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The Movies That Changed Us: Reflections on the Screen
There are movies we love, but only one movie in a thousand actually changes the way we live, the way we look at life, or the way we define entertainment. Broadcast journalist Nick Clooney, best known as the silver-haired movie host on the cable channel American Movie Classics, has selected twenty movies that changed us, some for the better, some for the worse. He starts with the recent Saving Private Ryan, a movie that changed the way people across the world view the American generation that fought World War Two; Star Wars, a motion picture so important that a missile defense system was named for it; and The Birth of a Nation, not only the first film to be hailed as the artistic equivalent to opera, literature, and painting, but also the first film to give a cloak of respectability to racial prejudice. Clooney's debate-starting distinctions will engage, delight, and challenge everyone who loves Did Taxi Driver change the way we view individual violence? Did The Graduate change the way we view romance? Did Dr. Strangelove change the way we contemplate mass destruction? Did The Best Years of Our Lives alter our behavior toward veterans? And did Triumph of the Will almost help the Nazis win the war? Clooney ends with an epilogue on "The Movie That Never Was": the film that could have spurred the civil rights movement if only it had been made. "Sports changed things, the military changed things, and eventually the federal government changed things," Clooney writes, but in the matter of race, he concludes, the movies changed nothing. Thought-provoking, entertaining, and compulsively readable, The Movies That Changed Us will delight film fans of every generation.
- GenresNonfictionFilm
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 5, 2011
This was a wonderfully compelling read. Here, Clooney chronicles several movies that he feels have significantly altered the American point of view, some even to the point of directing public policy. He eschews the obvious except where it's unavoidable (eg. The Jazz Singer, the "talkie" which revolutionized entertainment forever), choosing to showcase titles which had unique influence but may have been eclipsed by later films that could never have existed without these pioneers.
Clooney starts chapters with a point that may not at first be clear, then gives fascinating background encompassing the history, politics, sociology and science leading to the movie in question--both in terms of the larger society as well as Hollywood's own insular world. After building the framework out of tangents, ala James Burke, he ties it all together into a cohesive structure. He writes in a gentlemanly, cogent fashion that is a pleasure to study.
Clooney starts chapters with a point that may not at first be clear, then gives fascinating background encompassing the history, politics, sociology and science leading to the movie in question--both in terms of the larger society as well as Hollywood's own insular world. After building the framework out of tangents, ala James Burke, he ties it all together into a cohesive structure. He writes in a gentlemanly, cogent fashion that is a pleasure to study.
January 3, 2024
Interestingly idiosyncratic take on culturally-significant movies. This works best as a tour of movies for someone (like me) who learns a lot about movie history by watching movie-channel intros to significant films. I enjoyed reading about lesser-known movies and why they were so significant, and enjoyed the occasional, unusual interviews with stars like Eddie Bracken about their movies and directors. Clooney has a definite "Greatest Generation" interest in the view of war (generally, WWII) as represented in movies like Saving Private Ryan and The Best Years of Our Lives, which is also intriguing and edifying, if not always fair to pacifists or the young. You feel he has the luxury to pick the movies and changes he likes and the time to share what he most likes about them, if not the interest in cutting too deep.
This is most unsatisfying in his discussion of race. Clooney's back-to-front chronological design ends up with Birth of a Nation instead of beginning with it. This is perhaps so he can write the last chapter about how there's never been a significant black-made (or black-focused) movie that made a sizeable difference in U.S. race relations. While I agree that the U.S. has a million miles to go and there's a lot that hasn't been said, there have been many movies that cut deeper or point at change more than Clooney seems to think. How about a chapter on Shaft, or Do the Right Thing? Gordon Parks and Spike Lee seem like filmmakers one would want to know about (and yes, this book came out a while ago--2002--but not so long ago that DTRT [1989] or Shaft [1971] wouldn't fit). Maybe forget about Boys Town?
