The article Warner Brothers: ninety years of grit and greatness was published on April, 4 in 2013 by David Gritten.
Warner Bros today celebrates nine decades of individuality, big characters, and challenging realism on the big screen .
The author remembered that with the premiere of The Jazz Singer in New York City in 1927, the world of film changed. Starring Al Jolson, it launched the era of the “talkies”, and was the prototype of movies as we know them today: a synthesis of sound and vision.
The Jazz Singer was a film from Warner Bros, which had then been in existence for just four years – and that premiere was screened at the flagship Warner Bros cinema in Manhattan. For that event alone Warners, which today celebrates its 90th anniversary, would deserve a place in the pantheon of great Hollywood studios.
These films chimed resoundingly with the spirit of the times. They held up a mirror to Depression-era America, and appealed directly to ordinry people suffering financial troubles. These Warner Bros films developed a house style: urban settings, snappy dialogue and a brisk pace, with scripts and performances that never strayed into sentimentality.
As for the present situation, the author stated that even today, a distinctive film-maker like Christopher Nolan calls Warners home, and it’s hard to imagine him equally comfortable elsewhere. Of course, Warners’ output is as varied in quality as any other studio – but over 90 years it has created a legacy unlike any other in Hollywood.
I'd like to thank this wonderful website because it's full of such interesting and useful articles as this one. It was very interesting for me read and penetrated into it because i'm fond of cinema and news in this sphere are important for me.
Warner Bros today celebrates nine decades of individuality, big characters, and challenging realism on the big screen .
The author remembered that with the premiere of The Jazz Singer in New York City in 1927, the world of film changed. Starring Al Jolson, it launched the era of the “talkies”, and was the prototype of movies as we know them today: a synthesis of sound and vision.
The Jazz Singer was a film from Warner Bros, which had then been in existence for just four years – and that premiere was screened at the flagship Warner Bros cinema in Manhattan. For that event alone Warners, which today celebrates its 90th anniversary, would deserve a place in the pantheon of great Hollywood studios.
Yet over the years there have been so many more reasons to celebrate Warners.
It’s hard to believe now, when every Hollywood studio offers diversified
“product” in an attempt to be all things to all people, but there was a time
when they actively differentiated themselves from their rivals, specialising in
genres or styles. Disney meant animation, of course, while MGM was synonymous
with musicals.
Warner Bros made its mark with big-screen realism.
From the early Thirties, under the auspices of its brilliant young production
chief, Darryl F Zanuck, and his successor, Hal Wallis, it generated a cycle of
gangster films and crime dramas: in 1931 alone there was Little Caesar, starring
Edward G Robinson; The Public Enemy, starring James
Cagney; and Smart Money, which starred them both. These films chimed resoundingly with the spirit of the times. They held up a mirror to Depression-era America, and appealed directly to ordinry people suffering financial troubles. These Warner Bros films developed a house style: urban settings, snappy dialogue and a brisk pace, with scripts and performances that never strayed into sentimentality.
As for the present situation, the author stated that even today, a distinctive film-maker like Christopher Nolan calls Warners home, and it’s hard to imagine him equally comfortable elsewhere. Of course, Warners’ output is as varied in quality as any other studio – but over 90 years it has created a legacy unlike any other in Hollywood.
I'd like to thank this wonderful website because it's full of such interesting and useful articles as this one. It was very interesting for me read and penetrated into it because i'm fond of cinema and news in this sphere are important for me.
