Taking Hollywood Seriously Article 2022

Running head: TAKING HOLLYWOOD SERIOUSLY
Taking Hollywood seriously
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This article gives a comprehensive idea about the Hollywood cinema and also helps in
providing an interesting approach to the most powerful film industry in the world. This article
also provides a detailed description of the cultural significance of the industry and is considered
to the highest limit in the film industry. This article covers a broad area of the industry by
implementing broad-ranging approach which explores the history of the Hollywood industry as
well as the present condition of the industry. This article is also successful in describing the
different theories and the practices which is followed by the industry in implementing the
strengthening and success of the industry. Hollywood has engaged in our daily lives be with the
latest movies or the older ones. Almost all the main theaters around the world portrays
Hollywood movies (Maltby and Craven 2003).
In this book the author has stated that cinema is a kind of art which is in the same level as
different practices of literature or painting. Movies has great strengths traditionally and the
weakness of the movies are in the aspect of being identified as a source of income in the
industrial and commercial context. In this book it is stated that to understand the depth of movies
in our lives we need to remove the concept of treating movies as only a commercial thing. The
main focus of the book is on the American movies. There are some distinct difference between
Hollywood movies and others. This is seen by taking the examples of two distinct films which
has been released 80 years apart, namely the Way Down East (1920) and Titanic (1997) (Maltby
and Craven 2003). These two movies have more in common with each other as compared to
other European movies. This book not only focuses on the formal working of the movies but also
distinctly describes how movies works as a expendable good in a capitalist country.
Titanic was the first Hollywood movie which reached the gross income of $1 billion
worldwide which shows the extent of the industry. The success of the movie was mainly because

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the movie comprised of different aspects covering the different moods and various ideas which
was enough to attract the attention of various viewers. The movie made the viewer’s emerge in
the diversity of nostalgia, excellent triumph, heritage, spectacular effects. The repeated viewing
of the movie by the audiences showed how the movie attracted the viewers and it shows the
impact of the Hollywood movies over the decades. Not every aspect in the movie was a part of
spectacular thrills but also the movie comprised of emotions and provoking a quieter emotions in
the audiences. The purpose of the movie was to help the audience in understanding their
ideological beliefs through various thought provoking scenes. James Cameron stated that his
movie was mainly made to make the audiences feel that they came out of the theater watching a
good movie which will different than other good movies which will be tickling out their
emotions (Maltby and Craven 2003). According to Cameron spectators watch movies to feel
their emotion but in order to feel their emotions the audiences need to produce their emotions
first through the movies stimulation. The movie makes of Hollywood have been making movies
which lines up the emotions in a proper sequence which will be helping the spectators to find the
outcome of the satisfying. This is where the aspect of commercial aesthetic comes into view. The
story of the movie was pretty basic since the movie was divided into the two sequence of being a
love story and an action adventure movie but the outstanding commercial success of the movie
shows how well the movie was planted into the emotions of the spectators.
Most of the Hollywood movies portrayed a happy ending in movies which was basically
due to the act of Production Code which made the movies to follow the code from the year 1930
to the year 1968 (Maltby and Craven 2003). This was a main convention which was followed by
a majority of the movies for a long time. This brings up the concept of ideology in the constraints
of Hollywood movies (Herzberg 2014). The fact which showed that 85 percent of the Hollywood

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movies were based mainly on heterosexual aspect was due to the implementation of the act
(Maltby and Craven 2003). The book also questions the fact that if a movie is supposed to view
the cultural and ideological practices to the audiences then why does it need to show that the
heterosexual romance always needed to end on a happy node (Davison 2017). To get the answers
to these questions it is needed to look upon the different set of issues which has been explored in
the book of The Classical Hollywood Cinema where the kinds of implementation has been
analyzed for complementing each other. Hollywood has drastically improved itself over the
years. The black and white pictures were turned to colors as well as the introduction of sound by
the movie singin’ in the Rain. In this movie Cosmo brown was able to discover how sound
dubbing was done by merely standing in front of Kathy Selden and moving his mouth while she
sang. This describes in detail how the history of entertainment in Hollywood has emerged and
has been emphasized by the introduction of numerous recording channels as well as post-
synchronization of the different ideologies (Stacey 2013). The introduction of sound was the last
attempt by almost bankrupt Warner Bros to stay in the business and attract the spectators for
something new and exciting. In this book the author has argued that economic motivation plays a
great role in the emergence of the Hollywood industry and the industry has slowly become more
and more commercially aesthetic. An argument has also been put forward which suggests that
Hollywood movies are specifically determined by the existence of the economical commodities
which comprises the different ideas which lead to classicism and helps in determine the aspect of
ideology of the industry (Neale and Smith 2013). The book also states that it has been felt by
Bordwell, Thompson and Staiger that the commercial factors has greatly affected the emergence
of classical style of Hollywood movies. But the economic factors has also enhanced the styling
factors which helps in providing the accurate explanation of the filmmaking of Hollywood.

