HISTORY OF FILM 1990S 1990S In the 1990

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HISTORY OF FILM – 1990’S

HISTORY OF FILM – 1990’S

1990’S • In the 1990 s for the most part, cinema attendance was up

1990’S • In the 1990 s for the most part, cinema attendance was up - mostly at multi -screen cineplex complexes throughout the country. Although the average film budget was almost $53 million by 1998, many films cost over $100 million to produce, and some of the most expensive blockbusters were even more. In the early 1990 s, box-office revenues had dipped considerably, due in part to the American economic recession of 1991, but then picked up again by 1993 and continued to increase. The average ticket price for a film varied from about $4. 25 at the start of the decade to around $5 by the close of the decade. As indoor multiplexes multiplied from almost 23, 000 in 1990 to 35, 600 in the year 2000, the number of drive-ins continued to decline (from 910 in 1990 to 667 in 2000).

1990’S • The VCR was still a popular appliance in most households (about three

1990’S • The VCR was still a popular appliance in most households (about three quarters of them in 1991) and rentals and purchase of videotapes were big business - much larger than sales of movie theater tickets. Rather than attending special film screenings, members of the Academy of Motion Pictures viewed Oscar-nominated films on videotape, beginning in 1994. The signs of the growing of the digital age foreshadowed revolutionary change. In 1990, Kodak introduced the Photo CD player. And in 1992, the Second Edition of the 20 -volume Oxford English Dictionary, was also made available on CD-ROM. By 1992, broadcast TV was beginning to lose large numbers of viewers to cable-only channels. • The first DVDs (digital video discs) had emerged in stores, featuring sharper resolution pictures, better quality and durability than videotape, interactive extras, and more secure copy-protection. In just a few years, sales of DVD players and the shiny discs proliferated and would surpass the sale of VCRs and videotapes. • And with the digital revolution, some pioneering film-makers were experimenting with making digital-video (DV) films, pushing digital imagery and special effects, or projecting films digitally. A number of films also used special -effects CGI in more subtle, innovative ways.

1990’S • It was significant that the first new Hollywood studio in many decades,

1990’S • It was significant that the first new Hollywood studio in many decades, Dream. Works, was formed in October 1994 as the brainchild of director-producer Steven Spielberg, ex. Disney executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, and film producer/music industry giant David Geffen. The studio's first theatrical release was first-time feature director Mimi Leder's “The Peacemaker” (1997) starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. This was followed by “Amistad” (1997), “Mouse Hunt” (1997), “Paulie” (1998), “Deep Impact” (1998), and “Small Soldiers” (1998). Their first real hit was also their first film to be nominated for Best Picture – “Saving Private Ryan” (1998). • After their first major animated film Antz (1998), they also turned out The Prince of Egypt (1998), the Claymation Chicken Run (2000), Joseph: King of Dreams (2000) (direct-tovideo), The Road to Eldorado (2000), and Best Animated Feature-winning Shrek (2001). • By decade's end, Dream. Works had three consecutive Best Picture winners: • Sam Mendes' suburban satire “American Beauty” (1999) • Ridley Scott's sword and sandal epic “Gladiator” (2000) • Ron Howard's biopic “A Beautiful Mind” (2001)

1990’S • The trend toward sequels from the previous decade continued, but Hollywood was

1990’S • The trend toward sequels from the previous decade continued, but Hollywood was also attempting to deal with serious themes, including homelessness, the Holocaust, AIDS, feminism, and racism, while making bottom-line profits. There were a number of mainstream films that confronted the issues in a profound way. Director Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia (1993) was the first big-studio attempt to deal with AIDS, winning for Tom Hanks the first of consecutive Best Actor Oscars. He starred as a lawyer with AIDS who found that Denzel Washington was the only person who would take his case. • With seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, Steven Spielberg's long and serious B/W Holocaust 'prestige' epic Schindler's List (1993) was a significant milestone but also a grim story about an opportunistic German businessman (Liam Neeson) in Poland who ultimately saved over 1, 000 Jews from a Holocaust death by employing them as cheap labor. This historical drama was released only a few months after Spielberg's major entertainment blockbuster Jurassic Park (1993). • Dances With Wolves - 1990 Soon before its bankruptcy in 1991, Orion Pictures distributed the three-hour western - director/producer/actor Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990), that retold the story of the Wild West from the viewpoint of Native Americans and displayed some of the subtitled dialogue in Sioux. Kevin Costner starred as Lt. John Dunbar who married Stands With a Fist (Mary Mc. Donnell), and inadvertently became a hero. The film won the Best Picture Academy Award and six other Oscars, the first "western" to do so since Cimarron (1931). • Forrest Gump - 1994 The immensely popular box-office hit Forrest Gump (1994) by director Robert Zemeckis looked back on the 60 s and Vietnam War era through the eyes of a slow-witted Everyman (Best Actor-winning Tom Hanks with his second Oscar win), reportedly with an IQ of 75. He would spout Gump-isms ("Life is like a box of chocolates") and the film's exceptional special effects placed the unassuming Forrest within documentary newsreels - creating the illusion of meeting with Presidents (Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon), missing legs and the finale's floating feather.

