Over the years, students have continued to ask me one comparative question: Are as many good movies coming through the system these days as they did in yesteryear, during the Golden Age, or studio system (1930-1960).
Hollywood and New Technologies
As an industry, Hollywood had always fought against all the new technologies, no matter what they were: the transition from silent to sound, from black and white to color, radio, TV, Cable TV, Video Games, Home Video, Streaming.
But it has profited from all of the above technologies.
New Hollywood:
The quality of the good films is better, turning spectacular films through the magic of new production technologies.
More competitive
Increased industrial conflict
Greater diversity
Greater (more democratic) access to films as products
Hollywood has always been more effective, efficient, and comfortable as a dream factory, as a machine of making spectacular special (visual and sound) effects, which are self-referential, self-controlled, and ungrounded in real life.
Films based on comic strips are prime examples.
