Children and the Cinema
By JOHN GRIERSON
A coon deal of nonsense has been talked about the effects of the film on children, and the field has been anyone's for the guessing. Here and there—recently in Glasgow, for example—simple experiments have been made to distinguish how far the illustrated power of the cinema can help the teacher in his classrOom work. Other experimenters, or less, have hinted vaguely at the illuminative power of the cinema, and films are, even now, being almost too profusely used to provide what is termed a " background education." No directive use of the film, however, except for simple geography lessons, has emerged from the welter of pedagogic enthusiasm and pedagogic doubt. As for the larger relations and influences of the film in the theatre without, no considered attempt has been made in England to evaluate them.
It is with these social problems of everyday concern that the Englishman generally " hunches " and the American investigates. Pursuing the teutonically laborious, and some- times ill-ventilated methods peculiar to American sociology, these books provide a first solid basis for judgement. The studies under review are only half of the number undertaken by . the Payne Trust. The separate analysis, of " motion pictures and the social attitudes of children," by Ruth Peterson and L. L. Thurstone, Dr. Blumer's account of " movies and conduct," and the Cressey-Thurstone description of film influences on the East Side of New York, provide additional valuable material. Together, they dig out the facts about the movies ; they say of what emotional appeals our films are composed ; they indicate the observed effects not only on the knowledge but on the conduct of children ; and, within the limits of their questionnaire and autobio- graphical method, they do the job thoroughly. Hence- forward it will be pleasantly difficult for professional Holly- wood whitewashers like Mr. Will Hays to speak as on one celebrated occasion he spoke to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. " This industry," he said sententiously, " must have toward that sacred thing, the mind of a child, toward that clean virgin thing, the unmarked slate, the same care about the impressions made upon -it as the best clergyman and the most inspired teacher of youth."
Not important to the terms of film influence, but as indicating the extent of the influence for good or evil, are Dr. Dale's figures on movie attendance. No less than 37 per cent. of America's weekly audience of seventy-seven millions are children and adolescents ; and of the 37 per cent., eleven and a half millions, or one-sixth of the entire available population, are under fourteen. But Dr. Dale's most important work is his analysis of the content of fifteen hundred movies, for in this we reach the meat of the matter. His categories of content are crime, sex, love, mystery, war, history, children, travel and geo- graphy, animals, comedy and social problems ; and Curious are the proportions of their appeal for a 37 per cent, audience of children and adolescents : 82 per cent. deal with crime, sex and love ; and it is perhaps the best of all answers to cinema's claim for an " unshackled screen "
Our Movie-Made Children. By Henry James Forman (MacMillan, 10s. 6d.)---Emotional Responses of Children to the Motion-Picture Situation. By W. S. Dysinger and Christian A. Ruckmick ; and Motion Pictures and Standards of Morality. By Charles C. Peters.' (Macmillan, 8s. 6d.)— The Content of Motion Pictures and Children's Attendance ut Motion Pictures. By Edgar Dale. (Macmillan. 8s. 6d.) --How to Appreciate Motion Pictures. By Edgar Dale. (Macmillan. 8s. 6d.)—Motion Pictures and Youth. By W. W. Charters ; and Getting Ideas from the Movies. By P. W. Holaday and George D. Stoddard. (Macmillan. Os.) that 45 per cent. deal with crime and violence. As Dr. Dale very gravely reports, " the screen is proportionately robbed of beauty, idealism, -and imaginative charm." Very certainly it is ; for in further analysis he tells us that out of 115 pictures taken at random there were 59 in which murders and homicides were either attempted or committed. Seventy- one deaths by violence occur in 54 of the pictures. The hero is responsible for 20 per cent. of this wholesale murder, a figure much more alarming than the 40 per cent. done to death by the villain. Only one murder—and we must be grateful for these small mercies—is permitted the heroine. In the same batch we have a line selection of 36 hold-ups, 21 kidnappings, and altogether 406 crimes arc committed and 46 attempted in a single blossoming of 115 pictures
chosen at random." Dr. Dale provides some illuminating data on the still more important matter of what happens to the films' criminals. Of 57 criminals, 24 were punished by extra-legal methods, in 17 cases punishment was primarily acci- dental, and 15 criminals went wholly unpunished.
An analysis of the occupations of these sanctified figures of the new mythology provides another useful indication of the over-all influence of the film ; 33 per cent. of the heroes, 44 per cent, of the heroines, 54 per cent. of the villains, and 63 per cent. of the vampires are either wealthy or ultra wealthy- Of the leading characters only a miserable 10 per cent. are poor, though the principal occupational classification is " no occupation at all." The next grouping, with 90 characters for 115 pictures, is " commercial " ; the next two groups, with 80 characters each, are " occupation unknown " and " illegal occupation." Common labour does not appear. The habits of this feckless people are sufficiently reflected in the 883 " goals " of conduct set out by Dr. Dale—and the 43 per cent, inclusion of bedroom scenes. First and easily foremost is the -pursuit by male of female. Next in order of Hollywood merit come " marriage for love," " professional success," " happiness of the loved one," " revenge," and " happiness of friend."
Of less importance perhaps is the Holaday-Stoddard analysis of how much the children remember. They give a retention figure of 70% in comparison with adults, and demonstrate that the retention increases rather than dimi- nishes during the weeks following the exhibition of a film. 'They are principally concerned with the retention of informa- tion, and the creation and retention of attitudes is obviously a more solid matter. The real head of the work comes with the Thurstone-Peterson measurement of the changes of attitude effected by certain selected films, and the Peters comparison of social attitudes on the screen with those nor- mally approved by a representative body of spectators. It is easy to believe, as Dr. Rueluniek demonstrates, that children are not capable of " adult discount " in watching the more highly coloured episodes, and that they are frequently the victims of " emotional possession." Emotional possession may not, however, be quite so dangerous as we at present fashionably believe. It is another matter when racial prejudice is demonstrably increased by the showing of such films as The Birth of a Nation. It is another matter, too, when one finds the weight of sanction -which the cinema's all-pervading part in the public life gives it, reflected in a general tendency to imitate the doubtful manners, and more doubtful preoccupa- tions, of the stars. On the whole there is sufficient evidence to warrant a final and damaging conclusion that at the ages when the power of example is at its height, the example set is generally a trivial and often an evil one. The cinema's almost exclusive pursuit of personal ends and private pleasures represents something more than a dereliction of public duty.
Previous page
