In the following essay I have been asked to write a 2000 word essay discussing the main characteristic features of the classical Hollywood narrative film. This is a style of clarity where the viewer should not be confused about space, time, events or characters motivations and although a number of classical narrative traditions have been modified, or even rejected, this unfussy style of making movies it is still very much alive today and remains the dominant way of telling the story so it reaches a wider audience.During the course of my research I found appropriate information in many places.
The Balyfermot college resource room, as well as the local library, had a wide selection of helpful and informative books which aided me in finding the relevant notes needed for the essay. The Ballymun public library was also helpful as it had a small but effective supply of the necessary books. The public library in my home town, Castleblayney, also proved to be beneficial in acquiring the necessary information on the classical Hollywood system.Because of my research I now have good understanding of this subject and its various topics. Film scholars have long divided narrative fiction films into three stylistic categories: classical, realist, and formalist. In the following essay I intend to discuss in detail the characteristic features of the classical Hollywood narrative style of film making.
The narrative structure of this style and its known traits will be included as well the well known genres of the Western and film noir as examples of how it is utilized.The use of iconography as a means whereby visual motifs and style in films can be categorized and analyzed will additionally be included. The gender representation, in particular the representation of women, will also be integrated. References to various important directors of this era is also to be found and my opinions on their work. Classical narrative cinema refers to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production from the 1930’s to the 1960’s but which also pervaded mainstream western cinema.
This tradition is still present in mainstream or dominant cinema in some or all of its parts.Classical narrative is what Tom Wallis (Film: a critical introduction, Tom Wallis, 1) calls ‘excessively obvious cinema’ in which the cinematic style of the film will leave little or nothing to the imagination and nothing is left unfinished with all the loose ends eventually tied up. Unity is the key word here, the connections between cause and effect will always be direct and complete before the audience leaves the cinema. It will possesses a linear projectory which will generally be a beginning, a complication, a middle, another complication, and an ending.Another way of looking at this linear projectory is the form of ‘order/disorder/order-restored’.
The beginning of the film will establish an event which disrupts a seemingly harmonious order which in turn sets in motion a chain of events that are casually linked. At the end the disorder is resolved and order is once again in place. The chain of events constituting the story is governed by the motivations of the main characters. These are usually well rounded people with their own individual traits and motivations. An important aspect of the classical narrative is its constitution of the central character as a ‘hero’.In the case of the Western genre, John Wayne would be arguably the most iconic protagonist figure to this era.
All genres have their codes and conventions or ‘rules’ in which the narrative is managed. These are referred to as canons. Codes and conventions change over time and according to the social situation of the era. It is easy to compare John Wayne’s all American hero to that of Clint Eastwood’s anti-hero of the spaghetti Westerns. The plot in the classical Hollywood narrative structure is character lead, which means that the narrative is psychologically and therefore, individually motivated.
The will usually invite viewer identification, be active, and seek goals. A central protagonist figure needs a goal or a quest in the story. The achievement of this goal is the closure or the resolution. Classical narrative cinema, no matter what genre, must have closure or any of the ambiguity must be resolved. For example, in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho(Hitchcock,1960,US), the character of Norman Bates may still remain psychotic, but in terms of the narrative or plot-line he has been caught for his murderous crimes, so the closure is evident.Leading up to closure through the film is the cause and effect structure: one scene showing the cause while the following shows the effect.
The early Western films are sunomounous with classical structure. They are essentially about the myth about the foundations of modern America and they have many different sub-genres such as the frontier, the land grab, cowboys and Indians, the town tamer, cavalry westerns, and spegettie westerns. Indians are constantly depicted as savages or evil and make the cowboys seem normal which, in turn, justifies their relentless murdering of them.This is a fact that many critics have a problem with, but in my opinion they need a reminder that these are pieces of fiction and don’t represent American history.
Conflict is a necessity in these films, no conflict= no drama, and it comes in the form of the binary opposite between the East of America and the West. Cities already established In the East are presented to us as feminine and cultured places, contrasting with the ‘wild west’ . In director John Fords The searchers(Ford,1956,US) we see the iconic John Wayne star in a celebration of the spirt that vanished with the taming of the American wilderness.This is an indication of the system of the East taking hold and our heros evidently have no more sunset to ride off into. In the classical Hollywood style of filmmaking, the mise en scene, which is essentially everything that the audience sees, depicts an external world that sticks to the norms of ‘realism’ determinded by the conditions of the story. The film historian Susan Hayward insisted that ‘shots, lighting, and colour must not draw attention to themselves any more than the editing, the mise en scene or sound‘ (2).
As regards to the cinematography, it must, in my opinion, be unobtrusive. The style itself suffers if the audience is reminded they are watching a film. On occasions when a film does include visual distortions, there is almost always a narrative justification. In John Hustons film noir masterpiece The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941, US), the character of John Spade meets his nemisis and the image becomes blurry. This effect threatens to remind the audience they are viewing a film.
However, this is narrative motivated as we find out John has been drugged and we are viewing the film through his eyes for this particular shot. The style of film noir began it’s life in 1940 and ended by 1958. It is noted for its dark distinctive look and the narratives usually been about crime and sex. Their stunning black and white imagery and recognizable lighting seen the genre soar for almost two decades.
Classical Hollywood editing is also one that follows ‘rules’. It functions primarily to remove events that are not relavent to the plot and threaten to slow the pace of the film.Another known trait of the classical Hollywood narrative that is almost always apparent is the preference of dialouge over sounds which is understandable because it will carry the narrative forward in a more understandable way. The author Maria Prameggiore claims that ‘dialouge is audiable above all other sounds’(3). Music will serve to only reinforce meaning (danger, romance, etc.
). Iconography is a means of studying the meaning of a film and in the case the classical Hollywood narrative it is very distinct and repetitive.The iconography of the Western and film noir have their dress-codes and their ‘tools of the trade in the films astetics’(4). The horse, the sixshooter pistol, boots, waistcoat, (etc. ) for the Western genre; slick cars, flashy suits, modern attire, cigarette, (etc.
) for film noir. A character from a film noir movie will live in urban settings, mostly in really dark and enclosed environments and the action will mostly take place at night. In the Western the protagonist is mostly moving across vast plains or desert land, arriving in small towns as the town tamer, tying up his horse in front of a saloon.The differnce between the two genres in my opinion is that the Western almost never changes.
The iconography remains almost the same, even in Clint Eastwoods late Western films where there is an apparent effoert to inject some originality, such as Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992, US), it still dawns the same old cliches. Such as the story within a story. In the Western genre, woman represent an alternative to violence. They tend to speak of religion, family values, non-violence (etc. ). they are passive or inactive as opposed to the male characters, things happen to them and they make things happen.
Woman are shamelessly objectified and serve as ‘eye candy’ for the men. The classical system generally has two representations of women- the whore and the prostitute. The womens ‘guilt’ will be sealed by either punishment or salvation and the traditional endings which are made available to women in the classical Hollywood narrative are that the femme fatale character must either die or be imprisoned, this is to be seen Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho(Hitchcock,1960,US), or to marry, which can be seen in Hitchcock’s Marnie(Hitchcock,1964,US).The femme fatale characters are not passive, they are active, yet they are still objectified. They tend to do whatever they want and are willing to anything to achieve their goal, especially use their sexuality.
A film featuring a femme fatal character is usually a film noir movie that choose to go ‘against the grain’(5). This is seen Billy Wilders Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944, US). Barbra Stanwyck’s character is presented to us a manufactured product who reacts to murder with an unnatural calmness.With the representations of romantic love, the family, and male-female work relation, the classical Hollywood system has almost told us what is normal. In short, ‘the classical Hollywood style has attempts to guarentee that at any moment in a movie, audience is to be given the optimum vantage point on what is occurring on screen‘(6). The perspective it creates is so ideal that audiences forget they are watching a carefully orchestrated fictional representation.
Some critics call the classical style escapist because it creates the illusion of stories unfolding in real space and time and takes audiences away from their own lives.The most impressive aspect to the classical Hollywood narrative, in my opinion, is the fact that the various elements of film art (including lighting, editing, and sound) do not call attention to themselves as aesthetic devices: instead they contribute unobtrusively to the smooth flow of the story. The conclusive goal of classical Hollywood cinema is to invite viewers to become part of the story, not remind them that they are watching a film. Most commercial releases adopt a classical style today, seeking to entertain the masses by immersing them in a fictional world.
