An eye-opening video supercut has been shared on social media comparing vastly different movies set in the same year such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and the biopic Jobs (2013). The portrayal of a period and geographic location can make or break a film. Setting not only influences character and plot but when a movie is set in the “present day,” can affect the way a filmmaker decides to depict an era, bringing bias into the mix. Historical dramas in particular are more objective the further removed a writer/director is from that period.
A movie’s setting is sometimes blatantly obvious. In Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), the Nazis are the bad guys. So, of course, the film takes place right before World War II. That being said, it might seem a little strange to think that The King’s Speech (2010) also takes place in 1936 due to a completely different tone and/or vantage point. This sort of disparity can also be seen when comparing Grease (1978) and Malcolm X (1992), which both take place around 1958. The former happy-go-lucky musical certainly illustrates a completely different reality than that of Spike Lee’s biopic.
A video recently shared by Silent Movie GIFs on Twitter compares movies that take place at roughly the same time. The compilation includes clips from the aforementioned films as well as Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), Seven Samurai (1954), Titanic (1997), The Music Man (1962), There Will Be Blood (2007), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and more. Check it out below:
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It’s not particularly surprising that 1917 (2019) and the flashbacks in The Godfather Part II (1974) both take place in, well, 1917. However, the dichotomy exemplifies how far filmmaking has come in terms of facilitating suspension of disbelief even though The Godfather Part II still holds up. A better example of this is Barry Lyndon (1975) compared to Pirates of the Caribbean (2003), which both take place around the 1750s.
Another interesting comparison in the above video is that of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Jobs epitomizing science fiction’s tendency to get ahead of itself. Where one film takes place in space the other sees Ashton Kutcher hold up an iPod. Jobs came out two years before Steve Jobs (2015)—a film that approaches its character and setting in a wildly different manner. Sometimes similar movies arrive in quick succession like 2011’s No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits, and other times films like Little Women are adapted to more adeptly resonant with the current audience. If Silent Movie GIFs’ supercut is anything, it's a poetic reminder of time's fleeting yet impactful nature in cinema.
Source: Silent Movie GIFs/Twitter