![\"Stoves\"](\"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/inquirer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2653\/2022\/09\/stoves-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Hollywood\u00a0has\u00a0always loved familiar properties\u2014whether it’s a sequel, a remake, or a film based on a news item, novel, play, song, toy,\u00a0or comic book (for the purposes of brevity ‘sequel’ will stand in for all of them). While it seems particularly egregious now\u00a0with the theaters overflowing with sequels,\u00a0prequels,\u00a0threequels,\u00a0reboots, etc.\u00a0\u00a0ad nauseum,.\u00a0 this practice\u00a0goes back to the very early days\u00a0of film.\u00a0 And with this abundance of sequels, it is uncanny the way films’ relationship to history maps onto\u00a0our present day,\u00a0almost like… well, almost like a sequel.<\/p>\n
The idea of a sequel\u00a0can be found in the earliest films. In the transition from novelty to potential vehicle\u00a0for storytelling, film had not\u00a0yet\u00a0figured out all of the tricks\u00a0we now take for granted.\u00a0 Prior to title cards and developing a language of film, shorts were\u00a0often\u00a0based on existing\u00a0popular subjects.\u00a0\u00a0Sherlock Holmes Baffled<\/a>\u00a0is a one-minute film about a disappearing criminal\u00a0featuring the familiar detective.\u00a0 The first great female film director (and studio head),\u00a0Alice Guy Blach\u00e9\u00a0made\u00a0The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ\u00a0<\/a>based on\u00a0that widely-known book,\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Bible.\u201d\u00a0 It was sold in America as 25 separate 1\u20132-minute films depicting key moments from the canonical\u00a0gospels.<\/p>\n As film progressed to more sophisticated stories and more sophisticated ways of telling stories the sequel never waned. Most of the both critically-acclaimed and financially successful films of the silent era were based on previous work \u2014from\u00a0The Big Parade<\/em>,\u00a020,000 Leagues Under the Sea<\/em>,\u00a0Way Down East<\/em>\u00a0(remade 3 times in the silent era alone) and the spectacular that popularized the feature film,\u00a0The Birth of a Nation.<\/em><\/p>\n The Birth of a Nation<\/em>\u00a0was based on a novel and then play by Thomas Dixon.\u00a0 While feature length films had some popularity in Europe\u2014and a few had been made in the US\u2014The Birth of a Nation<\/em>\u00a0was the first blockbuster feature\u00a0from Hollywood.\u00a0 After its release, the nascent American film capital of America, Hollywood, galloped\u00a0into the production of feature films.\u00a0 And here, both the (film) industry and its product (movies) illustrate a certain history as sequel.<\/p>\n Early film was a wild affair of patent infringements, bootlegging, and\u00a0straight out stealing. If one company had a popular story, another production company might remake it, but they were also prone to simply take the film itself, make copies and sell that film as their own work.\u00a0 Laws and business norms could barely keep pace with the changes.\u00a0 The industry settled\u00a0into an early\u00a0oligopoly\u00a0(Universal, MGM, Paramount,\u00a0Fox, Warners, Columbia. and UA)\u00a0which dominated and standardized the industry\u00a0and came to control it outright. For those who\u00a0have\u00a0watched the rise and consolidation of the internet and its domination by FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google)\u00a0this progression\u00a0seems eerily\u00a0similar.<\/p>\n And then the fake news.\u00a0 Early in film, there were fabrications and recreations sold as the real thing.\u00a0 These came to popular acclaim during the Spanish American War where reenactments, fabrications, or subtle misrepresentations were screened with little context and ambiguous, if any, provenance.\u00a0 \u00a0A horrifying film of\u00a0Cubans being executed<\/a>\u00a0by Spanish soldiers from the Edison company is listed in the Library of Congress extensively as footage of Cubans being executed in the Spanish American War.\u00a0 Only lower down in the description is there any indication that it is not a documentary (sort of) as it lists the genre as historical reenactment as well as nonfiction!<\/p>\n Which leads up to\u00a0The Birth of a Nation<\/em>.