The Roaring Twenties. The Jazz Age was home to the Harlem Renaissance, Al Capone, fedoras (when they were cool), my family's original business, flappers, and Ernest Hemingway's African Safari trophy room. Let's face it, from the Jazz to the Art Deco, the Twenties era is the original epitome of cool.
The era was fun-loving, modern, and fast-paced while at the same time seeking a "Return to Normalcy". The Progressive Era seemed to be a failure to most because World War I didn't end all wars like Wilson had promised when America entered it following the Russian Revolution of 1917 (Wow. HUGE shocker right there). In the end, people voted for business-oriented Republicans and supported Prohibition while Congress amended the Constitution, granting women the right to vote and more liberal expressions of art were being explored. The liberating world of art boomed in the Twenties, in the face of a rise in religion and conservatism in public culture. At the forefront of this boom was the newest artistic medium: movies.
As the Hollywood System developed and grew, plus the experimental cinema of the rest of planet Earth, movies grew and expanded faster and far beyond anything we could comprehend even now. The Twenties really are one of the most exciting eras in movies, so let's get on with the show! Today it's...
1922
I. NOSFERATU, EINE SYMPHONIE DES GRAUENS (MARCH 4th, 1922)
Directed by F. W. Murnau
What defines a horror movie? Nowadays it seems that if it mentions the devil, has some brief nudity, and more fake blood than a Marilyn Manson concert, it's the next Night of the Living Dead and everybody loves it. This folks, is untrue. If you want to see what defines a horror movie, look no further than Nosferatu.
Nosferatu is an unlicensed adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula novel, and illegal, bootlegged scripts have never been better. From the innovative make-up work, to the German Expressionist set design that's influenced everything from The Night of the Hunter to Frankenweenie, to the creeping, shadowy camerawork that made Roger Ebert cry as a child, this movie pretty much laid down all the foundations for a masterful horror film.
Nosferatu's influence can be seen elsewhere in the world of entertainment. My personal favorite is the "Hashslinging Slasher" episode of Spongebob where they use several of the motifs and shots from the film. Keep on the look out readers, I bet you'll see references to this film in everything from music to movies to normal people walking across the street acting like creepy vampires. And not Cullens. I mean actual vampires like Nosferatu or Count Blackula.
II. GRANDMA'S BOY (SEPTEMBER 3RD, 1922)
Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer
The world of comedy is a sad one nowadays folks. Every hipster wants to make the next Annie Hall and every big budget Hollywood fat cat grips a dart in his pudgy fingers and aims a dart at a dartboard and whatever unoriginal, stereotypical romcom plot he hits is the next Friends with Benefits. Cheesy romantic comedies started in 1922 with Grandma's Boy.
Now, I may sound opposed to cheesy romantic comedies, but this one is the original. Every motif we call lame now because they've been so overused are so overused because Grandma's Boy is so good. Everything you know about these types of movies started here: the nerdy leading man who becomes a hero, the girl who won't notice him, the purely evil antagonist, the grandma/older figure who's smarter than you think, "magic" of any kind, and even the "you had the magic all along" bit we all loved in Space Jam. In terms of screenwriting, Grandma's Boy is responsible for the invention of the modern, feature length comedy film.
Before Grandma's Boy nobody ever imagined a feature length comedy film; comedies were the 3 minute snippets for children that came on before a Western or Drama. After Grandma's Boy this attitude changed and comedies finally had a place next to the big guns on the movie trophy rack.
III. NANOOK OF THE NORTH (JUNE 11TH, 1922)
Directed by Robert J. Flaherty
Americans love to feel intelligent, decadent, and most of all, compassionate. Naturally so, documentaries are a big deal to us (hence people like Ken Burns and Michael Moore have jobs). The father of the documentary/docudrama film is Mr. Robert J. Flaherty and his film Nanook of the North solidified the documentary's place in cinema as a medium equal in excitement and intrigue as dramas, comedies, and what have you.
Nanook of the North was shot on a giant hand crank-operated camera somewhere in the Hudson Bay near Inukjuak. With the aid of his small Inuit crew, Flaherty was able to give many people their first taste of Inuit culture plus the first feature-length documentary.
Although some scenes were staged, Nanook of the North is regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made and set the stage for documentary filmmaking to come in terms of ethics, production, and cool subject matter like badass Eskimos who use harpoons to eat dinner (although they usually used guns; Flaherty had them use spears and harpoons to give non-Inuits a look at what the culture was like before the influence of whites).
If one were to ascribe a character from an overplayed high school comedy-drama that you still love to the year 1922 in terms of cinema, it would be the trend-setter. The one who wore scarves and thick glasses with no lenses actually before it was cool. "Have you ever heard of this band, 1922?" we'd timidly ask 1922. "Yeah, I heard them before they got big, they're so good" is what 1922 would say because it's not pretentious about it, it's too good for such things. 1922 set the stage for cinema to go new places and try wild things, and it just got better as the decade went on. Next time on Merrick's March Movie Madness it's...
1925!
Keep reading Bad Craziness for everything you could ever learn about movies! follow me on Twitter and like the Facebook Page so you can overload yourself with more information than your brain has room for! And always remember,
~Viva amigos,
~D. Merrick
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