ROLL THE REEL: THE IN BETWEEN TEENS - 1916

People my age have some trouble remembering a time when we here in America weren't conflicted about going to war.  Imagine an era where everybody was all GUNG HO! about going to war.

The era you're most likely imagining right now is most certainly NOT the World War I era or any era for that matter.  Prior to WWI, some folks (like Emma Goldman) were violently opposed to the idea of going to war and others (including the U.S. Government) were violently opposed to those who were violently opposed.  In 1916, right before we were about to ship our Yanks off to fight the Hun and save the world from any future wars (which makes cold fusion look like tying shoes), the country was in a state of cultural upheaval over whether or not to join the war effort in Europe.  Movies gave us some valuable points of view about going to war.

There was everything!  Pacifists, war hawks, Russians; everything you need to start a good debate.  So let's kick off...

1916

I.     INTOLERANCE (SEPTEMBER 15th, 1916)

Directed by D. W. Griffith

      The Birth of a Nation pissed off everyone around, so D. W. Griffith decided to make another 3 hour epic dealing with controversial takes on controversial topics.  This 3 hour epic dealing with controversial takes on controversial topics is now regarded as one of the absolute masterpieces of the Silent Era and it's one of my favorite films.

      Intolerance contains 4 different stories as only Griffith could put on the big screen.  The four stories follow a chronological order that only jumps through history a little bit:  ancient Babylon (circa 539 BC), Biblical times (27 AD), Renaissance Era France (1572), and "modern" America (1914).  All of them deal with the idea of intolerance and its consequences.

      The estimated budget of this film nowadays is $46 billion which for 1916 was equivalent to EVERYONE'S INCOME EVERYWHERE.  The scale of the movie is almost beyond comprehension and Griffith's utilization of everything involved in the filmmaking process really distinguished his place among the pantheon of true auteur directors.  

II.     THE QUEEN OF SPADES (APRIL FOOL'S DAY, 1916)

Directed by Yakov Protazanov

     Protazanov was one of the Russian Empire's most celebrated filmmakers when the serfs of Russia were still cool with the pogroms and brutal poverty.  Luckily for us, he wasn't!  

     The Queen of Spades is based off of Alexander Pushkin's short story of the same name, which is a cautionary tale about lying, trust, and putting all your turnips in one vodka milkshake.  It's revolutionary use of combination shots influenced directors all over Mother Russia, especially Lev Kuleshov who was so good at it that it was eventually named after him.  

     The themes of the film were quite poignant at the time of its release and annoyed both the Czar and the Bolsheviks alike.  With its imagery, innovative camera work, and in depth adapted screenplay, Protazanov's Queen of Spades is regarded as one of the greatest films to come out of the Pre-Revolutionary Period.

III.     CIVILZATION

Directed by Reginald Barker, Thomas H. Ince, and Raymond B. West

     There are two films of this decade that were real game-changers in the world of cinema.  One is The Birth of a Nation which I went over in the last post and the other one is the pacifist anthem Civilzation.

     Most of the movies that I've listed so far I've listed for their technical merits and achievements, but Civilization has all that and then some.  Besides having one of the most famous and complicated sequences of the Silent Era, it's also one of the first movies (and probably only movies) to be responsible for the outcome of a presidential election (sorry Michael Moore, you tried buddy).  It's the first film to depict Jesus and thus became one of the first films to be condemned by the Catholic Church.

      The famous scene where Jesus walks through the combat zone, showing the King the horrors of war is easily one of the most beautiful and influential scenes ever put on film and one of my favorites.  I wish I could devote a whole post to this one, but I'll have to leave it at this.

     

     Well folks, we'll be moving onto the Roaring Twenties, leaving "the War to End All Wars" behind in favor of flappers, bootlegging, and flag pole sitting!  But we're leaving the In Between teens with hours of film lodged deep in our brains and a hope for even more solid ones to come.  Our next year here at Merrick's March Movie Madness is...

1922!

