For this next task I have decided to look at United Stats of America in 1991 and focus on Cinema. In 1991 I was seven so its interesting for me to look back and see what I can remember from this time period. I was looking at British Cinema at this point of time , however British Cinema really doesn’t start to flourish in my opinion until the late 90’s. Looking in to the films coming out in America there is a lot more to talk about , In 1991 this was the year of the release of some great films.
Heres a list of sum of the films in the cinema in 1991 in America.
- Terminator 2: Judgement day(Cameron,1991)
- The Silence of the Lambs(Demme,1991)
- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves(Reynolds,1991)
- The Addams Family(Sonnenfeld,1991)
- Point Break(Bigelow,1991)
The list of films above are some of the most groundbreaking films in history.
Terminator 2 :Judgement Day
One film that I would especially like to talk about is Terminator 2: Judgement day(Cameron,1991)as this is not only a great film it also featured great technological advances
( T-1000 Regenerates above )(Googleimages,2014) using visual effects that still look great today.
“This film won the year’s Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects, defeating Backdraft (1991) and Hook (1991).
Terminator 2 was the first mainstream blockbuster movie with multiple morphing effects and simulated natural human motion and realistic movements for a major CG character. It was the first film to use ‘personal’ computers to create its special effects.
The lethal, liquid-metal, chrome T-1000 cyborg terminator (Robert Patrick) was the first computer graphic-generated main character to be used in a film. This was the first major instance of a CG character in a film since Young Sherlock Holmes (1985). He was capable of ‘morphing’ into any person or object. The liquifying-solidifying robot’s humanoid texture was layered onto a CG model to create the effect. Over 300 special effects shots made up 16 minutes of the film’s running time.”(Filmsite.org.2014)
Not only doing great things visually in American Cinema but also creating films that would have huge cult followings , for example Point Break(Bigelow.1991) is a classic film with a cult following . Then we have Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Reynolds.1991)a film that I personally remember from my childhood , mainly for the Bryan Adams rendition of ‘Everything I do’ (Adams ,1991)which topped the english charts for a whopping sixteen weeks. The movie did well globally as well and was one of the biggest grossing films of that year along side Terminator 2:Judgement Day ( Cameron,1991).
With this being said this was the direction of American Cinema and these types of films were there mainstream approach, these films were a great addition at cinemas all over the world. But What countries challenged American Cinema at this period of time?
When we talk about quantity the only countries that really rival The United States of America are as follows: Bollywood, Hong Kong and Australia. They all produced high volumes of films in 1991, that doesn’t mean they produced the same quality films that I discussed earlier in this post. I’m obviously not saying they are not good films i would just have to sit and watch them. From reputation I haven’t heard of most of them.
I think this is an area of time where there wasn’t a great deal of competition from around the globe. United kingdom were just about to come in to there cinema and United States of America were still rolling out great pictures after the 80s which was a big era for film.
You could say that the 80’s as a period of great success in cinema may of been hanging over the shoulder of Filmmakers in the early Nineties , it may have been considered a hinderance or burden to them.The quality of film continued though , i still get the feeling it may have been an issue. In fact it just made film keep up a great standard you can see from the list of released films that year and thats only a handful of films theres some other gems in there that I haven’t mentioned to.
This era of cinema in 1991 is just before even more great films that are about to come out such as Jurassic Park(Spielberg,1993). I think thats maybe its biggest weakness is that America needed to continue it’s motion from the success of the 80s and keep the films original, while progressing in to a more digital age in Cinema .
Adams.B.(1991) Everything I do
Bigelow.K. (1991) Point Break . United States of America.Japan. JVC Entertainment Networks.Largo Entertainment.
Cameron.J. (1991) Terminator 2:Judgment Day. United States Of America. Carolco Pictures. Lightstorm Entertainment. Pacific Western.
Demme.J.(1991) The Silence of the Lambs. United States of America. Strong Heart/Demme Production.Orion Pictures.
Filmsite.org, (2014). Visual and Special Effects Film Milestones. [online] Available at: http://www.filmsite.org/visualeffects14.html [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].
Googleimages, (2014). [image] Available at: http://tudor3x8films.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/terminator-2-judgment-day.html [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].
Reynolds.K.(1991) Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. United States of America.Warner Bros. Morgan Creek Productions.
Sonnenfeld.B(1991) The Addams Family. United States of America. Orion Pictures.Paramount Pictures. Scott Rudin Productions.
Spielberg.S. (1993) Jurassic Park. United States of America. Universal Pictures. Amblin Entertainment.
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