The film, movie, cinema, motion picture, or moving picture has been entertaining audiences for over one hundred plus years. They have come a long way since the Golden Age of movies. Early on movies such as ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘Casablanca’, and ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ broke and set new ideas for film-making, casting and directing. Their production made new rules for shooting movies. Their casting used A-list celebrities, alongside never-before-seen actors, mixed with regular people that had experience in the rolls they were cast. Their stories reflected the times, and related political, and social issues that people were dealing with at the time the movies were in theaters. Hollywood helped genre film categories such as comedy, drama, action, the musical, romance, horror, science fiction, and the war epic. The Golden Age of movies can be considered the greatest era of film for all time, due to their originality, and creativity in making them for the silver screen.
First, we take a look at ‘Citizen Kane’, a story written by Orson Welles. Orson Welles was 25 years old when he completed this masterpiece film. It showcased his talent as a writer, director and actor. He was all three in this film. He was well trained in the art of film, “Welles was steeped in the major European traditions, especially those of German Expressionism and the Kammerspiel film and French poetic realism” (Cook, ‘A History of Narrative Film’, p.252). He was a young and talented man with a success record at an early age, from his 1938 radio broadcast 'The War of the Worlds'. To prepare for this movie, he watched ‘Stagecoach’ over forty times.
‘Citizen Kane’ is considered a masterpiece by film critics, fans, and filmmakers, and possibly the greatest movie ever made. At its time, in 1941, it featured new methods in cinematography, editing, music and narration. All of which were extremely innovative at the time. The film is a biographical look at the life of Charles Foster Kane, played by Welles. The ending of the film is actually the beginning of the film. This is something that had never been done before in film, it was considered ground-breaking for its time. Viewers are show the end of Kane’s life, then taken on a journey throughout his life starting with his childhood all the way to his adult life, showing how he got to the point at the beginning of the movie where he died and uttered the word, ‘Rosebud’. This technique of jump-cuts, also known as, flash forward/flashback is still used today. It was used in the popular television show LOST on ABC, directed by J.J. Abrams. This new style of film-making by Welles included deep focus cinematography, where he would include the foreground and the background in one shot, there was also lots of chiaroscuro lighting, jump-cuts, and a variety of camera shots from a birds-eye perspective, to extremely low shots that required the floor the camera sat on to be removed in order to lower the camera angle. The use of actual news footage made the movie cinematography come to life, as real footage from a viewer’s perspective. This made the movie seem realistic, versus just watching a movie.
The movie was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and took home the Academy Awards for Writing (Original Screenplay) - Herman J. Mankiewicz, Orson Welles in 1942 (www.oscars.org).
‘Citizen Kane’ is an American story about an American tycoon who went from rags to riches, as a child to an adult. Charles Foster Kane is everything from a child to an adult, a poor person to a rich tycoon, a swell guy to a politician, a husband to a cheater, an all-around American citizen, and everything in between. It just depends on who you ask, and who is talking. Viewers are taken on a journey backwards starting with the death of Kane, and the last word from his lips before he died, ‘Rosebud’. Who, what or where is ‘Rosebud’? As Welles takes us on a journey through the life of Kane, it is only in the final frames of the film where we are show ‘Rosebud’.
“Despite all the publicity, the film was a box-office flop and was quickly consigned to the RKO vaults. At 1941's Academy Awards the film was booed every time one of its nine nominations was announced. It was only re-released to the public in the mid-'50s” (www.imdb.com).
Next, ‘Casablanca’ produced more memorable one-liners than any other film in history. With lines like, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”, or “Here's looking at you kid”. Directed by Michael Curtiz and released in 1943, the film stars popular actor/actress Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The film takes place in Africa during World War II, and is considered a romantic drama. Unlike ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘Casablanca’ featured A-list celebrities and writers for the movie, since it was a Warner Brothers film. Warner Brothers was one of the larger movie companies in Hollywood during this time and could afford larger talent and writers. Since the war was happening at this time, the movie was rushed to be released because the allies were invading North Africa and had captured Casablanca. Due to its celebrity list of actors, famous lines and theme song, 'As Time Goes By', it is also considered one of the greatest movies of all time for many reasons.
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The film was shot entirely on the Warner Brothers studio lot, with the exception of the airport scene and a few shots of Paris. Much like ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘Casablanca’ used a great deal of chiaroscuro lighting, also known as film noir. “Film noir (French: ‘dark film’) style of filmmaking characterized by such elements as cynical heroes, stark lighting effects, frequent use of flashbacks, intricate plots, and an underlying existentialist philosophy” (www.britannica.com). The film featured early special effects by using miniature plane models to act as the real thing. It also included a soundtrack of songs that became very popular with 'As Time Goes By', and 'It Had to Be You'.
In 1944, ‘Casablanca’ was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Writing/Screenplay (www.oscars.org). Making it another one of the greatest movies of all time.
Last but not least, we have ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’. Released in 1946 and directed by William Wyler. The movie is a post war film showing the difficulties experienced by men returning to their lives after World War II. A real-life situation that was also happening in America during this time.
American drama film, ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’, was directed by William Wyler. He had recently returned from military service in World War II when he was asked to direct this film. The film tells the story of three men returning from the war. Each man had a different story to tell from three different perspectives. One of them returns to a banking job with a loving family. But he has a bad drinking problem, another returns to the same job he had prior to the war, even though he is a decorticated hero, and the other returns disabled without the use of his hands.
Unlike the previous films, Williams chose to cast real soldiers to act in the movie alongside movie actors. He cast Harold Russell to play Homer Parrish, a Navy veteran who lost both hands in the war, which Russell actually did. It was a shocking scene when Homer reveals his limbs to the audience. Something not seen in movies till now. Much like ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ used deep focus photography. There are numerous deep-focus shots within this film as with the scene in the drug store where Fred and Peggy are framed perfectly in the foreground is the drug store manager clearly in the background. Another scene in the movie showing deep-focus is where Homer returns home, we see him exiting a cab from inside his home a little girl is in the foreground while Homer is framed in the door frame in the background. Both the girl and Homer are in clear focus.
‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ had nine Academy Award nominations, and won eight in 1946, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score (www.oscars.org).
In conclusion, all three of these movies have similarities and differences, but they are all masterpieces in their own right. All three movies make use of archetypes. In ‘Citizen Kane’, Charles Foster Kane is everything from the orphan, to the hero, and the villain. In ‘Casablanca’, Rick is the rebel, lover, hero, and possibly the jester with his dry sense of humor. In ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’, all three male lead actors can be heroes. Meanwhile all three movies have a femme fatal type with ‘Citizen Kane’ there was Susan Alexander Kane, ‘Casablanca’ had Ilsa Lund, and ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ had Marie Derry. ‘Citizen Kane’ and ‘Casablanca’ heavily used chiaroscuro lighting, while ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ has many outside scenes using natural light. Something not seen in the other movies. While all three of these movies have similarities and differences, they do have one thing in common, they are considered some of the greatest movies of all time, not just the greatest from the Golden Age of cinema. Each one a masterpiece on its own.
“A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet” - Orson Welles.
References
- Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film. W.W. Norton, 2016.
- https://www.britannica.com/art/film-noir
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033467/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv
- https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1942/C?qt-honorees=1#block-quicktabs-honorees
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033467/trivia
- https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1944
- https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1947
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