Hollywood was created well over a century ago, starting with the 1910 release of D.W. Griffith’s 17-minute silent Western titled In Old California. In the last 115 years, the filmmaking industry has undergone multiple transitions, each of them advancing the scope of Hollywood in different ways. When fans usually talk about classic movies, however, they refer to the various cinematic eras that took place before the 1960s.
Although modern movies have frequently impacted Hollywood, some of the greatest changes in the industry came in the form of classic movies. Ranging from silent films and grand musicals to some of the best dramatic storytelling in fictional history, there are many examples of classic cinema, like Citizen Kane, that went on to shape Hollywood in their own image, and most often for the better.
The Birth of a Nation Scattered Its DNA All Over Hollywood
Aside from creating Hollywood, D.W. Griffith also directed 1915’s The Birth of a Nation, problematically adapted from a play titled The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan. The story follows Lincoln’s 1864 assassination and delves into Civil War family dynamics that inevitably spill over into the Reconstruction era. Before delving into the dicey aspects, however, some movie scholars tend to consider The Birth of a Nation‘s landmark victories.
One of the longest movies for that time period, The Birth of a Nation, heralded the feature format popular today. Even the shortest version ran for more than two hours, necessitating an intermission between its two official parts. The Birth of a Nation became the first movie to accomplish several records, from the inclusion of an orchestral musical score to its screening at the White House.
Although The Birth of a Nation was highly controversial for its takes on African-American history, it was a phenomenal triumph at the box office and remains one of the highest-grossing, inflation-adjusted movies ever made. The film also established every popular filmmaking trend that Hollywood would inevitably replicate. And it wasn’t just Hollywood; film industries across the world took their cues from D.W. Griffith’s radical vision.
The director refined crosscutting to build tension, exploited panoramic long shots, implemented complex battle choreography, and introduced the concept of continuity editing. Nearly every movie released since 1915 carries the DNA of The Birth of a Nation, even if its own legacy was tainted. It was so racist and politically inflammatory that it allegedly rekindled the resurrection of the Ku Klux Klan, whose membership rapidly increased following the film’s release. In essence, The Birth of a Nation demonstrated that cinema could become a political weapon.
The Jazz Singer Introduced Audio to Hollywood’s Silent Era
Silent movies dominated cinema at the very beginning, as it was seemingly impossible to combine video and audio together. This era came to an end with 1927’s The Jazz Singer, which brought synchronized sound into Hollywood. Originally believed to be a waste of time — many considered audio to be an unnecessary addition, The Jazz Singer proved all its detractors wrong.
Like The Birth of a Nation, The Jazz Singer is also associated with racist stereotyping, with academic Corin Willis noting that “blackface imagery in The Jazz Singer is at the core of the film’s central theme.” Early Hollywood was severely limited by its own era, one where African Americans were frequently satirized and parodied by white actors. That said, the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system offered a soundtrack of six songs for the first time in any movie.
At the same time, it’s important to remember that The Jazz Singer has very few instances of synchronized sound, whether talking or singing. To maintain viewers’ composure while introducing such an innovative achievement, director Alan Crosland incorporated the silent era trend of intertitles, or caption cards, presenting much of The Jazz Singer‘s dialogue. Still, it was a monumental and permanent modification to Hollywood’s existing template.
Unsurprisingly, there have been three remakes, one as recently as 1980, and that’s not including the endless tributes and homages in The Jazz Singer‘s honor. Both Disney and Warner Bros. referenced the film in its cartoons, although its greatest claim to fame has to be 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain. Although the brilliance of this Gene Kelly superhit came from its performances and musical numbers, the 1927 storyline revolved entirely around bringing sound to cinema.
Gone With the Wind Emphasized the Power of Technicolor and Melodrama
The ultimate mega-production of Golden Age Hollywood, Gone With the Wind, transformed cinema on narrative, technical, and cultural levels. Adapted from Margaret Mitchell’s epic historical novel of the same name, this movie also had the same settings as The Birth of a Nation. The difference, however, is that Gone With the Wind chronicles the turbulent relationship between Vivien Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara and Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler. With these two superstars at the helm, it was only a matter of time before Gone with the Wind demonstrated the power of pure melodrama.