This is most unsatisfying in his discussion of race. Clooney's back-to-front chronological design ends up with Birth of a Nation instead of beginning with it. This is perhaps so he can write the last chapter about how there's never been a significant black-made (or black-focused) movie that made a sizeable difference in U.S. race relations. While I agree that the U.S. has a million miles to go and there's a lot that hasn't been said, there have been many movies that cut deeper or point at change more than Clooney seems to think. How about a chapter on Shaft, or Do the Right Thing? Gordon Parks and Spike Lee seem like filmmakers one would want to know about (and yes, this book came out a while ago--2002--but not so long ago that DTRT [1989] or Shaft [1971] wouldn't fit). Maybe forget about Boys Town?
August 30, 2010
Nick Clooney (Rosemary's brother, George's dad), has had a long career in broadcasting. He has been a radio and television personality since the 1960's, working in various markets. He has spent most of his time on the air in Cincinnati, handling everything from a local morning show to news director and anchor, most notably at WKRC-TV. He has written a column for the Cincinnati Post and, during the early 1990's, was a familiar face on the AMC television channel (along with Bob Dorian) as a presenter of films. This was when AMC actually lived up to its name, as a source of rare and meaningful movie classics. Don't get me started.
Nick ran for the Kentucky 4th Congressional District in 2004, and lost. He has been a determined activist for Darfur since he made a film documentary in Sudan with George in 2006. Since 2008, he has been Distinguished Journalist in Residence at American University in Washington. Most lately he has taught a course there titled "The Movies That Changed Us."
Clooney's presentations on AMC always showed insight derived from serious research into the backgrounds of the titles shown, and his book reflects that dedication to detail. He has chosen twenty titles, from the silent era to 1998. This is not a gossip book or a discussion of the films that were most thrilling in his view. The titles were chosen for their impact on our lives then, and now. That's why some famous titles are not included, especially "Citizen Kane", which Clooney freely admits warrants respect for being possibly the most perfectly produced film of all time, but it did not change anything.
Nick's self-imposed challenge therefore is to create a list of significant films and prove his case for their worthiness. He accomplishes this with a viewpoint that clearly makes his case while providing a wealth of background information on writers, directors and actors. His writing style holds your interest while you digest the reasons why each film's importance goes far beyond its entertainment value.
The most recent film in the 2002 book edition is "Saving Private Ryan" from 1998. As Clooney says, Director Steven Spielberg filmed one of the most ever harrowing battle sequences in the first twenty minutes of the movie. Beyond the film's can't-take-your-eyes-off visual style, Spielberg made something that changed the way people, especially non-Americans, remember the American generation that fought World War II.
Numerous social issues were broached to wide audiences, and spurred continued debate, by the titles in the book. "On the Waterfront", 1954, covered labor issues; "The Snake Pit", 1948, took a hard look at mental illness and its treatment; "Dr. Strangelove", 1964, was the first film to seriously challenge the military-industrial establishment's role in arming the world for World War III.
"Taxi Driver", 1976, influenced a would-be assassin to shoot President Ronald Reagan. "The Graduate", 1967, changed the way romantic comedies were made, with its use of a non-glamorous male star and its premise based on a sexual relationship. Two other vehicles had profound influence on Hollywood's production values. "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek", 1944, starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, was unfamiliar to me. Remember, this movie came out when "Abbott and Costello" was the norm for comedy. How to explain, then, a major studio film about a young girl who sneaks out of the house to date soldiers and ends up pregnant with sextuplets? Clooney points out that this movie broke about all of the rules of the prevailing Hays Code which held tight control over movie content for decades, until 1966. This film slipped by the censor primarily because it was directed by Preston Sturges, who, at this time, could do no wrong. As Clooney says, Sturges' career at this time was like a comet crossing the Hollywood sky (soon to burn out). This film started an erosion which ultimately led to the abandonment of the Code, but the change proceeded at glacial pace. In 1966, the door was finally slammed, and nailed shut, on the Hayes office by Clooney's fifth entry, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
The last of Clooney's entries, presented in reverse chronological order, and in many ways still the most troubling, is D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation", from 1915. Most film buffs alive today have probably never seen this film. Clips of it are sometimes shown on cable movie channels or documentaries on race relations, and the ones I've seen clearly illuminate Clooney's critique. This has been described as a motion picture masterpiece, filmed by the greatest director of the silent era. Griffith filmed the longest, most expensive movie to date, with a background rooted in the American Civil War. Many scenes, including Civil War battle sequences, were the most realistic produced to date. Griffith deserved all of the accolades he has received for his ambitious production values. The problem with the film, however, is that it was based on a book written by Reverend Thomas Dixon Jr. of North Carolina titled "The Clansman." This book, and resulting production, were based on Dixon's, and Griffith's desire to foist their versions of American revisionist history upon the public. In this historical view, the South was the victim, not the perpetrator of the Civil War, and continued to be victimized by the blacks who were left to wander about the countryside to rob and rape decent white folks. One scene which enraged viewing audiences involved a black villain stalking a white woman to rape her, and causing her to commit suicide. The "black" actor, as with all who appeared in this film, was actually a white actor in black face. The heroes of the film wear Ku Klux Klan robes while riding horses in the countryside at night, righting wrongs perpetrated by blacks against whites.
