MovieChat Forums > Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019) Discussion > Golden Age...?

Golden Age...?

posted 5 years ago by AndyK (69)
3 replies | jump to latest

I see lots of discussion about when Hollywood's golden age might have been. Ironically one reader's list, ranging from the late 70's to '92 I believe, listed all but one film, Blade Runner, made outside LA. I think Tarantino is very conscious of LA's [once?] centrality to the US film industry.

As I understand it, Once.... signifies the end of the golden era for LA as the center of the film industry ... I'm just not sure why that year. Because of the Tate-La Bianca killings?

Being LA born & raised, I could certainly take for granted that most US-made film & TV was based there, regardless of the setting. That continued well past the turn-of-the-century. It's really only in the past ten or fifteen years that I've noticed more productions are shot outside of LA than in. LA might still command a plurality of production, but no longer a majority.

Of course that was bound to happen as technology has made the equipment needed to produce mainstream-quality film & TV more mobile, easier to use. Back in the day it took a week - ten days to get from NYC to LA. Obviously that is no longer the case. Change was bound to occur, the breakup of the studios' hold on movie theaters notwithstanding.

Anyway, why 1969...?

[–] ATG6 (3000) 5 years ago

Maybe the end of the studio system? More movies being made as standalone projects? Not sure what year the cutover was, but sometime around then.

[–] AndyK (69) 5 years ago

I don't know. Maybe. The studio system began its decline shortly after wwii, when studios could not longer own movie theaters because of anti-trust laws & TV competed for audience share. Of course the decline was gradual. But I'm still questioning why '69? I would understand if it referred to an end to the hippie/summer-of-love/peacenik era. But studios & LA continued to dominate US filmmaking (& to an extent perhaps still do) for many years after.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if the key isn't in Dicaprio's declaration that he can no longer live in "Hollywood" (okay, Beverly Hills) & because of financial considerations has to move to the Valley. Had traditional Hollywood, studio-union filmmaking reached a tipping point in cost, compelling newcomers to look elsewhere? I recall De Laurentiis moved to North Carolina a few years later, heralding a trend to film not just on location or out of LA, but in permanent locations all over. Today, of course, travel & technology permit the making of feature-quality films pretty much everywhere.

Given that Tarantino is an advocate of films being made in LA, I wonder if that was his intent citing '69 thus.

[–] liscarkat (18439) 5 years ago

Mid 1930s through early 1950s.