Movies can make us laugh, cry, or feel inspired. There are many titles people watch over and over again, and not all are award-winning masterpieces. So what is it about certain films that make them enduring? That’s the question behind a six-part Turner Classic Movies docu-series called The Power of Film, based on the book of the same name by Howard Suber. KCRW talks to the show’s executive producers Doug Pray and Laura Gabbert about some of the themes explored throughout the series.
Suber is a legend in the media world who’s taught at the UCLA School of Film and Television for more than 50 years. He helped found the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the Producer’s Program. Pray, who also serves as The Power of Film’s writer, says Suber is especially known for his Seminar On Film Structure class — four hours (per session) of “lifting the hood” of movies.
Pray points out, “It wasn't about history. It wasn't about celebrity or actors. It was not at all technical. It was completely looking at it as storytelling. What is the best storytelling in the world? And why are we so attracted to it? And then he really focused on just what he calls ‘the most popular and memorable movies,’ American movies specifically. And so it wasn't about cool art films or anything else.”
One film Suber analyzes is The Godfather, which involves breaking down “elemental basic things like family, or how the central character is trapped,” Pray says. He continues, “It's done in a way that makes you look at yourself, ‘Oh, he's actually talking about my life. And that's why I can relate to Michael Corleone in this scene. Because we've all felt betrayed.’”
Suber’s examination of Moonlight is similar — Pray says it includes a breakdown of how the lead character, who we see in three different stages of life — is trapped between fate/destiny and the life he chooses to live.
Episode four of The Power of Film focuses on heroes and villains, and how the archetypes are more alike than different. Gabbert, who is also the director of the series, says that an interesting character — such as the Joker in the Batman franchise — must have dark and light sides. That’s because sometimes, only being good is boring. She adds that villains are free and enviable because “they don't give a damn about anything.”
Another theme Suber focuses on is the power of loss. Pray says he’s wondered why audiences go to movies to watch a character experiencing loss, like in Bambi and Boyz n the Hood.
Related to that is the power of paradox, which is the subject of episode five. “Even in non-detective type [of] stories or movies, all really good films should be a mystery and … things are not what they seem. And that can be done in very subtle ways through character or can be done in plot.” Films that encompass that theme include Alfred Hitchcock films, Get Out, and The Usual Suspects.
Paradox also exists in Casablanca, where the main character doesn’t get the girl. Gabbert points out, “You want Rick Blaine and Ilsa to be together and you think they will. … As Howard says, the ending ticks and turns around in your brain after you're done. You're like, ‘I wasn't expecting that. But yes, it feels inevitable.’”
After finishing this project, Pray says, “We're very proud of the work. … I think the hardest part was taking 50 years of lectures and putting them into six 40-minute episodes.”