Adjusted for inflation, Gone With the Wind somehow still holds the record for highest-grossing film ever made, with nearly $4.5 billion in lifetime revenue. Aside from commercial success, Gone with the Wind won a then-record ten Oscars, including the first Academy Award for an African-American actor in history. Unfortunately, this was yet another film haunted by Jim Crow, albeit distantly. Despite her unquestionable talents, Best Supporting Actress Hattie McDaniel suffered segregation during the ceremony, and she wasn’t even allowed at the movie’s premiere.
The historical aspects of Gone With the Wind are far more problematic today, but there’s no doubt about the film’s impact on Hollywood. Every Technicolor attempt before Gone With the Wind was a novelty, including The Wizard of Oz, which had been released just two months earlier. Meanwhile, Gone With the Wind emphasized how colour could deepen emotional storytelling, ranging from the lush green of plantations to the burning orange of sunset skies. And there was no looking back after the film cemented Technicolor as the industry standard.
Gone With the Wind would also establish the template for historical spectacle, eventually followed by The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, and even 1982’s Gandhi. Multi-hour sagas that were once scorned for being inefficient became the norm, all thanks to Gone with the Wind‘s nearly 4-hour runtime. Where The Birth of a Nation had blazed a path for longer movies, Gone With the Wind expanded that to the length of a modern epic. Producers wouldn’t balk at high production budgets anymore, certainly not after this particular success.
Citizen Kane Proved That Cinema Was an Art Form
Orson Welles’ debut feature, 1942’s Citizen Kane, was released when the director was only 25. Not only did the movie remain his greatest achievement, but it also became a critical triumph beyond all imagination. Movie buffs frequently name-drop Citizen Kane when talking about the best movies of all time, and for once, it’s not an exaggeration. Sadly, the film failed at the box office and effectively vanished from public knowledge until a decade later.
Nominated for nine Oscars but earning just one for Best Original Screenplay, Citizen Kane was routinely snubbed, both inside and outside Hollywood. Since its rediscovery, however, Citizen Kane has ranked atop nearly every official list. AFI named it the greatest American movie, while the BFI’s Sight and Sound poll came to the same conclusion. Cinematography and editing have received the highest amounts of praise, highlighting Citizen Kane‘s multi-faceted innovations.
Critic Roger Ebert wrote that “Citizen Kane is more than a great movie; it is a gathering of all the lessons of the emerging era of sound, just as Birth of a Nation assembled everything learned at the summit of the silent era.” Ultimately, Citizen Kane served to underscore the moment cinema actualized itself as an art form, on the same level as a classical symphony, and proved that filmmaking was never a frivolous venture.
Deep-focus photography, unreliable narrators, complex sound design, long-angle shots, and several other cinematographic techniques were founded in Citizen Kane. All things considered, Hollywood’s visual grammar owes a considerable debt to Welles’ masterpiece.
Some Like It Hot Subverted Hollywood’s Restrictive Rules
Hollywood has experienced numerous attempts at censorship, with the most profligate example being the Hays Code. Applying to all movies made between 1934 and 1968, this series of rules and regulations was largely built on pre-existing prejudices in American society. Queerness was a matter of moral disgust, whether in the form of drag culture or homosexual depictions. And then came 1959’s Some Like It Hot, which slyly subverted the Hays Code nearly a decade before its repeal.
Starring comedians Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe, as vivacious as she was hilarious, Some Like It Hot tore through the restrictions of classic Hollywood with a panache that seems absent from modern filmmaking. The comedy elements alone merit the movie’s inclusion among the greatest of all time, with a high-octane blend of slapstick, camp, and unapologetically queer-coded humor keeping Some Like It Hot relevant decades later.
Tom Curtis and Jack Lemmon spend most of the film in drag and form relationships with men, creating an atmosphere of romantic ambiguity that openly flouted the Hays Code. Interestingly, while drag had once been a popular pastime for WWII soldiers, the 1950s’ Lavender Scare turned American society against anything queer. But there wasn’t a single missed laugh while watching Some Like It Hot, especially in the film’s delightful ending scene.
Viewers eagerly embraced the movie’s adult humor, sexual openness, and playful approaches to gender, a crystal clear indication that social norms were improving. And although Hollywood still has a long way to go before it’s completely perfect, Some Like It Hot was the first sign that things were going to get better, for cinema as well as for the world at large.
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