In every generation, a film is made that changes the movie industry. In 1941, that film was Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane. Welles produced, directed, wrote, and starred in the movie at age twenty-five, playing a newspaper magnate from a young man to old age. While the movie was not a commercial success initially (powerful newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, whose life was the inspiration for the movie, tried to suppress it), it was critically praised for its acting, story, and directing. Citizen Kane’s dramatic camera angles, striking film noir–style lighting, nonlinear storytelling, montages, and long deep-focus shots were considered technically innovative for the era. Over time, Citizen Kane became revered as a masterpiece, and in 1997 the American Film Institute named it the Greatest American Movie of All Time. “Citizen Kane is more than a great movie; it is a gathering of all the lessons of the emerging era of sound,” film critic Roger Ebert wrote.¹

A generation later, the space epic Star Wars (1977) changed the culture of the movie industry. Star Wars, produced, written, and directed by George Lucas, departed from the personal filmmaking of the early 1970s and spawned a blockbuster mentality that formed a new primary audience for Hollywood—teenagers. It had all of the now-typical blockbuster characteristics like massive promotion and lucrative merchandising tie-ins. Repeat attendance and positive buzz among young people made the first Star Wars the most successful movie of its generation.

Star Wars has impacted not only the cultural side of moviemaking but also the technical form. In the first Star Wars trilogy, produced in the 1970s and 1980s, Lucas developed technologies that are now commonplace in moviemaking—digital animation, special effects, and computer-based film editing. With the second trilogy, Lucas again broke new ground in the film industry. Several scenes of Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace (1999) were shot on digital video, easing integration with digital special effects. The Phantom Menace also used digital exhibition, becoming the first full-length motion picture from a major studio to use digital projectors, which have steadily been replacing standard film projectors.

For the current generation, no film has shaken up the film industry like Avatar (2009). Like Star Wars before it, Avatar was a groundbreaking blockbuster. Made for an estimated $250–$300 million, it became the all-time domestic box office champion, pulling in about $760 million, and more than $2.7 billion worldwide. Avatar integrated 3-D movie technology seamlessly, allowing viewers to immerse themselves in the computer-generated world of the ethereal planet Pandora, home of the eleven-foot-tall blue beings called the Na’vi. Director James Cameron worked with Sony to develop new 3-D cameras (a major technical innovation), which were an essential element of the filmmaking process and story, rather than a gimmicky add-on. The late Roger Ebert likened the movie to a blockbuster he saw a generation earlier: “Watching Avatar, I felt sort of the same as when I saw Star Wars in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations…. Avatar is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It’s a technical breakthrough.”²

Though Avatar was released in both conventional 2-D and 3-D versions, it was the 3-D version that not only most impressed viewers but also changed the business of Hollywood. Theaters discovered they could charge a premium for the 3-D screenings and still draw record crowds. The success of Avatar paved the way for more 3-D movies like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug; Iron Man 3; and Star Trek Into Darkness. But 3-D, which can add 20 to 30 percent to the budget of a film, isn’t a guarantee of success. In fact, savvy filmgoers are rejecting 3-D films where the format seems like an unnecessary gimmick.

DATING BACK TO THE LATE 1800s, films have had a substantial social and cultural impact on society. Blockbuster movies such as Star Wars, E.T., Titanic, Lord of the Rings, Shrek, Avatar, and The Avengers represent what Hollywood has become—America’s storyteller. Movies tell communal stories that evoke and symbolize our most enduring values and our secret desires (from The Wizard of Oz to The Godfather and the Batman series).

Films have also helped moviegoers sort through experiences that either affirmed or deviated from their own values. Some movies—for instance, Last Tango in Paris (1972), Scarface (1983), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), and The Dictator (2012)—have allowed audiences to survey “the boundary between the permitted and the forbidden” and to experience, in a controlled way, “the possibility of stepping across this boundary.”³ Such films—criticized by some for appearing to glorify crime and violence, verge on pornography, trample on sacred beliefs, or promote unpatriotic viewpoints—have even, on occasion, been banned from public viewing.

Finally, movies have acted to bring people together. Movies distract us from our daily struggles: They evoke and symbolize universal themes of human experience (the experience of childhood, coming of age, family relations, growing older, and coping with death); they can help us understand and respond to major historical events and tragedies (for instance, the Holocaust and 9/11); and they encourage us to rethink contemporary ideas as the world evolves, particularly in terms of how we think about race, class, spirituality, gender, and sexuality.

In this chapter, we examine the rich legacy and current standing of movies. We will:

As you consider these topics, think about your own relationship with movies. What is the first movie you remember watching? What are your movie-watching experiences like today? How have certain movies made you think differently about an issue, yourself, or others? For more questions to help you think through the role of movies in our lives, see “Questioning the Media” in the Chapter Review.