Tuesday, May 8, 2018
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Choose a 5 minute scene in either 42nd Street or Public Enemy. How does the scene and the film as a whole challenge or fulfill the conventions of the musical or gangster film? How do these conventions and cinematic elements convey the socio-economic situation of people in the United States at the time of production?
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ReplyDeleteI am going to choose the last scene in “42nd Street” (Lloyd Bacon). In a real musical, the audience is a diegetic audience. Whatever is happening on stage is being performed to them. For the most part, this is what a film musical also tries to do. Through the use of extreme long shots (to resemble and audience perspective), and the use of actors and actresses staring directly into the camera, “42nd Street” gives the effect of being a musical performed not on a set but on a stage. On of the main things that differs a stage musical from a film music, is a film musical ability to utilize more space for the narrative. In a normal musical it’s a forced perspective and it takes part on only the stage, whereas in a film musical, “42nd Street” included, the director can utilize off stage space to shoot certain shots. Beyond this, this film was also created during pre-code Hollywood, a time where pretty much (pun intended) Anything Goes. Women were portrayed in an incredibly sexual manner and in a way that was quite uncharacteristic of the time. “42nd Street” certainly utilizes the lack of the code to portray women in a sexual manner. The theatrical release poster is a line of scantily clad women with the focus on their crotch for goodness sakes! For these reasons, “42nd Street” definitely fits the idea of what a pre-code genre musical would look like.
ReplyDeletePublic Enemy was made at a time when Hollywood had to comply with the Motion Picture Production Code, or the Hays Code. This code was an attempt to stop the glorification of crime in movies. While filmmakers wanted to accurately portray the crime and violence going on in real life at the time in their films, this would result in censorships. To comply with the code, gangster films had to include disclaimers that the crime shown in the film was not real. The films also needed to have scenes where the gangster activity is explicitly frowned upon, or where the gangster realizes his mistakes. When Tom Powers gets shot, he is shown suffering and in pain for a while until he declares clearly, full face in frame so the audience is compelled to pay attention to what he’s saying, that he “ain’t so tough”. In this scene he essentially is surrendering to the Motion Picture Production Code. If he hadn’t been shot, changed his ways, and eventually killed, this film would have most likely been censored and not allowed to be released. Tom worked to illegally sell alcohol during prohibition which was actually going on in America as this film was made. If viewers saw his illegal activities glorified, they might want to do it too. So, by giving the film an ending where Tom is defeated, this gives the audience the message that it would not end well if they were to participate in similar criminal activities.
ReplyDeleteI chose the scene at around 13:50 with Tom Powers’ first real heist in the year 1915. He is acting tough but sees a fake bear statue and gets scared, ruining the whole operation. The lighting is very dark. Not much can be seen at all, which reflects two different things. Firstly, it indicates how Tom Powers hides who he really is. He has a tough façade but really isn’t that brave. Secondly, the lighting mirrors the conditions of the time. In 1900s Chicago many people lived in poverty with poor living and working conditions. However, a lot of it was under the surface and not brought to public attention. This is shown in the lighting of the scene because everything is hidden. When the light shines on the fake bear, that reveals Tom’s true personality. He gets scared by it and shoots at it out of fear. The light brings out the truth. This fulfills the conventions of the gangster film because it shows that gangsters are not really that tough. Gangster films, especially with the emergence of the Hays Code in 1930, set out to ultimately discourage any sort of “immoral” behavior or lifestyle choices. The gangster lifestyle, as depicted in The Public Enemy, is not as glamorous as it seems on the surface. This scene particularly highlights how Tom is not as tough as he tries to appear.
ReplyDeleteThe Public Enemy was filmed at a time in film history where movies were going through tough censorship. A large portion of that censorship was crime in movies, as mobster movies were what was hot at the time, the studios believed that crime being glorified in movies was going to lead to an influx in crime around the country as they believed that showing criminals getting away with crimes would influence people to commit crime. The movie was made in the few ending years of the prohibition era which is why Tom and Matt are selling alcohol as at this it was illegal in the US. Nearing the end of the movie Matt is shot and killed which causes Tom to attempt to wipe the enemy gang and ends up being killed. This occurs because, because of the regulations if they weren't killed it would've been seen as glorifying crime and would've been censored.
