Classical Hollywood Vs Classical Cinema Essay

Two vastly different cinematic forms emerged in the later 1910s and 1920s: the Soviet Montage movement and the Classical Hollywood cinema. Both styles are simply ways to further alter films in a more creative manner. The Soviet Montage movement was one of the biggest contributions of the film industry in the Soviet Union to worldwide cinema, which relied heavily on editing. The Soviet Montage uses a series of images which connect together, making up the entirety of the film. In the American film industry, the Golden Age of cinema began in the late 1920s with the Classical Hollywood style. Classical Hollywood style employs continuity editing and a more structured narrative—the beginning, middle, and end.

Classical Hollywood films in the Golden Age in the United States contained complex storylines with cause-and-effect. For Hollywood filmmakers, the Classical Hollywood style was a persuasive and effective form of storytelling. Classical Hollywood cinema was by no means simplistic, as many films have complex plot webs. Because Classical Hollywood filmmakers used continuity editing, their focus was not to be as artistic as possible. One of the biggest differences between Classical Hollywood cinema and the Soviet Montage cinema lies in the causal agents—psychological vs. social.
Hollywood filmmakers were in favor of including realism and the psychological motivations of their characters, while montage filmmakers favored social issues more.

The heart of Soviet Montage films lies in the social and even moral issues of the setting or environment of the film. One of the most well-known montage films, Sergei Eisenstein’s film, The Battleship of Potemkin (1925), was best known for the scenes in the Odessa Steps, where the soldiers’ violence resulted in the mass hysteria that followed. The other scenes of the film feature different conflicts with many different characters, with no particular focus on an individual character. Not only is this because the film is a propaganda film, but because this is perfectly acceptable for montage films to have no actual protagonist. On the other hand, classical Hollywood films differ greatly because Hollywood filmmakers are more interested in the inner workings of the human mind.

The linear storylines of Classical Hollywood cinema are still adapted today in the modern world; rarely do we see Hollywood films veer away from the dramatic and the element of realism. The goal of many filmmakers is to cater to a wide variety of audiences—the masses—which is why so many Hollywood films stay on the “safe” side. Many Hollywood films contain themes which reflect the mundane, everyday struggles of different kinds of people, such as coming-of-age, love and romance, loss, family and relationship problems, school, social life, and so on. These films cater to a wider audience because the audience can relate to the struggles the characters, especially the protagonist, go through. In order for classical Hollywood and Soviet montage films to unveil the message and story of the film, a great deal of editing must be done to it.

Soviet Montage films and Classical Hollywood film differ greatly in the editing department.
The Soviet Montage cinema developed their own style of editing in which a series of unrelated images were pieced together to connect the message and story. An example of a well-known Montage film is The Man with the Movie Camera (1929) directed by Dziga Vertov. This film featured a startling amount of different shots of nearly anything that is to be found in the city, accompanied by a rather modern-sounding soundtrack. As it is experimental, there is no clear storyline, and Vertov’s intention seemed to be showing rather than telling. Classical Hollywood editing uses continuity editing, a technique
which