The Armies of the Night

“These are the Armies of the Night. They are 100,000 strong. They outnumber the cops five to one. They could run New York City.“

The outrage and fear upon the film’s release described in this week’s reading on The Warrior‘s really helped me to understand the need for theaters that were willing to screen what others deemed controversial. Walter Hill’s 1979 cult classic, The Warriors, was initially met with negative reactions and branded an “inciteful film.” When you stop to think about the fact that today it has attained a massive cult following, you realize that that wouldn’t have been possible if not for theaters, like the Rialto, that were home to a sort of hodgepodge of people all searching for exactly what the mainstream cinemas tried to conceal.

I found this week’s reading about the Rialto interesting, particularly the descriptions of the types of people in attendance. The negative connotations that come to mind when we think of exploitation films make it easy to assume that that the audiences would somehow reflect the gritty themes that are typically explored in this genre. This week’s reading, “Horror at the Crossroads: Class, Gender, and Taste at the Rialto” reminds us that the people who sought out these movies were perfectly average. In fact, it paints 42nd street as a sort of safe-haven not just for an emerging gay subculture, but for anyone who was looking to explore life beyond societal norms.

"While some accounts present the Rialto as a “lurid place” and its audience as largely
working class, it clearly attracted many members of the middle classes, although the cinema was not simply composed of Harvard-educated entrepreneurs or avant-garde critics either. Indeed, the character of the cinema and its audience owed much to its location in Times Square, which during the 1930s and 1940s was the cultural equivalent of a “primordial soup,” an environment in which radically different social groups converged and collided, and out of which a variety of cultural forms and practices would emerge—the postwar gay subculture, the Beats, the cult movie audience, and the postwar art-cinema scene—cultural forms and practices that were often intimately connected with one another."

I found this video interesting because it has actual footage with commentary on the theaters of 42nd street. I feel that this video really reaffirms the idea that these theaters served more of a purpose than to exploit censored topics – it was a hub for social activity. The hook was the idea of “adult theaters” but people went there for the experience just as much as they went for the subject matter.

This second video is in here because I really enjoyed seeing the contrast between 42nd street then, and 42nd street now.

As for The Warriors itself, it was by far my favorite screening this semester. I went into class unsure of how I’d feel at the end of the night, but the film surpassed any and all expectations I had. The plot wasn’t quite like anything I’d seen before, and I found myself drawn into the story of this ragtag group from the very beginning. As tensions grew in the movie, I found myself actually engaging and trying to figure out what would happen next. The film was full of action, suspense, humor, and badassery – and one of the best parts about it is the fact that you don’t have to be a cult enthusiast in order to appreciate it. I would definitely recommend the film to anyone who hasn’t seen it (and I already have).

by Sarah Baty

The Warriors was probably my favorite movie we’ve watched so far! I really like movies that happen in one day and I couldn’t even tell you why I just enjoy it a lot.

The Warriors is about the gang being wrongly accused of killing a gang leader and are chased through New York City by other gangs seeking revenge. After kicking A BUNCH of ass and losing a couple men along the way, The Warriors make it home to Coney Island; however, how the movie was advertised portrayed the movie a little differently. In our reading “The Warriors”, it talks about how the poster said that “they were 100,000 strong. They outnumber the cops five to one. They could run New York City.” Just by seeing the ad people assumed it was going to be an inciteful film about all the gang violence at the time. It picked up so much heat it was almost banned in Boston. All the commotion caused people to go watch it to see what the fuss was about and was happy to inform that it was actually a “lively, well-made action film full of adventure and humor, no more violent than the film down the block.” I mean that bathroom scene?! COME ON. I am almost positive we can all agree that was the best fight scene in the whole movie. Anyways, after people reacted so positively to the movie they started defending its honor getting Paramount to removed the misleading picture on the picture and reassured the public that the 100,000 strong were only after The Warriors; the public was safe.

In our other reading, “The Cultural Economy of Fandom” by John Fiske, he discusses describing culture as an economy in which people invest and accumulate capitol. In the section discrimination and distinction Fiske refers to a case study of fans of “Cagney and Lacey” to show how the fans use the show and its stars to “enhance their self esteem which in turn enabled them to perform more powerfully in their social world. The fans had reported that the show gave them confidence to stand up for themselves in a variety of situations including a teenager who said the show made her realize that she could perform just as well as the boys in school. This is why it’s important to depict things in real life on television because so many different types of people are watching and can relate. Blacula created the first black protagonist who wasn’t a bad monster but actually a love sick man with a curse. The Warriors gave us a badass girl gang (the best gang y’all can’t even argue with me I won’t have it) which for the 70’s was surprising. They were just as wild and full of badassery as the men were and I loved and appreciated it.

