Film Essay

Final Essay Before World War 2 movies were mostly for pure entertainment, never delving too deep into the human psyche or touching on subjects outside of the day to day lives of the upper crust of society. Films never touched on the real day lives of the average person who, ironically, paid to those types of movies. During ww2 films served a similar purpose. Many of the films at the time were created to boost morale of people at home and to support the troops. They were understandably created to make the public at home feel a little less grim about the situation and make the rich draft dodgers happy about staying home and drinking wine instead of going to war and fighting for their countries. This was ok for a time, but after the war different directors and writers started to make their works more reflective of a time after war. A time after war wouldn’t be all sunshine and smiles. In Italy where the war would directly affect not only the people, but the economy as well it wouldn’t make logical sense for people to make what they called “white phone” films. At the same time In America the roles that different people would take in society would change, which in turn would change the mentality of the artist who are usually a window into the soul of the people(from there perspective) at any given time. Thus a new style and movement were created around this time: Film noir and Italian Neo-realism. Film noir, an American film style, was often a look on the dark side of society. Crime Films would often use this style because the low-key lighting a, shadow effects would set a great mood for a story that is supposed to create a dark mood. One could only assume that after watching so many good men and women die in any situation would sour you view on society so it is only fitting that films that would put the idea of “The American Dream” into question. The romantic lives of the rich in Mildred Pierce not longer seem perfect when you have to wonder just who