Blockbusters
The films that changed the business. Jaws and the wide release, Star Wars and merchandising, the summer tentpole, Titanic and Avatar, and the franchise logic that followed.
Part of Films
28 moments in this segment.
- - The Birth of a Nation. D. W. Griffith. Invented most of the grammar of feature filmmaking, close-ups, parallel editing, three-hour running time. Also a Klan-glorifying horror that revived the Klan in real life. The defining ethical problem of film history starts here.
- - Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith - Trailer (1915). ) · 00:02:21
- - Gone with the Wind. Victor Fleming. Highest-grossing film of all time adjusted for inflation. Hattie McDaniel won the first Oscar for a Black performer, and had to sit at a segregated table at the ceremony. Its mythology of the Lost Cause has aged badly.
- - Gone with the Wind (1939) Official Trailer - Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh Movie HD. 00:02:37
- - Citizen Kane. Orson Welles, 25 years old. Deep focus, narrative misdirection, the long shadow of William Randolph Hearst (who tried to suppress it). The film that the rest of cinema would spend 80 years trying to surpass.
- - Citizen Kane (1941) Official Trailer #1 - Orson Welles Movie. 00:03:45
- - Sunset Boulevard. Billy Wilder. Hollywood's greatest film about itself, narrated by a dead screenwriter in a pool. Gloria Swanson, herself a faded silent star, as Norma Desmond. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."
- - Sunset Boulevard (1950) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers. 00:03:13
- - On the Waterfront. Elia Kazan. Brando: "I could've been a contender." Kazan made it as a defence of his own HUAC testimony, a justification for ratting on his communist friends. Won 8 Oscars.
- - On the Waterfront (1954) ORIGINAL TRAILER [FHD]. 00:02:43
- - Vertigo. Alfred Hitchcock. Kim Novak twice; James Stewart's obsession with both. The dolly-zoom, invented for this film, became the visual shorthand for psychological vertigo. Now the canonical Sight & Sound #1.
- - Vertigo Official Trailer #1 - (1958) HD. 00:02:52
- - A Clockwork Orange. Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick himself pulled it from UK distribution after copycat violence reports, it wasn't shown legally in Britain for 27 years. Defined the look of dystopian futurism.
- - A Clockwork Orange | Trailer | Warner Bros. Entertainment. 00:02:03
- - The Godfather Part II. Francis Ford Coppola. Pacino as the now-corrupted Michael; De Niro as the young Vito. First sequel to win Best Picture. Often argued to be the rare sequel that surpasses the original.
- - The Godfather: Part II (1974) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers. 00:04:11
- - Jaws. Steven Spielberg, 27. First summer blockbuster, wide release + saturation TV ads. Broken animatronic shark forced Spielberg to keep the shark off-screen, which made it scarier. Killed beach attendance worldwide that summer.
- - Jaws Official Trailer #1 - Richard Dreyfuss, Steven Spielberg Movie (1975) HD. 00:03:22
- - Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielberg + Lucas. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. The boulder, the swordsman shot dead, the melting Nazi faces. Perfected the popcorn-adventure film.
- - Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers. 00:02:23
- - Die Hard. John McTiernan. Bruce Willis in the Nakatomi Plaza. The template for every "trapped in a [confined space] with [terrorists]" film for the next 20 years.
- - Die Hard (1988) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers. 00:02:34
- - Titanic. James Cameron. First film to gross $1B. Won 11 Oscars (tied with Ben-Hur). Convinced studios to spend $200M on tentpole movies. "I'm king of the world."
- - Titanic | #TBT Trailer | 20th Century FOX. 00:04:18
- - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Peter Jackson, shot the trilogy back-to-back in New Zealand. WETA Digital's motion-capture for Gollum. Made the franchise blockbuster respectable to critics.
- - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Official Trailer #1 - (2001) HD. 00:02:56
- - The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan. Heath Ledger's posthumous Oscar for the Joker. Killed the "comic-book-films-are-disposable" assumption; made superhero stories Oscar-eligible. Did $1B+ worldwide.
- - The Dark Knight (2008) Official Trailer #1 - Christopher Nolan Movie HD. 00:02:30