ReplyDeleteTwo primary focuses of the socio-economic climate of America in the 1930s was that censorship was a major component of filmmaking when it came to the glorification of crime and violence, and that prohibition was still going on until 1933. When making a gangster films, these are pretty substantial restrictions considering drugs and crime are two of the most essential elements of mobster culture. It’s made even harder when The Public Enemy movie is based off a story literally titled Beer and Blood. As a result, the impact of these events is completely traceable throughout the film. Both violence and alcohol have to ultimately look frowned upon to viewers so that the movies would be produced, even if this opinion isn’t upheld in true gangster settings. One example of this is in a scene in which Tom and Matt go to a family dinner with beer. They are scolded and thrown out of the house, the intended takeaway being that alcohol and shady dealing has no place within a family home. This is a strong point being made by the filmmakers, emphasizing how no respectable contributing members of society could possibly be associated with despicable thugs such as Tom and Matt. The historical context in which the film was created within completely shapes the overall tone of The Public Enemy, ultimately aiming to keep gangster culture from being glorified under the producer’s demand.
ReplyDeletePublic Enemy, an early gangster film, followed the plot conventions and restrictions of other gangster films of the time. Gangster films reflected the criminal society that existed at the time, which was, due to prohibition of alcohol, bootleggers. Many gangster films centered around a bootlegger who became successful as a result of their crimes, and Public Enemy was the same. However, due to film codes, movies could also not endorse or advocate criminal behavior, so gangster films had to be sure to reinforce that criminal behavior was bad. One scene that reflects this is the scene where Tom and his brother, Michael, get into a fight over Tom’s “career”. The scene opens with their mother talking to Tom about her concern that Michael is working too hard between his job and school, which reflects the intense living and working conditions that many people had to go through in the 1930s. The American Economy didn’t operate in a way that allowed many people to become successful for a while, so people had to go to school and hold a job if they had any hopes of getting a better job. Tom is unconcerned with his brother, however, and tries to give his mother some money - contrasting his lifestyle to his brother’s. Unlike Mike, a normal man who can’t get ahead in the economic climate, Tom has in essence “cheated the system” to attain incredulous wealth - which was part of the appeal of gangster movies to the general public, as a sense of escapism from the less wealthy life people were living. At this point, Mike enters to fight with Tom. Mike is wearing a black suit, giving him an atmosphere of professionalism that juxtaposes Tom’s less professional gray one. Mike tells Tom that his money is “blood money” and Tom isn’t welcome in their house, which was likely the film code against endorsing crime. When the conversation starts, it opens with a medium shot of Mike, with a closed frame, as he is partially blocked by his brother (showing the Tom’s perception that he is more powerful than Mike). However, as the conversation continues, there are more balanced shots, like medium close-ups on their Mom, where they are both partially visible in the left and right of the frame, showing that they are both equally valued by her, and medium long shots of the conversation, where there is more empty space behind Tom than behind Mike, showing that Tom’s life of crime will end up isolating him from his family and from others. Then, Mike accuses Tom of having a criminal background, and there is a cut to a medium shot of Tom with closed framing, boxed in by his brother. This shot, though similar to the first shot of Mike when the conversation started, has some key differences - for one, there is far more empty space around Tom then there was around Mike in the first shot, again showing that his criminal activity will only serve to isolate him. Secondly, unlike the first shot, where the part of Tom that was visible was only his shoulder, most of Mike’s upper half is visible, and he actually takes up more space in frame than Tom does, showing that Mike’s life of law-abiding citizenship will win out over Tom’s life of crime.
ReplyDelete"The Public Enemy", starring James Cagney, fulfilled the conventions of the gangster film genre quite well, as the name would imply. In the scene in which Tom Powers takes revolvers from an antiques shop to avenge his life-long friend, Matt Doyle, elements of the criminal overtone are shown. Tom is shown to be obtaining these weapons for bloody revenge, he is using the gun to steal from the shop owner, and his refusal to pay emphasizes the dire straits of the economy at the time. The criminal elements obviously contribute to the gangster theme, while the refusal to pay emphasizes how desperate people were for money at the time.
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