Hollywood: The Shock of Freedom in Films

Patrols at the Front
For all the new talent, new money and new freedom available, it is not certain that Hollywood can or will sustain the burden of living in a renaissance. Technical innovation does not in itself guarantee quality. There is some evidence already that the relaxation of censorship, for example, only replaces euphemistic cliches with crass clichés. Love scenes are not necessarily better because they are nuder. By getting closer to graffiti, movie dialogue does not necessarily get closer to the truth. (See the top 10 movie franchises that won't die.)

Nonetheless, the best directors and writers are aware that cinematic freedom is a privilege that involves responsibility. Says Italy's Pohtecorvo of today's filmmakers: "None of them knows where to go from here, exactly what the right direction is. They are searching, experimenting, feeling out here and there, like patrols at the front in war."

Those patrols have been annihilated before. For every bold, experimental foray there are bound to be many ambitious failures or cold, calculated imitations. Still, occasionally, one victory can change the world — or at least the part of it that produces films. Bonnie and Clyde is a conspicuous victory. It has proved to the industry that the "new movie" and "popular success" are not antithetical terms. Hollywood has sometimes acted as if money and art were incompatible. At worst, they can come together in a marriage of convenience. At best, they may even get to like each other.

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