The effect of this film on the way Americans looked at race, and on the way Hollywood would continue to portray race relations for decades, was immense. Clooney attributes the national resurgence of the Klan in the 1920's, after its membership had grown dormant at the end of the 1900's, on the racial messages perpetrated by this film.
These, and many other essays are the basis of thought-provoking discussions of some of Hollywood's most famous motion pictures.
Nick ran for the Kentucky 4th Congressional District in 2004, and lost. He has been a determined activist for Darfur since he made a film documentary in Sudan with George in 2006. Since 2008, he has been Distinguished Journalist in Residence at American University in Washington. Most lately he has taught a course there titled "The Movies That Changed Us."
Clooney's presentations on AMC always showed insight derived from serious research into the backgrounds of the titles shown, and his book reflects that dedication to detail. He has chosen twenty titles, from the silent era to 1998. This is not a gossip book or a discussion of the films that were most thrilling in his view. The titles were chosen for their impact on our lives then, and now. That's why some famous titles are not included, especially "Citizen Kane", which Clooney freely admits warrants respect for being possibly the most perfectly produced film of all time, but it did not change anything.
Nick's self-imposed challenge therefore is to create a list of significant films and prove his case for their worthiness. He accomplishes this with a viewpoint that clearly makes his case while providing a wealth of background information on writers, directors and actors. His writing style holds your interest while you digest the reasons why each film's importance goes far beyond its entertainment value.
The most recent film in the 2002 book edition is "Saving Private Ryan" from 1998. As Clooney says, Director Steven Spielberg filmed one of the most ever harrowing battle sequences in the first twenty minutes of the movie. Beyond the film's can't-take-your-eyes-off visual style, Spielberg made something that changed the way people, especially non-Americans, remember the American generation that fought World War II.
Numerous social issues were broached to wide audiences, and spurred continued debate, by the titles in the book. "On the Waterfront", 1954, covered labor issues; "The Snake Pit", 1948, took a hard look at mental illness and its treatment; "Dr. Strangelove", 1964, was the first film to seriously challenge the military-industrial establishment's role in arming the world for World War III.
"Taxi Driver", 1976, influenced a would-be assassin to shoot President Ronald Reagan. "The Graduate", 1967, changed the way romantic comedies were made, with its use of a non-glamorous male star and its premise based on a sexual relationship. Two other vehicles had profound influence on Hollywood's production values. "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek", 1944, starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, was unfamiliar to me. Remember, this movie came out when "Abbott and Costello" was the norm for comedy. How to explain, then, a major studio film about a young girl who sneaks out of the house to date soldiers and ends up pregnant with sextuplets? Clooney points out that this movie broke about all of the rules of the prevailing Hays Code which held tight control over movie content for decades, until 1966. This film slipped by the censor primarily because it was directed by Preston Sturges, who, at this time, could do no wrong. As Clooney says, Sturges' career at this time was like a comet crossing the Hollywood sky (soon to burn out). This film started an erosion which ultimately led to the abandonment of the Code, but the change proceeded at glacial pace. In 1966, the door was finally slammed, and nailed shut, on the Hayes office by Clooney's fifth entry, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
The last of Clooney's entries, presented in reverse chronological order, and in many ways still the most troubling, is D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation", from 1915. Most film buffs alive today have probably never seen this film. Clips of it are sometimes shown on cable movie channels or documentaries on race relations, and the ones I've seen clearly illuminate Clooney's critique. This has been described as a motion picture masterpiece, filmed by the greatest director of the silent era. Griffith filmed the longest, most expensive movie to date, with a background rooted in the American Civil War. Many scenes, including Civil War battle sequences, were the most realistic produced to date. Griffith deserved all of the accolades he has received for his ambitious production values. The problem with the film, however, is that it was based on a book written by Reverend Thomas Dixon Jr. of North Carolina titled "The Clansman." This book, and resulting production, were based on Dixon's, and Griffith's desire to foist their versions of American revisionist history upon the public. In this historical view, the South was the victim, not the perpetrator of the Civil War, and continued to be victimized by the blacks who were left to wander about the countryside to rob and rape decent white folks. One scene which enraged viewing audiences involved a black villain stalking a white woman to rape her, and causing her to commit suicide. The "black" actor, as with all who appeared in this film, was actually a white actor in black face. The heroes of the film wear Ku Klux Klan robes while riding horses in the countryside at night, righting wrongs perpetrated by blacks against whites.
