21st-Century Hollywood: Movies in the Era of Transformation

There can be no doubt that the digitization of the moving image has radically and irrevocably altered the phenomenon that we call the cinema and that the characteristics of this transformation leave open an entirely new field of visual figuration. For those who live and work in the post-filmic era—that is, those who have come to consciousness in the past 20 years—the digital world is an accomplished fact and the dominant medium of visual discourse. Many of our students remark that the liberation of the moving image from the tyranny of the imperfect medium of film is a...

In the 21st century, filmgoers use the movies as a means of escape. Films that challenge the viewer or are hard to decode are often unsuccessful.The Hurt Locker, for example, won the 2010 Academy Award for best picture, and its director, Kathryn Bigelow, won for best director (a first for a woman); but the film did only a fraction of the business of James Cameron’sAvatar, which is now, amazingly, the most successful film of all time from a financial viewpoint. InAvatar, the viewer is invited to escape his or her body and become immersed in a role-playing...

While Hollywood, with its vast technical resources and its perceived dominance of commercial cinema continues on a global scale, the massive effort to shift to digital ultimately opens the way for significant changes in global distribution and creates new platforms and methods that question global Hollywood in exciting and unprecedented ways. One would think that the success, on a global scale, of an international blockbuster such asAvatarwould assure Hollywood’s continued dominance. Mark Lynch doesn’t think so. His essay, “What If Hollywood Doesn’t Survive as a Global Player?,” demonstrates that Hollywood’s supremacy is far from a sure thing. Interestingly,...

The concept of thedirectoras primary creator of a film or video has changed in the 21st century. While some cling to the old idea of one person directing an entire production and being principally responsible for the project’s visual and/or thematic content, a new generation of filmmakers is creating mash-ups by working in groups on the web, turning out films stamped with multiple cultures and multiple visions. In addition, the idea of making a film for theatrical distribution as the primary point of sale is also rapidly changing; in the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, for example, an unusually...

While the traditional platforms of movie distribution and reception may be vanishing and transforming, audiences are rapidly adjusting to viewing moving images in a variety of ways. We now get to see our dreams and fantasies projected both on large screens as spectacle and on small screens as portable, communal, socialized mini-spectacle.Film, as it was defined in the 20th century, may arguably be disappearing; but moving images are everywhere all at once. The availability of media is almost overwhelming. Media spectacle, multiplatformed as it is rapidly becoming, is benefiting from a mind-boggling explosion of formats; and a plethora of...