The film has developed over the years to become part and parcel of the everyday life of many people in the world. In many households, you will find people talking about a certain movie they watched or heard people talk about. There has been a lot of emphasis, especially among the youth on the necessity of watching movies, going to cinemas, or following certain programs on various T.V channels which in one way or the other have a captivating theme. There has been debate on the influence that film has on society whether positive or negative, while other people argue that its society influences film, since producers of the film must include in the movie content what the audience wants to watch. This paper seeks to elaborate on what influence film has on the day-to-day lives of individuals and the general society.
More often than not, the film producers give their audience what they think is attractive, and they tend to include in their output some scenes which, according to the producers, will cause anxiety to the audience to watch more. Various aspects have to be covered in the movie in a very limited period; this necessitates the need for exaggeration to make sure the intended meaning is brought out as clear as possible within the timeline available. Although the film producers will most of the time want to give to the society the themes that occur in real life, they are sometimes pushed by the obsession for money, hence presenting not want is beneficial for the society, but that content which will attract a lot of customers giving them good income in return (Marcus 18).
Most people especially the youth will want to associate themselves with the movie stars, consequently imitating the behaviors exhibited in movies not bearing in mind that film is fiction, and end up demonstrating these behaviors in a real-life situation. It has particularly been noted that film has influenced the culture of smoking among the youth who will always seek to be similar to the movie stars (Nelmes 264). In conjunction with that, it has been trendy among most people to copy the haircut styles used by movie stars no matter how ugly they may look. Furthermore, some movies exhibit too much violence in a manner likely to suggest that violence is a way of life, and is necessary for self-defense. Kids who watch a lot of movies with violent scenes have been noted to be rough to their colleagues, and exhibit various acts of violence in their school campuses in an act of practicing what they see in the films (Nelmes 251).
In a move that is intended to beat the timelines that the films have, movies depict some sudden swings in moods of their actors; for example, the actors seem to be provoked by very trivial things. It has been observed that people who assimilate this mood swing behavior into their lifestyles end up being emotionally depressed, or suffer from emotionally related disorders. This is evidenced when other scholars like Eisenstein, argue that film can be used to control the audience’s emotions in addressing social issues (Braudy, and Cohen157). On top of that, language has also been affected by the film industry to a substantial extent; given that people will tend to use the kind of language or phrases they hear in movies for their day-to-day dialogue making them part of the language in the long run. Most of the female movie stars are thin and dress in very fancy ways, and due to the publicity, they have given people think that for ladies to be beautiful they have to be thin. As a result of this, ladies have resorted to various methods of reducing weight some of which are very unhealthy and have had negative health repercussions in the end (Marcus 19). Recent times have also witnessed an increase in the number of young people fighting obesity, a condition that has been associated with the way films advertise junky foods where actors seem to only survive on this light but fatty meals.
Additionally, films have been linked to rampant moral decay in society due to the way they address sexuality and other related issues. Sex is depicted as a normal and basic human want in some movies, a factor that has made the young generation give sex a different and mostly bad perception which leads to its misuse contributing to moral degradation. It has been elucidated by some scholars that youngsters have been involved in acts of sex at a tender age of as early as 10years mostly those who have access to movies and cinemas (Braudy, and Cohen 267). Some film theorists have stated that film is a collection of minute episodes of truth in society to form a body of reality that is mostly not seen.
It should not escape our minds though, that film can contribute positively to the society and for that matter increase integration of the society. Movies have been used to fight various practices in society that were seen to be antisocial. For instance, the movie “guess who is coming for dinner”, was used to advocate for interracial marriage an act which not very common in American society at that time (Nelmes 255). Movies can also act as an instrument of social control if they are given proper themes and producers advised to adopt a moral approach to various issues. Some say that film is manipulated and does not depict reality. They say that some other forms of art for example photography bring out the true image of what is or was existing, therefore, giving evidence of the distinction between the past and future, they include Sontag.
The film has spread in our society like a forest fire in recent years, and people have become too much integrated with movies to a point that film is almost a way of life that people can not do without. The film represents its themes in scenarios that are more or less similar to real-life situations, hence it has a significant influence on almost all facets of life unlike other forms of art for an example pictures. The influence of film begins from a very tender age of a person and goes on throughout one’s life; hence to a larger extent film will determine the culture of society. Either way, the various forms of art have different levels of influence depending on their audience, and should therefore be treated equally since no form can be proofed to be more influential than the other.
Works Cited
Braudy, Leo, And Cohen Marshall. Film Theory and Criticism. New York: Oxford University press, 2009. Print.
Marcus, Laura. The Tenth Muse: Writing About Cinema in the Modernist Period. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.
Nelmes, Jill. Introduction to Film Studies. New York: Routledge, 2001. Print.