The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Movies
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Welcome to the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Movies, an attempt to cram everything you know about motion pictures and a few things you don't all onto one page. Quite a monumental task if we do say so ourselves, and we do. So let's get right to it.
The word "movie" is actually a bastardization of the phrase "motion picture" which almost makes the definition of a movie rather self-explanatory. A movie is a two dimensional picture that is projected onto a large white canvas (called a screen) and moves on the screen to give the illusion of three dimensional movement.
This is traditionally done with the use of a form of photographic film called celluloid1 that is rapidly passed across the light projector, showing scores of frames per second. Each frame is a separate cell on the long strip of film, and the number of frames coupled with the speed at which they are run across the projected light work together to create the illusion of motion on the resulting picture.
At least, that's the way it has been pretty much since over a century ago. More recently, digital technology and advances in computers are rapidly changing how we receive films, and in what form.
A more commonly accepted definition for a movie is a visual/audio presentation that takes approximately ninety minutes to two hours to see, and at one time or another is shown in theaters designed to show such films. Other visual/audio presentations fit can be compared to movies but are called other things. For example, television shows have at times been recorded on celluloid, but such things as sitcoms and hour-long dramas are not generally considered full-length films or movies.
In the 1880s, french physician E. J. Marey made the first known motion pictures. Thomas Edison invented the Kinetoscope about a decade later which increased interest in the concept and by 1905 the first "nickelodeon" or early movie theater appeared in Pittsburg. By the way, Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope was initially used predominantly to show "peep shows" where women undressed and did arousing things in front of the camera. Smut has been a part of film pretty much ever since there has been film to put smut on.
Movies didn't start as "talkies." I mean originally all movies were silent, and there'd be a guy in the theater who played the piano while the film played. Filmmakers also broke up the action of the film with dialogue written out in white letters on black backgrounds. This was so viewers would actually know what was going on. Unfortunately it generally meant you needed to know how to read in order to know what was going on. Illiterate people still enjoyed the movie though. Remember, this was new in these days. A hundred years ago books were the predominant form of storytelling entertainment. Just watching a picture moving on the wall was pretty exciting, with or without the obnoxious guy with the piano. Also, movies were originally in black and white. Color didn't come around until around the 1950s.
Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin were two of the first celebrities to become popular during the early teens and twenties of the 20th century, and their slapstick comedy still entertains people even today. Most talent for early films came from stage shows known as burlesque, but when talking films came along, many silent film stars lost their popularity. For example, Charlie Chaplin had a very thick accent and some people couldn't understand him, and his physical style of comedy didn't lend to talking very well.
The first talking film was Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer" in 1927. Both artistically and commercially, cinema evolved and grew together. Then by World War Two, television began to be more successful and the film industry was already discovering a loss of money in comparison, so by the 1950s it branched out into color films and 3D formats which kept it different enough from TV to keep people coming back to the theaters. At least until 1954 when television started going color.
Drive-In movie theaters used to be real popular. You and your family could drive out to a glorified parking lot with a big silver screen and a speaker that you could hang over your window. However only night time shows were feasible because the sun tended to cause a bit of a glare on the screen. In the 1970s and 80s, drive-in movie theaters began to lose popularity.
Generally, television was five or ten years behind theater in many areas of technology. However, the film industry had to keep experimenting and improving their technology in order to stay competitive. In 1976, dolby stereo was introduced in the theaters, and then in 1985 television began being broadcast in stereo, so many movie theaters turned to THX stereo, made popular with the help of George Lucas' The Empire Strikes Back and other films.
Today, movie theaters seem to be losing the battle against complex home entertainment systems with DVD players, cable, and high definition television. It's more comfortable for people to stay home and enjoy their favorite films less than a year after they come out on the silver screen. You always have a front seat, you can make your popcorn in a microwave oven, and you can pause the film if you need to take a quick trip to the restroom. The movie industry seems to be running out of tricks.
The online Internet Movie Database has an ongoing vote tabulation for the Top 250 Movies of all time. It's a popular vote that fluctuates over time, but gives a good idea what many people consider to be the best films. Personally I think it's slanted somehow, but then I'm in a minority: I think The Godfather royally sucked.
The U.S. Government created the National Film Preservation Board in 1988 in order to preserve certain films. Since 1989 this Board selects twenty-five films it feels deserves to withstand the test of time. This list of films is known as the National Film Registry and includes a wide selection of some of the best films ever made.
However, the argument over which films are the best is perpetually ongoing, and depends upon each individual's tastes. One man's Bonnie and Clyde is another's Harold and Maude. Some don't find Manchurian Candidate better than One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. And few agree with me that Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and Plan Nine From Outer Space deserve more and better recognition than The Sting or Amadeus. I also doubt you will ever see Jacob's Ladder in a top movies of all time list, although I personally found it to be one hell of a disturbing and well crafted film.
It's all a matter of taste. Subjectivity is king, which makes the film industry very volatile and unpredictable. Those with the money to invest in filmmaking are gamblers, and what they gamble on is whether or not whatever they make will happen to interest you at the time you choose whether or not to go see it.
Sounds to me the odds are better at winning the Lotto.
Motion pictures are simply too general of a category to truly do justice with merely one guide entry. Fellow field researchers have scoured the world from Hollywood to Tokyo to bring you everything you ever wanted to know about cinema but were afraid to ask! As we discover them, we hope to list all movie oriented pages here, so if you find a page in h2g2.com that you feel belongs here, please feel free to mention it in the available forum at the bottom of this guide entry.
Star Wars is one of the greatest films of all time. Directed by George Lucas, this will eventually be a six film series, possibly the most grandiose undertaking ever done in the realm of film.
Horror Films are a genre of moviemaking designed to make you scream and wet your pants. Everything from psychotic men with c-c-c-cutlery to demons possessing people to vampires and werewolves and aliens jumping out of people's stomachs - oh it's all here!
Saturday Matinees were all the rage in the first half of the 20th century. For what we'd consider to be spare change today, people could spend an afternoon viewing newsreels, serials, cartoons, and feature presentations - sometimes a double feature! Nowadays all we get is one movie and maybe a couple trailers.
Approved Guide Entries
Cinema Popcorn is that curious form of popcorn that is way expensive but some feel it a prerequisite to truly enjoying the movie theater experience. That mysterious butter oil they squirt on it though is no notorious, it almost deserves its own guide entry.
Janeane Garofalo started on the standup comedy circuit and is now a successful and vibrantly talented character actress.
MPAA Ratings System is a attempt by the Motion Picture Association of America to protect children from horrible things like nasty words and naked people.
Movies, Critics and other such things - The Philosopher for the General Universal MishMash tells it the way it is.
Blade - Darreny-Warreny takes a look at the film starring Wesley Snipes.
DVD Video - Jazzwire gives the rundown on the present and future of viewing movies at home.
Letterboxing - Jimmie Jazz explains why some videotapes leave you squinting.
Will Smith - Torgen describes this rap artist turned movie star.
B-Movies - WowbaggerTIP treats us to a discussion about those movies that will never win an Academy Award but are somehow in some ways more entertaining than the ones that do.
Danny Elfman - Hawley Smoot shares his love for the talent and music of a great modern day composer.
The Crow: City of Angels - Anonymouse reviews this sequel to the original tale about Eric Draven realized on film and brought to life by the now dead Brandon Lee.
Submitted Guide Entries
The Blair Witch Project - A list of pages that detail the little horror film that took the 1999 Summer Box Office by storm and made Hollywood stand up and take notice.
Other Pages
