The Greatest Show on Earth: Often dismissed as expensive, explosive, multiplex fodder for the 12-to-25-year-old set, blockbusters are in fact an important sector of the film industry that warrants serious consideration. Not mere summertime entertainment, such films have exposed people around the world to their first glimpse of American popular culture, and in the process made California’s economy one of the world’s ten largest. Hollywood sees the blockbuster as a necessary evil: Studio heads and the conglomerates that employ them consider such pictures to be necessary for the survival of their industry, while many filmmakers and most critics view them as evil. Audiences, in their underestimated wisdom, acknowledge elements of both perspectives, and respond accordingly by flocking to some films and avoiding others. While it is impossible to definitively explain why they do so, some light will be shed on the issue as this course explores the history, practitioners, and commercial impact of blockbusters and discusses the form and content of some emblematic films. |
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