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The exact moment when the doodoo hit the fan., 30 July 2003

Author: Benoît A. Racine ([email protected]) from Toronto, Ontario, Canada


There is a scene in `1941' where a German general and a Japanese submarine commander (all over-simplified and therefore hateful racial stereotypes) have kidnapped a hapless country hick (Slim Pickens) and are coaxing him to defecate because he has swallowed a toy compass from a box of Cracker Jacks, that is apparently the only way for their stranded submarine to find its way out of Los Angeles harbour.

This scene is not only important because of the way it heralds countless instances of toilet and body fluid humour in Hollywood movies for decades to come. It also acts as a metaphor for the film itself: a bunch of grown men who should know better, hopelessly looking for a sense of direction amid what is basically human excrement.

`1941' is one major stinker. What can you say about the intelligence of a script based on events that happened in 1942, that calls itself `1941'? About scriptwriters who apparently hadn't even graduated to potty-training when they wrote this piece of drivel, are responsible in a large degree for the general dumbing-down of America and who went on to write even more infantile opuses like `Forrest Gump'? About a storyline that depends on the public's acceptance of attempted date rape as an amusing premise? About cameos by self-destructive over-the-top substance-abusing actors just this close to an overdose as a medium of entertainment?

In my book, `1941' is an important historical milestone in American consciousness. Shot in 1979, it marks the exact moment in time where American movies graduated from simple self-indulgence (i.e. `The Godfather' and countless other films in its wake, glorifying guns, cars, gore, sadistic violence, dismemberment, disloyalty and organized crime as a favourite form of family entertainment) to grossly excessive special-effects-driven children's fare (`Star Wars' and its ilk).

It is probably besides the point to add that this film is extremely strained and unfunny and that even its musical score (by John Williams) sounds like Sir Edward Elgar conducting a symphony orchestra during a controlled flatulence contest.

I truly resent one commentator's comparison of this film to `It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World' which had a sharp, clear morality, which is that greed is not only bad, it is ridiculous. What is the moral of `1941'? Anyone? War is funny? Thank you. I rest my case!

To be perfectly fair, writer Zemeckis did eventually obtain redemption for his youthful indiscretions by directing such fine films as `Contact' (an ode to human reason, dedicated to the memory of Carl Sagan) and `What Lies Beneath', which is just plain good.

1980s: sequels, blockbusters and videotape

In the 1980s, audiences began increasingly watching movies on their home VCRs. In the early part of that decade, the movie studios tried legal action to ban home ownership of VCRs as a violation of copyright, which proved unsuccessful. Eventually, the sale and rental of movies on home video became a significant "second window" for exhibition of films, and an additional source of revenue for the movie companies.

The Lucas-Spielberg combine would dominate Hollywood cinema for much of the 1980s, and lead to much imitation. Two follow-ups to Star Wars, three to Jaws, and three Indiana Jones films helped to make sequels to successful films more of an expectation than ever before. Lucas also launched THX Ltd, a division of Lucasfilm in 1982 [2], while Spielberg enjoyed one of the decade's biggest successes in E.T. the same year. American independent cinema struggled more during the decade, although Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980), After Hours (1985), and The King of Comedy (1983) helped to establish him as one of the most critically acclaimed American film makers of the era. Also in 1983 Scarface was released and became a phenomenon. It also turned it's leading actor Al Pacino in to a Hollywood legend. Probably the most successful film financially and commercially came in 1989 when Tim Burton's dark vision of Bob Kane's creation was brought vividly to life. Batman shattered box-office records, Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the demented Joker earned him $60,000,000 (the most money an actor has ever made from one film) and it catapulted Tim Burton and Michael Keaton to superstardom.

British cinema was given a boost during the early 1980s by the arrival of David Puttnam's company Goldcrest Films. The films Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, The Killing Fields and A Room with a View appealed to a middlebrow audience which was increasingly being ignored by the major Hollywood studios. While the 1970s had helped to define the modern blockbuster motion picture, the way Hollywood released its films would now change. Films, for the most part, would premiere in a wider number of theatres, although, to this day, some movies still premiere using the route of the limited/roadshow release system. Against some expectations, the rise of the multiplex cinema did not allow less mainstream films to be shown, but simply allowed the major blockbusters to be given an even greater number of screenings

Originally posted by Slop101
Brazil and/or Blade Runner