The effect of this film on the way Americans looked at race, and on the way Hollywood would continue to portray race relations for decades, was immense. Clooney attributes the national resurgence of the Klan in the 1920's, after its membership had grown dormant at the end of the 1900's, on the racial messages perpetrated by this film.
These, and many other essays are the basis of thought-provoking discussions of some of Hollywood's most famous motion pictures.
April 17, 2019
I loved this book. It's fascinating and well-written (I found only one typo!). Clooney gives a great deal of information about each movie that he deems ground-breaking in some way, from "Saving Private Ryan" to "Birth of a Nation," as well as background info about the studios, actors, and what was going on in society and politics at the time. Each section deals with a different movie, so you can read just a chapter or two at a time.
November 14, 2019
A must-read for all cinephiles. Nick Clooney makes a strong case for movies that changed our lives and culture since the motion film industry began. An interesting and diverse list of films is explored. This book is a compelling read especially the backstory behind the movie and its cast and crew.
July 24, 2012
As many already know, Nick Clooney is a longtime newspaper columnist, AMC commentator, father of George Clooney and brother of singer Rosemary Clooney. His personal history spans many views: that of movie business insider, through sister Rosemary, her family and friends, and outsider, one who still lives near his hometown in Kentucky; of unabashed movie fan and movie critic; of Depression era baby and World War II child; and of adulthood from the Cold War to 9/11. His unique perspective makes the essays in The Movies That Changed Us: Reflections on the Screen more evocative and thoughtful as a result.
As Mr. Clooney reminds us in his introduction, movies, or "the pictures" as old timers called them and Ron Howard still refers to them, were the dominant form of entertainment for 40 years. That this domination was overwhelming is revealed through Clooney's presentation of industry attendance figures. In the primarily silent film era of the 1920's, 31% of all men, women and children in the U.S. went to the movies weekly. However, during the Depression of the 1930's, 73% of all men, women and children went to see a movie or two (aka double feature) every week. According to my late father, one of the horde of young fans at Saturday matinees, most movie theaters charged a nickel for children or a dime for adults, less than a ride on the bus or subway and the Saturday matinee consisted of a newsreel, a cartoon or two, a short serial and two movies.
Additionally, during those years there were multiple movie theaters in every city and at least one in almost every county in the U.S. Later the high attendance figures dropped off to 60% during the 1940's, 40% during the 1950's and 25% in the 1960's when television became the primary entertainment of the nation. Today only about 8% of the U.S. population is entertained in movie theaters, the video game business has far surpassed movies as entertainment since the mid 1990's. I do wish that Mr. Clooney had provided some citations for the figures but I've read similar ones in other books on film so tend to deem them reliable.
This entertainment juggernaut called the movies, still relatively new in the '30's compared to other entertainment vehicles and much more democratic, also influenced the minds of its patrons but usually not with any direct purpose. This dearth of controversial material enabled conforming to the 1935 movie code much easier. Readers will see a vast difference between pre-Code and post-Code films should they be fortunate enough to view any. However,to paraphrase Frank Zappa, movie makers were "only in it for the money" not to change the world, and thus tended to avoid social issues in drama leaving them to be deflected through comedy.
