Every decade has had its trademarks, its niches, and conventions. Whether it be the 1960s, which are associated with renewed hope and newfound cultural liberality, the 1990s and its technological developments and the invention of the internet, or the 2010s, when social media reinvented the way we live our lives.
These cultural shifts, changes in attitude, and responses to world events are also reflected in film, with every decade representing something slightly (or totally) different from the last. Let’s take a look at the defining movies of each decade since the popularity of feature films…
1920s: Metropolis
The early 20th century was a period focused on innovation in technology, medicine, transport, and improving the standard of living, and the German science-fiction film,Metropolis,documents both sides of the coin. It concerns the futuristic city of Metropolis and the affluent individuals who reign supreme as the skyscrapers and contemporary designs of 2027 are erected around them.
While they live very securely in their ivy skyscrapers, the proletariat lives in squalor underneath the city, until they reject their living conditions and rise up. Both a comment on industrialization and the widening class differences and inequality that would fuel The Great Depression,Metropolisremains a masterpiece.
1930s: All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Frontwas the first real portrayal of the true horrors of warafter World War One. It is a harrowing, and at times, tear-jerking illustration of the sheer tragedy, suffering, and loss of inter-country conflict. After Netflix’s 2022 remake which was utterly affecting, and perhaps equally flawless as the original, the 1930 movie is more relevant than ever.
The film is full of such raw authenticity as it follows a young and naive, German soldier’s torturous journey through the treacherous booby-trapped trenches of the so-called “Great War”, as he experiences the hellish reality first-hand.
1940s: Best Years of Our Lives
The 1940s brought another hard-hitting war drama, but this time in the form of William Wyler’sThe Best Years of Our Livesbased on the novel of the same name, it details the years following WWII, and the difficulty three war veterans have at trying to re-initiate themselves into everyday life.
While everyone around them has moved on, they must contend with the reality of their severely incapacitated physical conditions, as well as troubles with employment. Harold Russell wontwo Oscars for the same performancehere, while the film itself swept the Academy Awards as a bold look at the effects of war released only one year after the surrender of Germany in 1945.
1950s: 12 Angry Men
As America and the rest of the world recovered from the war, the crackdown on communism was in full swing, and the communist witch trials commenced. In a period where freedom of political expression was limited, and the mass conformity of groupthink meant the general population was overloaded with this herd-mind-set, Sidney Lumet’s masterpiece,12 Angry Men,confronted the issues at hand in the form of a courtroom drama.
Related:Why 12 Angry Men is a Timeless Classic 65 Years On
Perhaps the best film to be shotin almost entirely one room, the film details a jury’s deliberation over the verdict of a murder trial. Henry Fonda is immaculate as Juror 8 (Davis) who challenges the status quo, with the other jurors fearful of deviating from the consensus that the defendant is guilty.
1960s: 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odysseyperfectly coincided with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s maiden voyage to the Moon in 1969, as well as the hippy-trippy movement of the psychedelic ’60s. Stanley Kubrick’s revolutionary experimental sci-fi thriller is a tale of both inner and outer-space discovery, as the crew of Discovery One and its supercomputer HAL 9000 leave Earth on a mysterious mission.
With arguably the greatest special effects of any film at the time, Kubrick reinvented sci-fi, while also bringing avant-garde filmmaking to the masses in a way rarely seen before in the mainstream.
1970s: The Godfather
The Godfatheris almost irrefutablythe best gangster movieof all time. The film is overflowing with the talent that defined the 1970s, depicting some of the most revered acting talents of their generation through the lens of Gordon Willis' cinematography, all under the pioneering mind of Francis Ford Coppola, who was arguably the most decorated director of the decade, thanks toThe Conversation, Apocalypse Now, andThe Godfather: Part II.
The Godfather was a visually stunning, revolutionary piece of filmmaking that employs now timeless storytelling techniques. Marlon Brando plays Mafia mob boss Vito Corleone, who hands his empire over to his son, Michael (Al Pacino), which has severe ramifications for the Corleone crime syndicate. It’s an epic tale of the American Dream, greed, family, and disillusionment that defined the paranoia and depression after the failure of the 1960s to actually change anything.