For my last little bit I just wanted to throw in the scene where the kids from Prom get on the subway and The Warriors are all messed up and filthy. They all quietly watch the kids as they laugh with each other and are appreciating how easy their lives are. Once the kids look up and realize they’re all starring they fall silent. Mercy goes to fix her hair and Swan stops her and the kids leave the subway on the next stop. I think that scene was laid out beautifully as it portrayed the two different walks of life all these kids were on. It made my heart ache for Mercy and The Warriors 😦 that is all, happy Sprang Break y’all !!

           This week Mia and I watched The Warriors twice and were entertained both times because of its flashy, surreal fight scenes and the cool jackets. The Warriors was argued to be “insightful” of violence at the time of its release, almost being banned in Boston. The depictions of gang wars and the game of catch-up are choreographed and made to be a dream-like version of New York City in a time in which the depiction of the city was depressing and downbeat. The original text of The Warriors was based on a novel by Sol Yurick in 1965 which depicts a much angrier and grimy, but one that isn’t saved by any courageous gang heroes. It is an unearthly world that the Warriors step into when they go to the gathering in the Bronx. In the wrong place at the wrong time, they have to beat some ass to get home.

           The article “The Warriors” describes the movie as a theoretical baseball game in which the gang hits different subway station bases to get back home to Coney Island. Being based on a greek epic, a few men are lost to their masculine sensibilities unsurprisingly, one of which including young James Remar with an earring. Being filmed almost entirely at night, the empty streets and subway stations depict the city as a territory over run completely by the gangs. You can see why it would cause paranoia in 1979, with a city boiling with midnight movies and serial killers. However the film is made to be hopeful and keeps attention the whole film with the strangely different personalities and accessories of the gang aestheticism. I personally loved the outfits of the Lizzies, and the frizzy hair and insane chair smash move. I loved the role of women in the film, they were as unruly as the men surprisingly for a movie about gang-violence nevertheless in the 70s. It was a quick turn of the tables, like sirens with all similar shirts on that they obviously underestimated because they’re hot. The characters were easily the most interesting part to me; the Baseball Furies were easily my favorite, but the fight scene in the bathroom with the Punks was so on beat and epically staged you can see why there are no other movies quite like The Warriors. 

          In The culture of Fandom by John Fiske, he explains that the cultural economy created by over enthused fans is what pushes the industry to produce more content to be consumed. This is how the cult-audience of The Warriors were able to score a video game in 2005 and revive the classic and its groovy music. They fought for the film to be shown despite it’s enraging of the masses; it’s describes in the warriors article as “ artistically, (is) an uneven fim to say the least, but it’s so full of unbridled energy and drive, with frenetic pacing from beginning to end, that it’s hard not to root harder for it to succeed than those bigger-budgeted films with more ‘socially-acceptable protagonists’”

 

For this week’s screening we watched The Warriors and I really enjoyed this movie. I kinda figured I would enjoy the film based off the fact that other people liked it and that it has a huge cult following. I loved every minute of the film and I especially love how the film is treated like a comic book, which reminds me a bit of the film, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and the only reason is because the animation of that film is created to look like a comic book and the scene transitions of The Warriors was created to look like a comic book. I also enjoyed the readings, but there was one in particular that caught my attention the most and that was Fiske’s “The Cultural Economy of a Fandom” and it caught my attention for many different reasons.

The reason why I connected to Fiske’s piece the most is because I have seen many times the power of a fandom and how much a fandom can save or harm a franchise. I am also a part of many fandoms that range in various different sizes. To save a franchise part of a fandom, I have witnessed a few occasions where a fandom has saved a TV show from being canceled, and I am going to mention two that I was apart of. The two shows that I have witnessed being saved were Brooklyn 99 and Last Man Standing. Both of these shows were canceled by the stations that they were on, but because of how powerful fandoms are, the fans were able to get different stations to pick them up and now the shows are thriving on their new stations.

I have recently witnessed a fandom delay the release of a major movie. The story is that on Monday March 3rd, 2020 the founders of two of the most popular James Bond fan sites asked MGM and Universal to delay the release of the film due to the coronavirus. This ended up happening because on Wednesday the studios decided to change the release date of No Time To Die from its April release to a November release date. All of this because of the fans.

