the times

By the time the 1950s had ended, Hollywood was stuck in a rut both creatively and at the box-office. As the collapse of the Old Hollywood production code meant that more explicit content could be shown to audiences, the types of film being released pushed new boundaries in both subject matter and content. As the online archive of Hollywood, Filmsite found that the early 1960s demonstrated a time of great diversity in Hollywood pictures, but only certain types of movies demonstrated themselves as surefire hits. Generally, the highest grossing films were not critically successful and never made a lasting impact. Films like Cleopatra, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Doctor Zhivago, and Thunderball all succeeded financially successful but now viewed as empty spectacles of mass entertainment. They were large budgeted, star-studded, and shakily constructed stories now retroactively criticized for their lack of depth and imagination. However, by the late 1960s, new directors emerged and were inspired by foreign filmmaking ideas. Manhola Dargis of the New York Times writes in 2010 that this New Hollywood was influenced by avant-garde cinema, documentary, and even television. Another major influence was European cinema. Films like Antonioni’s Blow-Up, Fellini’s 8 1/2, and Bergman’s Persona all influenced Hollywood stylistically and lead

As Wired Magazine Online explains, friends and fellow filmmakers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas met at film school and began to bounce ideas off of each other. Loving the arthouse cinema of foreign countries and 60s Hollywood, they wanted to bring those sophisticated techniques to mass American audiences. As Filmsite explained, Spielberg had already earned his stripes in Hollywood by directing some low budget, yet successful, films for Universal Studios and was interested in adapting Peter Benchley’s hit novel, Jaws. Centered around a small New-England town ravaged by a rogue shark and the hunt to kill it, Jaws was supposed to be just another mid-range picture that would make money and be forgotten. The Guardian notes the troubled history of the film’s production saying that the Jaws shoot was scheduled for fifty-five days, but the production turned into a logistical nightmare when the mechanical shark constantly broke down. Additionally, tensions arose on set and the budget quadrupled. Director Spielberg was convinced the film would flop by the time it entered theaters. However, by the time of the films release, Universal Studios had already begun a massive marketing campaign for the film. As Den of Geek explained, Universal Pictures saw something in Jaws that made it break the mold. It perhaps helped that two of the highest