Nevertheless, movies about social issues that impacted society in general, or the movie business specifically, were made and those chosen by Mr. Clooney aptly support the thesis of his book. He makes solid arguments for these films and thoroughly understands and shares the historical context in which they were made. Although I don't agree with him on every film (specifically Miracle at Morgan's Creek), I wouldn't argue against his choices.
Mr. Clooney, as one would expect, is an excellent, easy to read writer who, unexpectedly to me, is also a passionate writer. As this reader moved back in time from 1998 and Saving Private Ryan to 1915 and Birth of a Nation, it seemed that Mr. Clooney became more fully engaged with his subjects. The essays on Triumph of the Will, The Big Parade, Birth of a Nation and "The Movie That Never Was" provide a singular historical insight to one form of popular culture in a twentieth century world that's disappeared. Many thanks to Mr. Clooney for the excellent job he does preserving it for us.
As Mr. Clooney reminds us in his introduction, movies, or "the pictures" as old timers called them and Ron Howard still refers to them, were the dominant form of entertainment for 40 years. That this domination was overwhelming is revealed through Clooney's presentation of industry attendance figures. In the primarily silent film era of the 1920's, 31% of all men, women and children in the U.S. went to the movies weekly. However, during the Depression of the 1930's, 73% of all men, women and children went to see a movie or two (aka double feature) every week. According to my late father, one of the horde of young fans at Saturday matinees, most movie theaters charged a nickel for children or a dime for adults, less than a ride on the bus or subway and the Saturday matinee consisted of a newsreel, a cartoon or two, a short serial and two movies.
Additionally, during those years there were multiple movie theaters in every city and at least one in almost every county in the U.S. Later the high attendance figures dropped off to 60% during the 1940's, 40% during the 1950's and 25% in the 1960's when television became the primary entertainment of the nation. Today only about 8% of the U.S. population is entertained in movie theaters, the video game business has far surpassed movies as entertainment since the mid 1990's. I do wish that Mr. Clooney had provided some citations for the figures but I've read similar ones in other books on film so tend to deem them reliable.
This entertainment juggernaut called the movies, still relatively new in the '30's compared to other entertainment vehicles and much more democratic, also influenced the minds of its patrons but usually not with any direct purpose. This dearth of controversial material enabled conforming to the 1935 movie code much easier. Readers will see a vast difference between pre-Code and post-Code films should they be fortunate enough to view any. However,to paraphrase Frank Zappa, movie makers were "only in it for the money" not to change the world, and thus tended to avoid social issues in drama leaving them to be deflected through comedy.
Nevertheless, movies about social issues that impacted society in general, or the movie business specifically, were made and those chosen by Mr. Clooney aptly support the thesis of his book. He makes solid arguments for these films and thoroughly understands and shares the historical context in which they were made. Although I don't agree with him on every film (specifically Miracle at Morgan's Creek), I wouldn't argue against his choices.
Mr. Clooney, as one would expect, is an excellent, easy to read writer who, unexpectedly to me, is also a passionate writer. As this reader moved back in time from 1998 and Saving Private Ryan to 1915 and Birth of a Nation, it seemed that Mr. Clooney became more fully engaged with his subjects. The essays on Triumph of the Will, The Big Parade, Birth of a Nation and "The Movie That Never Was" provide a singular historical insight to one form of popular culture in a twentieth century world that's disappeared. Many thanks to Mr. Clooney for the excellent job he does preserving it for us.
June 7, 2009
"The Movies That Changed Us" picks out great movies that became cultural touchstones through much of the 20th century. In particular, it turned me on to "The Best Years of Our Lives," which follows a handful of veterans through the stark realities of postwar America. Clooney also laments the dominance of special effects in movies since "Star Wars" and the decline of the motion picture as a cultural change agent in America.
May 4, 2015
This is a fascinating study of how key films have effected our lives and the history of our country. There were some that moved us forward and others that set us back like "Birth of a Nation". The contribution of a full length movie that tells a story was great but the story it told distorted our history and how we saw each other for generations. How painful.
I am grateful to Nick Clooney for sharing this history with us.
I am grateful to Nick Clooney for sharing this history with us.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews