Hollywood Cinema

Hollywood Cinema

Hollywood Cinema The birth of the Hollywood cinema as we know it in it’s current form came about in the late 1960’s. In a market previously dominated by musicals and historical epics. The box office sales were dwindling at a rapid rate and the production houses couldn’t grasp the baby boomer market, instead, the youth of that generation were turning towards French New Wave cinema and Japanese films. The biggest change that came about from the New Hollywood era was the emphasis on realism. Due to the costs of producing the films decreasing and new technologies coming about, films could be shot on location rather then building sets. A perfect example of the “New Hollywood” style of cinema is the 1996 action classic “The Rock”. The plot behind the film is that a group of U.S. marines, under command of a renegade general, take over Alcatraz and threaten San Francisco Bay with biological weapons. A chemical weapons specialist and the only man to have ever escaped from the Rock are the only ones who can prevent chaos. In Hollywood blockbusters technical codes such as special effects are always to be expected, in “The Rock” we are not let down. Explosions, jet planes soaring around and launching missiles all add to the thrill the audience gets when they view this film. Audiences have come to expect such technical codes in Hollywood blockbusters. One particular scene has become highly renowned in most Hollywood blockbusters and that is “the big chase”, chase scenes have become a standard tool in any Hollywood director’s arsenal because of their high intensity and the thrill of the chase. Audiences have come to love and almost require a chase scene in big Hollywood action films. Using the car chase scene in “The Rock” is a good example of what audiences have come to love. Symbolic codes such as stereotyping are a great way to shape the audiences experience. The federal agents chasing Sean Connery’s character use big black SUV’s, Nicholas Cage’s character is driving a...

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