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Murder in the First & Higher Learning

In the 1970s, film historian Gerald Mast wrote,

The majority of filmgoers. . . are under thirty, educated, and live in the cities. Hollywood aims its films at their values, their interests, their styles, using their themes, their music, their moral codes. . . The new movie audiences have rejected not only the old Hollywood values but the Hollywood studios as well.

This statement has to be taken as a general assessment of the Hollywood system of production as a whole, for there are many films that do not fit this prescription, while in the main the studios naturally do tailor their product to fit the values of the audience they are trying to attract. This has not changed, and the nature of the audience as well remains in the same general age group, primarily urban, and more male than female. The types of movies that are made to a large degree reflect the values of this audience, though there are exceptions in films appealing to different age groups or more specific age groups (i.e., children under 12). A discussion of two recent films will show how the studios appeal to this audience, though a look at only two movies is limited in that there are wide variations across the spectrum of all films produced. In trying to reach this audience, every aspect of the film becomes an element in the shaping of a certain value-system, including the shaping of the story, the casting, editing and music, and the direction. This idea applies to a type of personal drama that appeals to audiences today and has a different dynamic in terms of action films, science fiction films, and the like.

At first glance, Murder in the First and Higher Learning appear to be very different films shaped by very different sensibilities, and this is true in terms of overt subject matter and the personalities of the directors of each. In a larger sense, though, the two films do reflect certain attitudes toward the audience, attitudes which have come to domi...

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Murder in the First & Higher Learning. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 09:55, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701661.html