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Keeping in mind the critical perspective of the book, the various investigations which has been
conducted on the formal conventions of Hollywood has given us the opportunity to identify that
it is basically an excessive cinema.
To understand the aspects of what Hollywood is actually made up of lights must be put
on the different aspects of the society which includes the social and cultural contexts of the
surroundings and not only examining the movies. To understand the commercial aesthetic of
Hollywood movies we must take in account the usage of the various kinds of items which are
depicted in the movies by the spectators (Maltby and Craven 2003). Viewers often try to imitate
the type of clothing which is worn in the movies, the type of coffee maker they purchase looking
at the movies as well their speaking styles depend on the movies they have recently liked. This
shows how the Hollywood movies had been cleverly organized to give the audience the level of
pleasure they seek to attain. Though most of the Hollywood clichéd movies end with a happy
note but it might also be considered that majority of the films can be based on other aspects as
well since real life incidents and outcomes can also be presented through movies which are most
of the times not an happy ending (Maltby and Craven 2003). Hollywood movies has been
engineered to make the audience laugh when they are supposed to and be thrilled when the
situation arises as well feel sad due to the circumstances of the film. When the audience comes
out of the theater then they feel a sense of beautiful mind frame. The various screen witting
manuals and many other practicing screenwriters suggests that the movies must be presented in
such a way that the audience is engaged throughout the film and must nor feel bored and leave
the theater.
To conclude the essay the main points must be brought into account which comprises this
book mainly the evolution of Hollywood throughout the years and how it has adapted to the

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changing situations and has emerged as the leading film industry in the whole world. Audiences
has been engaged with the films of Hollywood for a long time and also has adapted their day to
day life in accordance to the movies they like. Major films like titanic defines the improvement
of the movie industry and how far it has come from the beginning. The main emergence of the
industry was from the mid-1920s to 1940s when the industry understood the audience needs and
improved themselves in accordance to it. Hollywood movies has provided a new view to the
pictures and the theaters they are depicted in. the pictures were taken by the film industry of
Hollywood and has been given a new dimension.

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Reference List
Davison, A., 2017. Hollywood Theory, Non-Hollywood Practice: Cinema Soundtracks in the
1980s and 1990s. Routledge.
Herzberg, B., 2014. The left side of the screen: communist and left-wing ideology in Hollywood,
1929-2009. McFarland.
url:https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=uk24k0y72ZkC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Herzberg,+B.,
+2014.+The+left+side+of+the+screen:+communist+and+left-wing+ideology+in+Hollywood,
+1929-
2009.+McFarland&ots=jpyLaA6J3t&sig=zmy316XhPxk7rbO8UGVBBfhfUpk&redir_esc=y#v=
onepage&q=Herzberg%2C%20B.%2C%202014.%20The%20left%20side%20of%20the
%20screen%3A%20communist%20and%20left-wing%20ideology%20in%20Hollywood%2C
%201929-2009.%20McFarland&f=false
Maltby, R. and Craven, I., 2003. Hollywood cinema (pp. 5-31). Oxford: Blackwell.
https://www.bookdepository.com/Hollywood-Cinema-Richard-Maltby/9780631216155
Neale, S. and Smith, M. eds., 2013. Contemporary Hollywood Cinema. Routledge.
url:https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=b-
djajKQwnsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR8&dq=Neale,+S.+and+Smith,+M.+eds.,
+2013.+Contemporary+Hollywood+Cinema.

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+Routledge.&ots=LkDyihCz_y&sig=XAv0zeY0l_7BQvPtKDidosKXuMk#v=onepage&q&f=fa
lse
Stacey, J., 2013. Star gazing: Hollywood cinema and female spectatorship. Routledge.
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