Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1914)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD Survival By Louis Reeves Harrison. 26.S PORTRAYALS of so-called "White Slave Traffic," and agitation about their exhibition, form a recent step in the evolution of the New Art. If production and display of these pictures is for the purpose of rousing public sentiment, they might accomplish good in laying facts not hitherto generally known before men and women of mature minds, especially those of authority, in audiences of a restricted character. If the publication of vice films has no better motives than those back of the production of vicious literature and vile pictures, it will either be made subject to existing laws or legislation may be expected which will indicate the difference between decent freedom and indecent privilege. Honest censorship and manly criticism of moving pictures have been directed steadily toward progression of quality in order to win general approval among the millions of fathers and mothers who are engaged in building a great nation through self-denial, through heroic devotion to human betterment. Those millions are principally concerned with forms of education that do away with perversion, and they are inspired in their noble work by faith in our race, by hope for its improvement. If moving pictures become apostles of decadence, it is not unreasonable to expect that family support of the exhibitions will be alienated, and that legislation antagonistic to the entire industry will result. Dark phases of life furnish interesting material for the drama. Perhaps the biggest drama of all is that going on secretly within ourselves, our constant struggle with powerful impulses and passions, our gallant attempts to attain self-control, and it is quite within the province of the dramatic art to deal with our protest against ourselves. The only thing that masters our primitive tendencies is mind. Children of unformed characters and those who have grown up physically without what is now considered to be proportionate mental development are, therefore, most likely to suffer from a lapse in quality of what excites their emotions in the pictured stories. All intelligent men in this business realize that it can only retain and increase its popularity by keeping in accord with the spirit of the people as manifested in the character of literature most prized by the millions who purchase books and magazines. We know that the tendencies of our people are progressive. In dealing with social problems, we prefer to hear from thinkers who are really offering some solution for present difficulties, who have minds and sincere purpose, whether or not we are in accord with the views offered. One possible result of recent attempts to make money by appealing to the morbid curiosity of weaklings is that of bringing intelligent producers, exhibitors and writers, both creative and critical, into defensive accord with one another. One of the brightest prospects may be one growing out of recent attempts to kill the goose that lays the golden egg, combination of the better elements for the elimination of the unfit. Question of motive must, of necessity, enter very largely into discrimination against what is unfit for presentation to a mixed audience, one embracing all grades of intelligence, and elimination should not apply to the product alone — it might very well include the producer. If the elimination of men engaged in poisoning immature minds should unite men of sane and sound purposes in this business, red light films may prove a blessing in disguise. The best thing that has happened to the motion-pic ture industry is the incoming of men of ideals. All that art has gained, all that society, for that matter, has gained, has been won by men and women of ideals. They see beyond the bounds that limit common vision and will surely make an attempt to visualize their views. Only one in a great number possesses that breadth and scope of vision — they are the spiritual aristoi — and with the expression of their best thoughts will come a better recognition of what screen portrayals can accomplish. Original minds will demonstrate that traditions of the older arts, handed down like instincts by our ancestors, do not apply to an art which enables one man to communicate with millions of his fellows without the limitations of language spoken or written. In spite of the fact that uttered sentiments gain from the emotion aroused by tone and its inflections, words afford but an imperfect means of communication. Words fail; they are subject to misconstruction; they too often depend for significance upon how they are received and understood. More inadequate than moving pictures to convey the meaning we would have them bear, words increase the difficulty of transmission where only one language is spoken and make it impossible through confusion of tongues to spread one unchanged message to all parts of the earth. Original minds will demonstrate that the New Art is destined to be a factor in making us "see ourselves as others see us"' and bring to the surface that inner life, the soul of humanity, so seldom disclosed, so often misunderstood. The mission of moving pictures may be to enlighten our minds through those sympathies which warm the human heart universal. The genius who can give old thought new form, who can give our lives stimulus, variety and progress, who can place before us what is wonderful, beautiful or ennobling, who can portray conditions we may yet attain, who would enrich experience instead of vulgarizing it, who can send forth a message to satisfy our souls, may soon discover that the New Art offers him a superior medium, reaching out as it does to all parts of the earth, disposed as it is to annihilate race prejudice by cultivating a unity of spirit among intelligent people of all nations. Those who are debasing the art, including all connected with it who lack principle and backbone, are not long on common sense, and their elimination is only a question of time. They are back numbers, out of sympathy with what live men and women are trying laboriously to impart, incapable of growth as the world advances, mean enough to destroy the charm of existence for those who are plodding along in the humbler walks of human effort. The principal excuse for our being is that we accomplish something worth while as a group or as individuals. Whether we create, criticise or publish in this New Art, let us try not to dishonor it and ourselves. This is not an art to weary us with too much intellectuality, but to enchant us with all that reaches the soul, to teach us in touching our sensibilities. This is not an art intended for sickening and debasing public exhibition — as such it could not long survive — nor is it intended for Calibans. Rather is it intended to bring joy to dull lives, to inspire and strengthen us, to make this dull old world a much pleasanter and better place to live in. It seems destined to "accept the facts of life and build out of them a world more real than reality, of loftier and more noble import."