The End of the Silent Film

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the beginning of the end of the silent motion picture industry. The paper examines the resistance shown to the emerging trend of films with recorded sound sequences. The resistance came partly from the public, partly from technology and partly from the industry. First, it took some time for "talkie" film sound to be perfectly synchronized with the picture. This generated a level of indifference from the public, who had become well accustomed to silent film and generally preferred it due to a high level of familiarity. Second, the industry, similarly, had become ensconced in the business of silent film, and the many movie theaters in the United States produced a gross revenue of about 360 million dollars by the mid 1920'=s. Consequently, an enormous business had grown out of the production and distribution of almost exclusively silent films and "talkies" stood as a distinctly risky endeavor.

From the Paper:

"Additionally, by 1927 the film industry had truly come into its own as a fully fledged art form. The art of drama had been nearly perfected by the silent stars. "Even ordinary actors seemed more than that when effectively presented in a silent film because their own specific identity was somewhat nebulous." (Eyman 73). In fact, the very absence of sound permitted the audience to draw their own conclusions and insert their own feelings and imagination into the film. Much like a reader conjures their own image of characters and settings, the silent film viewer envisioned the omitted aspects of reality according to their own, personal feelings. The consequences of this made silent film a particularly potent devise from an artistic perspective. Obviously, as an art form, film was not required to accurately mimic reality, but instead, render a representation of it that was equally powerful to the audience. This fact made arguments in favor of sound based upon accurate depiction of events groundless; they were analogous to saying that Picasso's paintings were somehow worth less than more realist-based works of art."

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