Culture Tracking Movies

Popular Culture “programming” went from role modeling accurate good human behavior and friendship in “Tom Sawyer” to role modeling bad, deviant behavior on TV with “Jerry Springer”.

Women in the US rebelled in the 1920s and the 1960s and the clothes came off.

Movies tracked the popular books written at the time and reflected on the drama created by the “good guys and bad guys”. The Victorian Era stressed modesty and lasted from 1837 to 1915.  In the 1920s, movies and women’s fashions rebelled and women got to vote.

Silent movies from the 1890s to 1927 were historic epics, cartoons, westerns, comedies and damsel in distress dramas. In the 1920s women dropped their full cover swimwear and more scantily clad damsels appeared on the movie screen. The Victorian Era of modesty was over.

In 1927, the first “talking movie” The Jazz Singer was released. Movies were popular during the Great Depression in the 1930s and continued to be a mix of innocent musical comedies, dramas about poverty and skin flicks, but the censors were active in keeping adult content out of the movies. Historic epics, cartoons, musicals and dramas persisted.

Movies in the 1940s and 1950s were censored to limit nudity and bad behavior. Movies were dominated by historical blockbusters, musicals, comedies, romance, classical horror, mysteries and dramas. 

The Roswell Incident and numerous sighting of unidentified flying objects combined distrust of government with extraterrestrial theories. This unleashed a never-ending round of books and movies

In the 1950s and 1960s instructive books were written to warn us about the virtue of skepticism and those books turned into movies. George Orwell wrote “1984” in 1949 and warned us to be wary of government and “progressive” ideas. Farenheit 451 was released in 1953 to warn us about government overreach.  “Lord of the Flies” was written in 1954 and warned us not to leave our youth unsupervised. The Manchurian Candidate was released in 1959 to alert us to beware of brainwashing.  In 1962, the book, “A Clockwork Orange” was published to warn us not to be permissive with youth crime. In 1967 Rosemary’s Baby was released to warn us that the Devil is real.  The Exorcist was released in 1971.

Movies in the 1960s and 1970s continued these themes, but added more science fiction and edgier topics like demonic possession, zombies, extraterrestrials, mass murder, spies, cold war intrigue, adventure, These included Psycho, Goldfinger, Manchurian Candidate, Rosemary’s Baby, Night of the Living Dead, Fahrenheit 451, In Cold Blood, Fail Safe, In the 1970s we got A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather, Jaws, Alien, Apocalypse Now, Halloween, The Exorcist, Carrie, Mad Max and Close Encounters.

Movies in the 1980s were dominated by teen movies and comedies, science fiction, horror and adult content. These included The Shining, Blade Runner, Predator, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Blue Lagoon, Terminator, Body Heat, Platoon, Risky Business, Red Dawn, Road House,  

Movies in the 1990s settled back to adult content

These included American Pie, Silence of the Lambs, American Beauty, Pretty Woman, Scream, Deep Impact, 

Movies in the 2000s settled back to magic and spies and included Harry Potter, Mission Impossible, Lord of the Rings, Twilight, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Spiderman, Monsters Inc. and Mean Girls,

The really funny movies included Airplane, Police Squad Naked Gun, Young Frankenstein, Love and Death, Space Balls and Monty Python.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader