Popular Culture of the early 1900's -In Film!

Today's cinema produces images and ideas that are sometimes too risque for the general public. Grossly, however, these films are not banned but instead labeled with the nefarious NC17 or X ratings, which imply that no children are allowed to see the film. A recent example of this comes from the 2011 release, Shame, which offered a critically praised lead performance by Michael Fassbender. What produces strong labeling often includes overtly sexual imagery such as graphic sex scenes, while over-the-top violence achieves much less restrictive labels such an R rating. Outright banning of a film is an extremely rare occurrence in the Western cinema world, and the reasons often involve lawsuits that result only in a film being delayed.

The reasons why modern films are provided NC17 ratings or are banned are only slightly different from the rationales utilized in the turn of the 20th Century. My previous post discussed how much popular culture had changed in the past 100 years, but this post illustrates how in some areas popular culture has not changed at all. 

Thomas Edison is the creator of film and two of his initial films were banned for being too sexual in nature! In 1896 Edison released the incredibly short and silent film, The Kiss. This film featured a couple having a short but sweet smooch. In 1900, Edison revisited the subject with Kissing. The image of two lovers partaking in a kiss was too much for the average Western eye and so the films were moth balled. In one shade of light, this is starkly different from today where film scenes with a sexual nature are much more graphic than this before they are moth balled or slapped with strict labels. In another shade of light, popular culture of today and yesterday are no different for it is the subject matter of intimacy between two people that is the mire of our society while images of violence are allowed and praised. In 1900, the most popular film was The Great Train Robbery, which was also crafted by Edison. From the title alone, this film has a much more violent theme than The Kiss or Kissing. 

I am not suggesting that violent films should be moth balled in replace of more sexual films. I personally enjoy action films and movies such as Pulp Fiction, A Clockwork Orange, and Taxi Driver are among my all time favorite films. However, I think it is instructive to consider what subjects our society restricts and to think of why these subjects over others are viewed in certain ways. By doing so, we as a society can understand ourselves better and come to more holistic conclusions on what direction our society should take in the future.

Documentary of the Arctic Resurfaces after 108 years!

Still from Trip to the Moon

A hundred years ago popular culture was much different than today's. This statement probably won't surprise anyone but I doubt that many people know what was popular 100 years ago. Looking back on what constituted popular culture forces me to think of what is considered popular culture today and how it will be viewed in the future. A hundred years ago popular culture was characterized by learning about foreign cultures and landscapes (to name but two), which are subjects found in famous pieces of literature such as Heart of Darkness and early films such as Trip to the Moon, which is a film presented within the recent wonderful film Hugo.

Early publicity image from the arctic.

In the mid to late 19th Century, film was just beginning. The beginnings of film are rooted in the public showing of photographs, which is something that has been featured in the recent AMC show Hell on Wheels with the two Irish brothers showing photos from home that are projected upon a screen. One of the more popular subjects for these screenings, and for the first silent movies, was images of the savages in exotic locales. The images that were captured during this time have been a rich resource for anthropologists and archaeologists in studying the life-ways of traditional cultures in areas such as South America, Africa, Polynesia, and the Canadian Arctic.

Illustration of the search for the Franklin Expedition.

The arctic, in particular, captured the popular imagination because of it's stark dissimilarity to the world in which Westerner's knew. This ice covered land that appeared to be uninhabitable was instead populated by thriving Inuit groups. This region was also important as a possible route for shipping as the Panama canal had yet to be built at this time. The exploits of Western explorers (think Shackelton and Franklin) became legendary and entranced Western audiences via newspaper articles, public lectures, and of course, newly created slide shows and later moving pictures.

Still from The Romance of the Far Fur Country

Recently, a documentary resurfaced from archives in England that dates to 1919! This silent film was entitled The Romance of the Far Fur Country. This is some of the earliest footage of the Canadian arctic and it seems from the BBC News story that the film is very romantic in nature, which is inline with many of the arctic documentaries of that era. The restored documentary will be shown in numerous arctic communities and hopefully will be made available online through the HBC archives, which is the company that originally financed the film. I recomend you see this film as it provides an idea of what once constituted popular culture and is also an excellent portal into how traditional cultures thrived in the Canadian arctic!