I have also witnessed fans bash on a movie of a particular franchise so much that it has basically divided the fan base in two. The movie that I am talking about is Star Wars: The Last Jedi and this film was able to divide the fan base basically in two. After the release of the film, many fans of Star Wars loved the film and even considered it the best in the franchise, while others called it the worst film in the franchise and that it destroyed Star Wars. The split in the fan base hit so much that the next film in the franchise, Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, basically further divided the fandom. The next film split the franchise basically into people who thought Skywalker saved the trilogy, people who thought it was the worst conclusion of the franchise, people who thought that it erased everything from the Last Jedi and basically made the franchise better, and there was also people who thought that the film was ridiculous and that it made no sense. There are so many different fandoms that have been created because of The Last Jedi and they are all so different from one another. But there is one thing that unites all of these fandoms of Star Wars, and that is that they all have some sort of love for Star Wars. There is one thing that I find unique about these fandoms and that The Child, AKA Baby Yoda was able to unite all of the Star Wars fandom and find something in the franchise to love again.

So, I would say that the power of a fandom is very strong and that it can harm or hurt a franchise, for No Time To Die, I can’t tell if changing the release date will ultimately benefit the film or if it will harm the film as a whole. All I know is that fandoms are very strong and that there will always be some sort of fandom for a movie, no matter how bad or good the film is.

This week started off with a bang, with no other than the cult classic, The Warriors (1979). This movie SLAPPED. I loved it. 

This movie told the story of a NYC gang from Coney Island who needs to find their way back home from The Bronx… with all of the other gangs in NYC out to kill them after being accused of killing the gang supreme, Cyrus. 

Growing up as a comic book fanatic, I could see so many comic book references and styles in the movie. For example, the way the radio DJ spoke before the start of every song. Also, how the characters were positioned throughout the film, especially before the comic-like transitions. They were all positioned a bit unnaturally, but it looked straight out of a comic book. 

I loved the use of color, especially when the new leader of the Riffs would speak, with a striking yellow background. The costumes of all the different gangs were also amazing! I especially liked the Boppers, with their bright purple hats and waistcoats. 

The fight scenes also reminded me of my comic book days. My favorite fight scene was when the Riffs beat up Cleon after Luther accuses The Warriors of killing Cyrus. 

During the entire movie, I was on the edge of my seat. I never knew when someone was about to die, when a fight would start, or what would even happen next. In fact, while I was doing some research on the movie, I found out that Fox was randomly killed off (when the police officer throws him into the subway tracks) because he was fired from the movie after a fight between him and the director, Walter Hill. 

I think that the music in the film helped to add to the suspense. The soundtrack was also a really fun part of the movie, and it added to the overall experience. The movie held my attention the entire time. 

This week, I also presented on my favorite cult movie of all time, Space Jam. I remember that when I was little, I would watch Space Jam while I was in the bath. Because of my love for basketball, and my love for cartoons, Space Jam has always been the perfect movie to me. It was a lot of fun to research on this movie, I loved playing around with the website. The soundtrack is also a lot of fun, even better than The Warriors soundtrack, in my opinion. 

Anna also did a great job with her presentation on Back to the Future. It was fun and captivating, and I thought that it was great that she included a home video. You could really tell that she was extremely passionate about this trilogy. 

Mia and Mary presented on the readings this week, and I thought it was super interesting to learn about fandoms. I think that it’s crazy to think about the time that fans put into movies that they love, but at the same time, I completely understand. I have spent a lot of time myself learning about Star Wars lore. 

This week we watched The Warriors, an epic (adjective and noun) adventure about gangs in New York City, specifically the Warriors. Inspired by the book by Sol Yurick; the film begins with a gathering organized by Cyrus, leader of the Gramercy Riffs who happen to be the most powerful gang in the city, to coalesce the gangs of New York into a community so powerful that even the police won’t be able to oppose them. But not everyone is willing to switch from their local-organizations, Cyrus is then assassinated by Luther who then, to cover his own group the Rogues, frames the Warriors for Cyrus’s death. All Hell breaks loose, this is the worst possible scenario; not only have all of NYC’s gangs left their home turfs to gather at a meeting meant to unite them, but now the city-wide truce has been broken and all fingers, baseball bats and chains in this case, point to the Warriors to blame. The rest of the movie follows the Warriors trek back to Coney Island filled with battles, love, and smart-ass remarks. Ultimately the Rogues get what they deserve, and the Warriors make it back to Coney Island but not after losing three of their members: two to death and one to the police.