Stay tuned on Bad Craziness folks!  Follow me on Twitter (@DylanMerrick6) and like the brand new Bad Craziness Facebook Page!  And always remember,

~Viva amigos,

   ~D. Merrick

ROLL THE REEL: THE IN BETWEEN TEENS - 1915

Today's year on this fine, fine day of Merrick's March Movie Madness is 1915.

1915 was a watershed year in cinema all over the world (even FRANCE!), and it's one of my absolute favorite years.  The three movies I've selected may cause quite a stir for some, and their content back in the day made Al Capone cry and nuns quit the church to join biker gangs.

1915

And what a year it was folks!  To start things off:

I.     LA FOLIE DU DOCTEUR TUBE

Directed by Abel Gance

     This film is BY FAR one of the strangest thing ever thrown up onto a random screen somewhere in France (and that's saying something because there are A LOT of odd French films and I love them all).  

     La Folie du Docteur Tube is one of the first science fiction films and one of the first experimental films too.  To showcase the odd storyline (about a mad scientist with an oddly shaped head and bad teeth who invents a hallucinogenic powder and wreaks havoc on the world with it), Gance refrains from using title cards.  One is left to try to decipher this weird little movie to the best of their ability like all halfway decent experimental films that aren't churned out by some weird film student from SUNY Purchase.

     The film employs some of the first uses of curved lenses, fish-eye lenses, and fast-motion and they are used in a way that's still pretty masterful for today.  It's a hilarious sci-fi comedy that broke new grounds in experimental cinema.

II.     LES VAMPIRES (November 13th, 1915- June 30th, 1916)

Directed by Louis Feuillade

     With the exception of the early Lumiere Brothers films and Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon (1902) (among many of his other films), no other French film has had quite the influence of Louis Feuillade's Les Vampires.

     The 10 part, 400 minute crime story shot off like a kamikaze spaceship in the cinema world because there was nothing like it around.  No other film was willing to cover topics like Apache gangs, decapitation, and suicide at the time and more than that, none of them would SHOW IT.

     A remake of Les Vampires was attempted back in 1996 and it was alright, but nothing compared to the original.  Every exploitation film, art film, grindhouse grind, French New Wave, film noir, neo noir, and crime movie references this movie or shows its influence without even realizing it.  Even Fantômas (another Feuillade picture) hasn't had the sheer influence of Les Vampires.  

III.     THE BIRTH OF A NATION (February 8th, 1915)

Directed by D.W. Griffith

     America's not too proud of its past.  We've got more race hatred here than in four episodes of Roots.  However, out of that racism  came jazz and Spike Lee movies.  Also out of that racism came this one, my third favorite of 1915, the first American epic: The Birth of a Nation.

     D.W. Griffith's magnum opus is beyond large scale.  Clocking in at 3 hours and a $110,000 budget (massive for that time period), this movie redefined cinema.  It's one of the first blockbusters (don't tell Steven Spielberg that, there's a big difference between Birth of a Nation  and Jaws).  Even with its content that includes the Lincoln assassination and the "glorious" rise of the Ku Klux Klan, this film is absolutely beautifully realized by Griffith.

     Even if it's been used by the KKK and other white supremacist organizations to get angsty white teenagers to join their ranks, this movie changed everything.  Roger Ebert compared the film to Leni Reifenstahl's Triumph of the Will in terms of its beauty that everyone is afraid to recognize.  To all the naysayers I say this isn't Driving Miss Daisy or Amistad.  This movie is outwardly racist and doesn't sugarcoat it's racism.  I'm not saying that the racism is okay because that'd be dumber than the Bush Administration.  I'm saying that Birth of a Nation isn't about the racism.  It's about the majestic shots, the grand scale, and the depth of the plot.  It's a film that even with its controversy, is an absolutely breathtaking sight.

     1915 was a pretty wild year folks, and as the years go on the movies will just keep on getting wilder.  Coming up later on we've got our next favorite year here at Merrick's Movies:

1916

That's all for now people!  Follow me on Twitter for everything you need to know about movies: @DylanMerrick6

And remember as always!

~Viva amigos,

   ~D. Merrick