\u00a0 While President Wilson was busy re-segregating the federal work force\u00a0and pushing other roadblocks to equal opportunity, Griffith made\u00a0The Birth of a Nation<\/em>.\u00a0James Baldwin eloquently summed up the film,\u00a0\u201cThe Birth of a Nation<\/em>\u00a0is an elaborate justification of mass murder.\u201d\u00a0 It is pure fiction, and to be clear, the birth of said nation is the nation of the KKK, glorified as a savior to white people and the American way.\u00a0 It was a film production that practiced what it preached. Blacks were treated poorly in its production\u2014all major roles were whites in blackface, and as Griffith himself said, \u201cThe decision was to have no black blood among the principals.\u201d Further, housing for cast and crew was segregated for a film that vilified, ridiculed, and dehumanized black people in the plot.\u00a0 And this was the first feature\u00a0screened in the White House. Another screening for Washington heavyweights included Chief\u00a0Justice White [sic], a former Confederate and member of the KKK. Dixon planted a quote in the press attributed to Wilson (it is still contested as to whether Wilson actually said it), \u201cIt is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.\u201d Regardless of whether he said it, with his\u00a0silence afterwards, Wilson may as well have been saying there were good people on both sides. Immediately after the release of the film, membership in the KKK skyrocketed,\u00a0so this is not an academic\u00a0matter.\u00a0 The film had genuine\u00a0consequences for America, much as Charlottesville gave free reign to the Proud Boys to move from the shadowy world of the internet and brazenly promote their hatred.<\/p>\n Fortunately, there were those who spoke out, protested, and boycotted the film.\u00a0 And, here to paraphrase Hunter S Thompson is where the vile turn pro. In another eerily familiar move, Griffith\u00a0took great offense to this criticism and offered ten grand to anyone who could show one falsehood.\u00a0 Notwithstanding the myriad of untruths, he never paid up. Sound familiar?\u00a0 Further, he was so offended, he went on to make a film called\u00a0Intolerance<\/em>\u00a0which depicted four instances of intolerance throughout the ages\u2014yes, Jesus made the cut; no, any form of racial discrimination did not.\u00a0 To be clear, he made this film to highlight the injustice of intolerance that had been propagated against him for making a racist film.\u00a0So, pick your character who has committed vile acts and made him or herself out to be the victim: Trump repeatedly, Cuomo vehemently, and a litany of insurrectionists\u00a0incessantly.<\/p>\n And then came sound. \u00a0The Jazz Singer<\/em>\u00a0(the first\u00a0version) has the hero\u00a0give his\u00a0victorious performance in blackface.\u00a0 It is almost quaint\u00a0how Hollywood films whisper the truth while singing (in blackface) the lie. Hot on its heels is one of the first color blockbusters\u2014Gone With the Wind<\/em>\u2014a film that largely speaks for itself.<\/p>\n While the consolidation and corporate domination of Hollywood diminished the output of blatantly fake news, the studios were not adverse to promoting propaganda that supported the US geopolitical interests.\u00a0 And when they felt their bottom line might be at risk, they were not above the manufacture of fake news to smear the threat.\u00a0 Irving Thalberg , a big studio head, produced a series of \u201cfake news\u201d\u00a0newsreels\u00a0that torpedoed the gubernatorial campaign of Upton Sinclair.<\/p>\n So finding historical films that align with our current\u00a0preoccupations is not difficult.\u00a0 And with events galloping at a head-spinning pace, they recur and recur.\u00a0\u00a0Casablanca\u00a0<\/em>is a\u00a0wonderful film when looked at\u00a0as\u00a0being\u00a0about the plight of refugees.\u00a0\u00a0Watching actual refugees<\/a>\u00a0(actors who were forced out of Europe by Hitler) out singing\u00a0Nazi toadies in Rick’s Bar is emotional gold.\u00a0 This played as a poignant\u00a0if glossy reminder\u00a0of\u00a0the indignities of caged children and Syrian refugees\u2014and within a blink now plays apropos the Ukrainians. The film at the time was a subtle(?) call for the neutral\u00a0America as represented by Rick to join the war to combat the devastation of an authoritarian butcher.\u00a0 Again the reboot is in the news daily.<\/p>\n