The Influence of Cinema

The pre-war romantic ideal of boys and girls was to become a film star. Today, it is to ‘get on television’, or to lead a ‘pop’ group, or to make a best-selling record — perhaps even get it into the ‘top ten’. Such, perhaps, is the measure of the decline in influence and importance suffered by the cinema in its primary role, that of an entertainment medium. Today, in Britain and the USA, though not yet in Malaysia generally, a cinema queue is a rarity.

Far less film is produced nowadays in Hollywood and Britain than in the 1930s, the ‘golden years, and these belong to relatively few categories. Three-quarters of the cinemas in Britain have already closed down or gone over to ‘Bingo’ (a gambling game). a cynic tells the following story. A man rang up the local cinema manager and asked. “What time does the program start ?” The manager replied, “What time can you get here ?” The cinema is dying a lingering death in the West and the death blow has, of course, been dealt with by television. Why should people go out and pay for entertainment, when they can be entertained at home? The cinema industry admits the sense of this and now concentrates on producing film features, domestic serials, ‘Westerns’, hospitals, and law-serial dramas exclusively for the television screen.

What then is left for the cinema proper? Very little, but what there is, succeeds because of the present limitation of television. First of all, the long drama, the ‘epic’, usually on a biblical or classical theme, needs time, space on the ‘wide screen’, and color, while there is a limitation on the size of the television screen and the number of channels available. But, this is a transitional period and ultimately no films will be made for showing in cinema theaters. This assumes, of course, that enough people will be able to afford television sets! There will still be a long period during which poorer sections of the population will look to the cinema as their chief means of entertainment.

The experimental ‘theater’ of France and Italy has done much to turn cinema technique into an art form. ‘Epics’ are good, sometimes very good indeed, though often, they tend to lose their dramatic value through too much noise and movement. Provided such films only are seen, the cinema-goer can defend has habits, but he or she is open to criticism, if the film showing ex, or violence, or horror is preferred.

But the main charge against the cinema-goer is that he is wasting time which could better be spent in productive or creative activity. It is perfectly true that no student or any other ambitious person can afford the time to spend long hours at the cinema, and if he prefers to watch the worst type of films, there is a chance that he will carry some of the wrong ideas, if not actual violence and immorality, into his own life.

The cinema, all the same, properly used, is a legitimate means of relaxation. Moreover, there are certain advantages to be gained from intelligent and moderate cinema-going. As the medium is vision and sound, illiteracy is no barrier to learning, and the minds of many primitive people must have been immensely broadened by the cinema. Providing, it is not used for propaganda purposes, the cinema can also disseminate good social and moral, sometimes even religious ideas and ideals.

Much also can be learned from documentary films, whether shown in schools or in the cinema; films are valuable adjuncts to military training and in many advanced studies. the film is also a useful means not only of disseminating but also of recording the cultures of nations, often when such cultures, expressed in native dancing, folk arts and crafts, etc, are in danger of dying out through Westernization. The folk stories, the plays, and the dancing of the Indian, Malays, and Chinese cultures have been captured forever, and the films recording them will ultimately become historic documents.

Like any other means of communication, the cinema has been and will be debated from time to time. But at its best, the film is of value to the community, and the cinema, properly used, can be of positive value in the fields both of entertainment and education.