Love is what you make it at the movies

Love is what you make it at the movies

By Sunaryono Basuki Ks

DENPASAR (JP): Love has become a dominant theme not only in
novels but also in films. People are interested in love stories
however it comes wrapped. The success of famous novels and films,
such as Gone with the Wind, The English Patient and Titanic lies
not only in the setting of the stories, but basically in the
stories themselves, which are love stories.

People are attracted to love stories because they can identify
with them and can sometimes project their own experiences in the
films they see.

Many love stories are set against antagonistic situations,
such as Romeo and Juliet which pits the two lovers' families in a
dispute that hangs dangerously over the romance.

Gone with the Wind has the backdrop of the brutal American
Civil War, while The English Patient takes place during World War
II and Titanic bears the name of the infamous shipwreck. In all
these settings, the characters are thrust into difficult
situations to win their love.

Cowboy films or Westerns also frequently use love as a main
theme. The rural struggle for life in This Earth is Mine in the
1960s is basically a love story.

The popularity with Chinese kung fu films in the 1970s shifted
audience interests to action, heroism and even sadism, although
romance was still part of these films' plots.

Indonesian audiences were first introduced to such violent
films, dubbed here as "Jango" films, in the late 1960s after such
American and European films had been banned for several years.
Once they got a taste of films like The Great Escape, they were
eager for more of these imported films.

These years saw cheap Italian B films of the "Jango" type
circulating widely in Indonesia. From Hong Kong, the name of Wang
Yu became very popular, and any theater showing his films was
flooded by enthusiastic audiences.

A new type of film had become popular: hard, brutal, sadistic.
The demand for more exciting films increased. Initially audiences
were satisfied with watching Wang Yu dressed in white running in
slow motion and then jumping into the sea. In later films,
audiences enjoyed watching characters jump up to rooftops, while
15 years later, action in kung fu films had developed into fast-
paced scenes in which characters flew like birds. Romance became
minor themes in such movies.

Eventually people got bored and a new formula was created in
which humor played a major part. Whether it was because they
needed entertainment or because they felt fed up with their daily
problems, audiences turned out to see this new type of film.

Beverly Hill's Cop type of films came to Indonesian cinemas,
followed by Jumping Jack Flash, which told about a funny computer
technician communicating with a government spy in another
country. Action films were now mixed with humor. This new formula
was then also applied in Hong Kong kung fu films.

New formulas included science fiction. The Planet of the Apes
and ET impressed moviegoers in the 1970s, followed by Jurrasic
Park in the early 1990s.

What seems to have disappeared from theaters are musicals such
as The Sound of Music and My Fair Lady which were once very
successful. But not many people are attracted to such a formula
anymore, it seems. Evita wasn't very popular here, with all its
history, singing and insufficient suspense.

Whatever the formula, a love plot, or a touch of it, seems to
be here to stay as a sure way to attract audiences to movie
theaters.