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Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 12, No. 8, July 27th, 1949.

Film in Our Time

Film in Our Time

The end of the war brought an unprecedented boom in the European film industry, and so Hollywood has been compelled to hear criticism from within and without. It has submitted meekly to castigation from overseas critics largely inspired by an excess of nationalistic pride. More surprisingly, it has lost its head and in the midst of an acute spell of inferiority complex it has ground out a very coarse grain of thrillers, "naughty" comedies, and Westerns, many of which are unworthy of whatever tradition sophisticated Hollywood may acknowledge in a weak moment. To imagine that the shrewd movie bosses, always with both eyes on the box-office, could ever misjudge their audiences is indeed difficult, but I think that they have—and badly . . . For once in their cynical lives they have aimed too low.

Now from the preceding remarks one could justifiably query this article's validity as a defence of the American film industry, but the complaint given to suggest that the most recent fare from Hollywood is an exaggerated example of admittedly ever-present weaknesses. It is not a true reflection of the general standard of the industry. I am basing this article on the output of a sane Hollywood, paradoxical though this phrase may be, a Hollywood which will reappear very soon, when the old cocksure self-confidence has overcome the present self-conscious restrained attitude.