American Cinema: Cyclical History of Hollywood
Book Proposal
Emanuel Levy, Ph.D.
Professor of Film and Sociology
Introduction
My book, American Cinema: Cyclical History of Hollywood, proposes a different way of looking at the American cinema by focusing on film cycles, a new unexplored concept in film studies. The book’s time frame is about 90 years, from the beginning of the sound era, in 1929, to the present.
Three major ideas define my book, and distinguish it from other “histories” of mainstream Hollywood cinema.
Cycle Vs. Genre, Cycle Vs. Series (Franchise)
There have been numerous books about the prevalent genres in American cinema, past and present. My book’s central concept is that of a film cycle, a group of films that are linked together by major themes and ideas, which cut across and intersect with a variety of genres.
To start with an example, The Thin Man movies were part of a popular series of seven films, made between 1934 and 1941. They featured the same major stars, William Powell and Myrna Loy, but they were written and helmed by different directors. However, in my conception, The Thin Man pictures constitute a series, not a cycle.
Cycle and the Socio-Historical Context
Almost every decade in American history had witnessed the rise, decline and fall of particular film cycles. Cycles are often launched with the critical and commercial success of a particular movie, which then goes on to spawn a cluster of movies that deal with similar issues, or revolve around similar types of characters. Film cycles are often conditioned by extra-cinematic factors, such as the socio-political contexts of American society at large.
Cycles Vs. Directors and Stars
The 1930s were a particular fertile decade for movie musicals, such as the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers dance musicals, made at RKO in the 1930s. Those movies as great as they are constitute a series, linked by the same stars, but they do not form a cycle either thematically or stylistically.
In contrast, musical movies of the early Depression era, such as 42nd Street and the Gold Diggers movies, constitute a cycle, largely made by the same studio (Warner Bros.), with the same choreographer (Busby Berkeley), and featuring a similar cast, often headed by William Powell and Ruby Keller.
Movie cycles often revolve around the same director, who works with the same cast of actors, jointly generating features linked by similar themes and motifs. Take, for example, the high school movies made by the late John Hughes in the 1980s.
Colleagues and students have often asked me about the thematic scope and historical duration of film cycles. The answers to these issues are tricky but intriguing. As noted, a particular successful film, say Ridley Scott’s Alien of 1979, often launches a whole series of films (the Alien movies, which continue to be made at present). However, in order to constitute a describable cycle, the films must go beyond the particular director (Scott), star (Sigourney Weaver), and the studio in which it originated (Fox). And indeed, Alien turned out to be a seminal picture in launching not only the Alien film series, but a whole new type of film, a hybrid of sci-fi, horror, and action, blending the conventions of different genres.
American Cinema: A Cyclical History takes as its organizational principle the decade approach.
Below please find a detailed Table of Contents, divided into nine chapters, each devoted to one decade, from 1919 to 2019.
Table of Contents
Part One: 1930s (1929-1939)
Chapter 1: Crime-Gangster Cycle, 1930-1934
Key Films:
Little Caesar, The Public Enemy, Scarface
Chapter 2: Depression Era Musicals, 1933-1936
Key Films:
42 Street, Gold Diggers of 1933 (and its sequels)
Part Two: 1940 (1941-1949)
Chapter 3: First Cycle of Film Noir
Key Films:
The Maltese Falcon (1941), High Sierra (1941), both starring Humphrey Bogart
Double Indemnity (1944)
Chapter 4: Second Cycle of Film Noir
Key Films:
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Out of the Past (1947)
Part Three: 1950s
Chapter 5: Sci-Fi Film Cycle
Key Films:
The Thing
A cycle of movies, dealing with the notion of mutation size, manifest in disastrous dislocations in size, dwelling on giant scorpions, claw monsters, spiders, ants.
Chapter 6: Historical Epics—Old Testament, 1949
This cycle is ofen described as “Sand and Sandals” movies, shot in Widescreen, CinemaScope, and made by most movies in order to compete with the fast rise of TV as a rivaling medium.
Key Films:
The Robe (Fox)
Quo Vadis (MGM)
Samson and Delilah (Paramount)
Salome (Columbia)
Ben-Hur (1959) end of cycle
Chapter 7: Juvenile Delinquency Cycle
Key Films:
The Wild One (1953)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Part Four: 1960s
Chapter 8: First Gay and Lesbian Cycle, 1961-1962
Chapter 9: Beach Party Cycle, 1964
Part Five: 1970s
Chapter 10: Second Gay Cycle, 1967-1971
Key Films:
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Chapter 11: Disaster Films
Key Films:
Airport (1970)
Poseidon Adventure (1972)
Earthquake
Towering Inferno
Airplane (spoof)
The Swarm (1978)
The Meteor (1979)
Dante’s Peak
Twister
The Perfect Storm
Deep Impact
Into the Storm
Chapter 12: Conspiracy Film Cycle (Paranoia Films), 1971-1976
Key Films:
The cycle ends with All the President’s Men (1976)
Part Six: 1980s (1979-1989)
Chapter 13: Sci-Fi Cycle, 1977-1988
Key Films
Star Wars
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Chapter 14: Sci-Fi Horror Cycle
Key films:
Alien (1979)
Chapter 15: Yuppie Film Cycle: Male-Dominated Films
Key Films:
After Hours (1985)
Something Wild (1986)
Privileged high-living youngsters became entrepreneurial heroes of l980s conservative apologists.
In popular culture, they were being upgraded as unable to cope without the possessions or outside of their haunts.
The yuppie-vamp-from hell formula reaches its nadir with The Temp (1993)
Chapter 16: Yuppie thrillers–Female Dominated
Key Films: Jagged Edge (1985)
Consenting Adults
Crush
Fatal Attraction
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
Pacific Heights 1988
Single White Female 1993
The Temp 1993
Unlawful Entry
Yuppie Movies:
Key Films
After Hours
Desperately Seeking Susan
Ghost
Into the Night
Lost in America
The Money Pit
Risky Business
Something Wild
Trading Places
Wall Street
Part Seven: 1990s
Chapter 17: Darkly Comic Crime (Tarantino Effect)
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
The Usual Suspect
Part Eight: 2000-2009
Chapter 18:
Part Nine: 2010-Present
Chapter 19: Comic Strip Adventure
Big Budget, ensemble-driven, special Effects Spectacles
Key Films:
The Avengers (and sequels)
Conclusion
Appendices
