Most Hollywood movies are seen to conform to the same old storylines. Good start, tough storyline in the middle, happy ending. Of course there are the occasional storylines that do not conform to this but eight out of ten films are based around this sort of idea. Every now and again a movie stands out from the rest and changes this conformist view. This is seen as counter cinema. Peter Wollen said "the seven deadly sins of cinema against the seven cardinal virtues". Wollen quoted that to try and achieve counter cinema you needed to try and stick to the seven cardinal virtues and blank out the seven deadly sins.
A movie that does not conform to the usual Hollywood stereotype is the hard hitting film American History X. The movie itself is hard hitting as it is based around neo-Nazis and has very racist views throughout the film. However, the film looks to head down the same path as other movies, as Derek Vineyard manages to try and stop his younger brother Danny from going down the same route as he did when he went to jail for being part of a neo-Nazi gang. It looks to end peacefully as Danny decides to turn his back on all that trouble and concentrate on school. The ending of the film shows Danny getting shot by a young black man in the school toilets. This ends the film with a disturbing and ironic ending that is very rarely done. The director Tony Kaye choice of ironic deaths suits the story perfectly and give the film an ending that is original and outside the norm. The idea of someone escaping the idea of the neo-Nazi world and trying to better him while also trying to better his family allows the audience to feel sorry for the character while also having some hatred towards him regarding the way he acted in the past. However, will the fact that his brother has been killed by a black man anger him to return to his neo-Nazi roots? Kaye knows this will be in the minds of the viewer and therefore gives the audience some doubts about whether or not it was the right idea to try and leave the neo-Nazi regime.
The Blair Witch Project is another movie that does not conform to the usual Hollywood stereotype; the movie was not suppose to become a mainstream movie and was not expected to reach the dizzy heights it reached in the cinematic world. The Blair Witch was originally a low budget movie but because of the movie being something different, it generated mass interest along with mass revenue. The movie is seen as a documentary within a documentary and this one of the few movies that uses a handheld camera. The amateur way the movie is portrayed gives the audience the idea that this has actually happened. The use of hand held cameras to make a blockbuster movie was never used before The Blair Witch and this has started a trend that other movies have imitated such as Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity.
reference: Wollen, Peter. 1972. Godard and Counter Cinema: Vent d'Est
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