May 7, 2007
92nd street
What is hard about these films is that you look at them in a later context and it is hard to take them seriously as a narrative. So much about them is filled with propaganda, yet they are truly narratives at heart. Although blatantly ropaganda, it is hard to tell if the cheesy and corny elements of the film are due to this media being back by the government or is it because many films of that time had those elements. Dead end was a film that was filled with moments that were over the top, and really outrageous acting by modern day standards. Both have a lot of shouting, cheesy fight scenes, and dialogue that is extremely unatural. Perhaps the only reason that movies like dead end are given more credit than movies like 92nd street is because people like bogart were starring in the films. Whenever someone becomes a star the mass audiences are more willing to accept the stars earlier (and more lame) films. Perhaps 92nd street might have gone down in history as one of AFI's top one hundred films if it starred eva gardner and erol flynn.
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2 comments:
The cheese factor is pretty high in this film, it might standout moreso because the actors are unfamiliar to us and that some of the plot does seem improbably (like elsa actually passing as male). I read somewhere, though, that the reason they could not use incredibly famous actors in the film is because of the on-location shooting. Since it was a revolutionary concept at the time and movie cameras etc. were huge and conspicious, it was actually hard to do the on site shooting and people on the streets often reacted to the camers. the filmakers were fearful that if they used incredibly famous actors, people would just be freaking out of the famous people and constantly interrupt the shoot.
well, its important to keep in mind that the film was purposefully created to propagandize an audience about the domestic World War II realities. It effectively did so through its novel filmik approach, but the FBI's involvement is very real. This so called cheese factor you speak of is not a relevant factor for its target audience, b/c the film was made for a mid 20th century audience. In fact, it was as documentary as it gets for that era.
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