1980s: Scarface
Cocaine imports? In the 1980s?! No way. With Pablo Escobar’s vast white-powder-funded kingdom expanding by the day, President Nixon had famously declared a “war on drugs” 10 years earlier that was consequently failing. As sizable shipments of one of South America’s finest exports were washing up on US shores, Brian De Palma’s 1983 movie,Scarfacewas a timely depiction of the perils of both drug dealing and drug consumption in the States.
Al Pacino playsTony Montana a Cuban immigrant-turned-drug baron whose drug empire and intake grow rapidly. As his behavior becomes more erratic, and his enemies grow by the dozen, he soon finds himself in deep water. In many ways, his whole journey reflects the escalating greed, consumption, and materialism of another cocaine-fueled industry which defined the ’80s: Wall Street.
1990s: Pulp Fiction
The 1990s was the decade of Quentin Tarantino. It began with his filmmaking inauguration with the ultra-violentReservoir Dogsand finished with1997s equally bloodyJackie Brown. Women’s feet, foul-mouthed rants, absorbing characters, and exuberant color palettes, were the hallmarks established by the filmmaking mogul that has made him a household name in Hollywood.
Related:Kill Bill 3 and Quentin Tarantino’s Quest to Complete a Trilogy
Sandwiched in between the releases ofReservoir DogsandJackie Brown,was the 1994 classic,Pulp Fiction, which redefined popular film. Drawing upon art-house and indie film elements that merge a variety of stylistic and editorial concepts, alongside cheesy ’70s exploitation films and great Asian cinema,Pulp Fiction’s dark-comedic undertones help to tell the ultimate story of crossed wires in the Los Angeles underworld.
2000s: The Dark Knight
In the last 15 years, we’ve played witness to what can only be described as a superhero boom.To Martin Scorsese’s dismay, they are currently the single most popular genre in the world, with the MCU dominating cinematic release schedules. Christopher Nolan’s middle installment of The Dark Knight trilogy was so culturally symbolic as the flag-bearer, and the catalyst for future epic superhero movies and franchises to be made.
The Dark Knightreceived critical acclaim upon release, and the film concerns Batman’s timeless struggle to restore order in Gotham City, yet he must face his fiercest foe. Between announcing Nolan as one of the premier directors of our time, helping inaugurate the ‘dark and gritty reboot’ craze, and solidifying superhero movies as the biggest cultural element of the past 15 years,The Dark Knightis a truly defining film.
2010s: The Social Network
The theory that Mark Zuckerberg is of reptilian origin still remains a contentious topic among YouTube conspiracy theorists. However, what wasn’t debatable was his theft and execution of the idea of massive social media, and more specifically Facebook, a concept that would not only make him billions but would revolutionize the way in which the world communicates forever.
David Fincher’s 2010 drama,The Social Networkdetails Facebook’s conception, ‘developed’ by Zuckerberg at Harvard University, the company’s exponential growth, and the legal battle that ensued over apparent copyright infringement. Its cold, solemn style would define much of ‘serious’ mainstream dramas moving forward, and the subject of Zuckerberg himself was a powerful metaphor for the alienation which social media itself wrought.
2020-2023: Don’t Look Up
We are surrounded by them — climate change deniers. The ex-leader of the free world, Donald Trump, publicly mocked those who campaigned for radical environmental reform, frequently refusing to believe the science-based evidence of global warming, and the impact G10 countries are having on the natural world.
Adam McKay’s dark political satire,Don’t Look Up,starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Timothee Chalamet, and seemingly everyone else in Hollywood, tells the funny, yet scarily accurate story of two astronomers who warn the world a meteor is heading directly for Earth, with it likely to wipe out the whole of mankind. Their warnings fall on deaf, disbelieving ears in this film that critiques the media, the government, and the political divides around the world. It’s certainly not the best film of the decade so far, but it’s arguably the most defining.