1990’S • There seemed to be a significant shift toward action films in the

1990’S • There seemed to be a significant shift toward action films in the 90 s - with their requisite speed, kinetic hyper-action, and of course, violence. Most of the biggest and popular films were not dialogue-based and character-driven. • One of the greatest summer smashes of the decade was Andrew Davis' The Fugitive (1993) - a spin-off from the celebrated 1963 -67 TV series (with David Janssen), with Harrison Ford as the wrongly-convicted surgeon Dr. Richard Kimble in flight from dogged US Marshal (Tommy Lee Jones) and in pursuit of a one-armed man. • Brian De Palma's big-budget slick summer blockbuster Mission: Impossible (1996) derived from the popular 1960 s TV series, was financially successful given its Tom Cruise star power and huge marketing campaign. • During the 1993 filming of the martial arts action-thriller adapted from a comic book, The Crow (1994), Bruce Lee's actor son Brandon was killed in an accident on the set. Hong Kong action director John Woo proved that he could make mainstream Hollywood films with the highpowered Broken Arrow (1996), his second US film, and filled with Woo's trademark action sequences. He also directed Face/Off (1997), a brilliantly-acted film with stars John Travolta as an FBI agent and Nicolas Cage as the villain - who both swapped faces after plastic surgery. • Speed – 1994 Jan de Bont's action disaster-thriller Speed (1994) was just as its title suggested a fast-paced, out-of-control tale about a mad bomber (Dennis Hopper) vs. an LA SWAT team cop (Keanu Reeves), and a runaway suburban LA bus (driven by Sandra Bullock) wired to explode if it slowed below 50 mph. The vacation-cruise sequel Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) paled in comparison.

1990”S • Since the making of Jaws (1975), studio executives were primed toward making

1990”S • Since the making of Jaws (1975), studio executives were primed toward making blockbusters to meet the bottom line. In the 90 s, many of the greatest box-office hits of all time (in the top twenty) were made and marketed with sophisticated publicity and merchandising campaigns: • Jurassic Park (1993) (based upon Michael Crichton's 1990 novel) with photo-realistic, computer-generated dinosaurs spliced into liveaction sequences, i. e. , the car-crunching T-Rex sequence • Chris Columbus' Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) • The Lion King (1994) • the apocalyptic disaster film ("Earth! Take a good look. It could be your last") from director Roland Emmerich Independence Day (1996) - that set a record by grossing $100 million in box-office receipts during its first six days, and won a Best Visual Effects Oscar - mostly for the sequence of the White House exploding • Twister (1996) - about the chasing of tornadoes by researcher Bill Harding (Bill Paxton) while trying to divorce his wife Jo (Helen Hunt) • Titanic (1997)*** • Men in Black (1997) - with Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as black-clad buddies on a mission • The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) • Michael Bay's top-grossing, but expensive-to-make Armageddon (1998) from Touchstone (a Disney Company) • Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) - a box-office success although derisively criticized by fans and other reviewers as shallow story-telling but with dazzling visual effects • The Mummy (1999), a glossy remake of the original, with French Foreign legion hero Brendan Fraser stumbling upon an ancient city in Egypt and awakening high priest Imhotep • Toy Story 2 (1999)

1990’S • Two special-effects-laden, predictably-scripted apocalyptic disaster films racked up huge profits. Both were

1990’S • Two special-effects-laden, predictably-scripted apocalyptic disaster films racked up huge profits. Both were about destructive meteors or asteroids hurtling toward Earth - in the same year: • Armageddon – 1998 Mimi Leder's solemn and emotional Deep Impact (1998), with Robert Duvall cast as an astronaut who must blow up the threatening comet, Morgan Freeman as the US President, and Tea Leoni as a TV news reporter • Michael Bay's fast-paced Armageddon (1998), with Bruce Willis (as Harry Stamper) and Billy Bob Thornton cast as two members of a crew of Texas oil-drillers called upon by NASA to save the Earth from a huge meteor headed its way; also with a romantic subplot featuring Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler • The Matrix – 1999 Writers-directors Andy and Larry Wachowski's second feature film was the ambitious and inventive virtual-reality flick The Matrix (1999). It starred Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves, and won four Academy Awards (all in sound, editing, and visual effects technical categories). Slacker hacker Thomas Anderson/Neo (Keanu Reeves) was called as a messianic figure to save the world (of approximately the year 2199) from virtually indestructible Sentient Agents. The blockbuster's wild popularity was due to its combination of comic-bookish plot, mysticism, philosophical complexity, computer-enhanced digital effects of its unbelievable action scenes, flying bullet-dodging ("bullet-time") and intriguing virtual worlds in which reality was redefined as a computer simulation. It helped to illustrate what the future would be of futuristic sci-fi action films with slick and smart plots, and jaw-dropping action.