The movies

It’s more than a show
Tisdale - Friday, September 7, 2012

Though there were various early forms of movies, the industry that developed with production, distribution and presentation in theatres for a paying public, really began during World War One and then, took off in the twenties. So as we look at this form of entertainment and story telling, it really is about a hundred years old. The move to sound in the late twenties and then colour, which was around almost from the start, but it was not until the early sixties that almost all movies were in colour. Both sound and colour were linked with technological development, colour was an issue of economics.

By the mid fifties every small town in North America had a movie theatre of some kind or another. I remember the town of Kennedy in Saskatchewan's southeast began showing movies in the Legion Hall and the patrons sat on chairs in the darkness watching the screen and coughing on the smoke which became thickest when the projector flamed out, that was about 1955. Where we lived, the towns were about half an hour apart and from Langbank we could choose from movies in Wawota, Kipling and Whitewood with Broadview, Wapella and Moosomin just a bit further. Friday night and or Saturday movies were a part of our family life which made for some interesting situations.

Mother had her favourite kinds of movies, musicals and romance pictures. Father like just about everything so there were compromises about which show we would go to and afterward, there were sometimes complaints. Mother was not a fan of westerns and the reason for that was that so many of the westerns had no women in the cast, or if they were, they played parts that really did not contribute to the story. Violent movies were always a bit offensive to us all, especially the prison movies, which seemed to be a genre in the forties and fifties.

For me, it was the story that I wanted and one rainy dreadful night, when I was in grade one or two, I wanted so badly to see "Treasure Island" my parents couldn't go and the village storekeeper, Gerry Bonar took me into Wawota on a road that was eight miles of mud and ruts. One of the movies that was a problem was "War of the Worlds," I hid behind the seats but it was just to scary and I left the Wawota theatre and spent the rest of the movie with Mr. Warniak in his cafe that was next door.

When I was about ten or eleven, mother was very sick and dad took me with him to "A streetcar named desire,” it was an adult movie and father was embarrassed for having taken me.. After the movie, he asked me if I understood it and I explained to him that of course I understood it, in fact, I really like it. You see, he saw an adult movie with all the sexual content that was apart of that story, I saw a fascinating story of a woman, "Blanche,” who was both a bit crazy and seriously affected by alcohol.

Though we all have come to accept the structure of motion pictures, the star system, the plot, the setting, the character development, the special effects and how the vision of a producer and director can create an event that the viewer experiences. All that seems important, but the real connection we have with a motion picture, are the people who play the parts and make words on paper, come to life in action and emotion, before our very eyes.

Since the beginning of the commercial motion picture, there have been ways of recognizing those performers who are considered to be great actors. There have been many, who actually transform themselves into their characters so much so, that they are a special lot. People like Jessica Lang, Charlize Theron, Marlon Brando, Orson Welles and Johnny Depp, each of these people are sort of changelings and of course, I have just mention those that come to mind and by no means is this a definitive list. But, they are the exceptions, most motion picture and television performers are instead, distinctive individuals, who can play various parts, but they always bring to their role themselves. Some critics are unkind, saying that these performers aren't actors at all, but just play themselves. I would suggest that the better they are at doing just that, the more endearing they are to the audience.

Let us consider the wonder of taking a role and performing as only the individual and that individual alone, can. Retaining themselves, yet making a fictional character come to life, is in my opinion, a much higher form of art than transformation. Here are some of those people who were completely themselves but created motion picture experiences that all who saw them perform were affected emotionally and intellectually.

Walter Pidgeon had a career in movies from the 1920s through until his death in 1984. He was from New Brunswick, enlisted in the artillery for World War One and was severely injured in a non combat accident. In every movie he was unmistakeable Walter Pidgeon yet with his charm and ability he created memorable portrayals that really made him reach out into the audience.

The English actor Charles Laughton preferred working before a live audience, where he spent most of his career, but his movies were master works. His voice was so distinctive and his presence on screen made him the only thing you paid attention to, in essence, he stole every scene. His 1939 creation of the Hunchback of Notre Dame is the sort of thing that one never forgets. He was a monster, the bad guy in the movie, but yet every witness to that performance was with him sobbing at the end. His life ended in 1962.

Also, primarily a stage actor, who did many movies, Alastair Sim became those characters and you knew it the moment he appeared on screen. He actually was a drama lecturer in Scotland for five years. In his remarkable career it was his Scrooge that all other Scrooges can never hope to come even close to bringing Dickens to life on screen as he had.

Here are three American actors who had an emotional impact on me. Broderick Crawford who died in 1985 but began his career in 1937 and was able to garner an academy award. William Conrad was a radio actor, the voice of Matt Dillon, who went on to television and producer-director and died in 1993. Then there was the loveable Walter Brennan who achieved three academy awards and died in 1974.

These and hundreds of others, are part of the lives of the movie goers who were touched by their performances. They played parts and were themselves, the viewer comes to know them for their work and the little bit of themselves they put into those images and sounds. That was the case with Michael Clarke Duncan who died on Monday of this week at age 54. In his first role with Bruce Willis, this former ditch digger, body guard and bouncer was trying to act. Willis told him to be himself, the guy they hired for the part. He took the advice and three years later he was nominated for an academy award for the moving performance in the Tom Hanks movie "The Green Mile." This past winter, he warmed the emotions of television viewers in the series "The Finder" where he essentially played himself, for indeed, that was all that was needed from he, or any other performer.

What I am telling you is that movies and good television is involvement. It is a personal experience between the performer, who faces the challenge of transmitting to the viewer, a message that will have an impact. Be that positive, or negative, the purpose of the performance is to communicate in such a way, that there is no mistake about what the viewer is feeling. When that is present, you have a great movie. Plain and simple the message, person to person, is all there really is.

Now here is the thing that we all need to face, after a hundred years is this form of communication about to vanish?

Have you ever watched a movie on your computer, a personal DVD player, an iPod or iPad. I have never made it through a show, because it just seems to empty. The shared reaction, be it in your living room with your big screen TV, or in a theatre, is dependent upon it being a shared experience. You can't get the experience by yourself, we are social beings and we thrive on things we do together.

When I told you about the choices we had in the 1950s, to go to different towns to see a movie, that is already no longer something that most people in Saskatchewan, or other parts of rural North American can do. Most of our local theatres, even in the cities, are no longer in existence. This past weekend Tisdale's Falcon Theatre did not have a movie to show because of availability. That is what is going to happen very very quickly. The production studios are fully switching over to digital distribution, just as only a hand full of movies are made each year now on actual film, by the end of the coming year, all theatres will have to have video projection equipment in order to stay in business.

The cost to theatre owners is between $80,000 and $120,000 and it takes a whole lot of popcorn to make that kind of money. You see, movies don't make much money in the single screen local theatres and the profits as little as they are, actually come from the concession stand. By January of 2014 you will have to go to a major city to see a movie in a theatre.

The whole industry is undergoing massive changes. Productions have been shifting from distributing their product in theatres to going directly to DVD. Mel Gibson did such a movie this year called "Get the Gringo" but children's movies have been coming out that way for several years. Television and even movies are being made specifically to be streamed over the internet, so-call web broadcast productions. The fracturing of the motion picture industry is well on its way, to following the path of the music industry, which is seeing the individual performer competing directly with the music companies to distribute their products. Lady Gaga's next album will be out in the spring, but it will be available as a CD, but the plan is to sell the project as an iPad interactive "app."

It is not my job to sweeten this story with a fairy tale ending, but rather just to tell you what appears to be happening and to tell you, that it concerns me. All those fictional characters of the future have as much to tell us, as the hundred years of their stories and feelings in the past.

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