In the 1960s, American Cinema found itself at a crossroads. Internally, Hollywood began its downfall. With the formation of worker’s unions, the cost of labor went up; subsequently, studios exported the production of movies to post-war Europe, where costs were cheaper, leading to unemployment in America. With the introduction of television, movies in general became less popular. Banks became more hesitant to back movies, betting primarily on pre-established movies stars and formulaic stories, which made Hollywood more conventional and boring. Art in the form of film was perceived to come only from Europe. Art houses, which displayed exclusively non-American films, rose in popularity, further taking away audiences from American films. To compensate for the increased selectivity of audiences (and thus narrower profitability margin for movies), ticket prices went up. Now, the movies who made it, made it big; but the vast majority tanked. Big-budget movies like Cleopatra nearly bankrupted studios. As Robert Sklar explained in the seventeenth chapter of “Movie Made America,” “It was as if the rules of baseball had been changed so that the only hit that mattered was a home run.” The men who led Hollywood into its Golden Age started out young, but were now aging. A new generation took over as the heads of production and distribution companies. With this new generation and the ones that followed, came changes like the end of the production code and the introduction of a rating system similar to that of the British. Soon executives realized that sex and violence sell. With this sexploitation, former art houses became adult film houses, and Hollywood was rejuvenated. A new so-called “film generation” was arising, and movies were popular once again.
Parallel to the gradual demise of Hollywood’s golden age, a series of external cultural phenomena, namely the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, dramatically changed the face of American cinema. After World War II and with the beginning of the Civil Rights movement, a period of Blaxploitation, when studios began to realize that they could profit largely from getting black audiences to watch their movies, began. With this, came integration. In result, there was less talent available for black independent film production, and thus less black independent films. Positive portrayals of black people began to promote unity, reflect the civil rights movement, and recognize the contribution of black people and African countries in WW2. Two movies chosen by Alex Lykidis in “American Film History” to represent the evolution of black representation and the socio-political climate of time are Nothing but a Man and the Spook Who Sat by the Door. In sum, there was a move from restrained, non-violent defiance to active, violent participation in the revolutionary struggle; tactics went from self-defensive to offensive. Moreover, integration into a white-dominated society was no longer desirable, but rather equality and hegemony free from white-surveillance became the new goals.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, featuring Sidney Portier, was an attempt at a positive representation of black integration and interracial marriage. However, the movie fell short in many ways. First of all, Portier’s character was too perfect to accurately reflect the acceptance of all blacks. He was sexually castrated, bourgeois, and submissive. As Anne Perrin wrote, “The movie implies through Poitier’s character that to breach class lines and to command the white man’s attention, the black man must achieve superhuman, academic feats.” Moreover, the white male is portrayed as the supreme authority, and women are objectified. This hierarchy of white male, black male, white female, black female is a very disconcerting one. In many ways, today’s society is still similarly retrograde, but merely in more insidious ways. Black men are paid less than white men, and women are paid less than men. Scandalously, not a single black actor has been nominated for an academy award for the second consecutive year. What measures need to be taken to actively fight discrimination and achieve true equality?
By: Gabriela Assunção