What’s so interesting about the Warriors is that it provides an image of gang relations within New York City in a way that also completely separates it from actual gang violence. It glamorizes it through fun chase scenes, funky costumes, and chooses more noble forms of fighting; only one death is caused by a gun and Luther appears to hide behind it. Although The Warriors is a romanticized version of New York City’s gang life, there were only two instances where civilians were involved, but the film’s promotion was received differently. The film’s original poster showed a mass of people staring out at the viewer with a threatening caption that sounded much like Cyrus’s rallying remarks from the film. The Cult Films book describes the outrage caused by the misleading ad, “If this ad did indeed properly reflect the theme of the picture it was promoting, The Warriors could correctly be called an inciteful film – as many outraged citizens assumed it was after an epidemic of violent gang-related incidents broke out around the country inside and near theaters showing the film.” This added to the cult appeal of The Warriors for the negative connotations related to it from the general public and, after watching it, fans defended the film for what it truly is.

The reading from the Cult Films book discusses Sol Yurick’s original story of the Dominators, renamed the Warriors in the movie. I have not read the book but according to Cult Films, the film differs vastly from Yurick’s story to the point that it doesn’t come close to an adaptation of the novel. In Yurick’s novel the youth gang doesn’t have the charm we see in the movie, the book is more of a critique or mockery of a gang trying so hard to be bad. In both, they reference Anabasis the Greek epic by Xenophon, Cult Films points out that

“Film director Walter Hill’s warrior, a youth gang called the Warriors, exhibit characteristics of classical heroes: gallantry, self-pride, loyalty, discipline, resourcefulness, and most of all, the ability to fight. These are characters about which legends are told, epic poems written, movies made.”

It is no mere coincidence that the members of the Warriors are named after heroes in literature and history, the amount of symbolism in this movie shows how well-thought out it is. I had not known of the story of Anabasis before watching the warriors, with a little more research into the Xenophon’s story I learned that the word Anabasis means “a march from the coast to the interior”, much like the Warriors from Coney Island into New York. Xenophon’s story Anabasis is his own recount of a march to Persia to aid Cyrus, the founder of the first Persian empire. Other names that reference Greek warriors are Cleon and Ajax, but names like Cochise and Rembrandt also based on people before them.

I am very fond of The Warriors, the first time I watched it I was surprised at how different it really was from movies I had seen before. Viewing it analytically in this class made it all the better, I have a deeper understanding of the film. The high energy of the film is what gets me, it’s hard not to feel excited watching them run through New York. My favorite scene is definitely the fight scene with the Baseball Furies.

This week’s screening was my favorite by far. “The Warriors” was an absolutely riveting story of non-stop chase and “beat” or be “Beat up”. Or as Chris aptly described “one long chase scene.”

As you all know by now, I am an absolute sucker for title sequences. This week’s performance did not disappoint one bit. The title and introduction of movie staff was incorporated into the beginning scenes of the movie. As we were leaning the names of the people behind the movie, we were also being submerged into the plot of the movie as well.

Within these first moments, the funniest line I heard was “I’ll bet no one’s even gonna be there.” Moments after this line, we are brought to the gathering of thousands of gang-members surrounding a platform awaiting the words of the man that brought them there.

The fandom for this movie as we discussed in class is off the charts! One of the biggest parts of this fandom is the extremely quotable aspect of this film. One quote that that stood out to me the most was “Can you dig it?!” I have heard that line countless times all through my entire childhood, and always thought it was a part of a different movie, when in fact it was those other movies that used the line from this cult classic. When I heard those words come out of the “leaders” mouth, my face lit up with joy because of how impactful that line has been to me, and the unity it created when spoken to the thousands of people gathered there that night.

The true beginning of the chase this movie provided was when the leader was shot. The warriors were framed with the murder and all the “menacing” gangs of New York were tasked with eliminating them. Throughout this entire chase, I couldn’t help but wonder if the sun was ever going to be out. This was an interesting thought that I took note of while watching the film, but we later discussed in class that because of the way they wanted to shoot this movie, they had to film most of it at night. This in turn led to the lack of pedestrians.

The comic book-like transitions were mesmerizing. I loved its incorporation, and in my opinion, it brought even more life to the film.

John Fiske’s reading this week on the cultural economy of fandom, is the one that stuck me the most. When he talks about cinema filling the voids for people who lack certain social experiences, that stuck a core with me, as I completely agree with that statement, and all that it represents.

All of the presentations this week were phenomenal, but my favorite was the one about back to the future 3. The presentation itself was very informative, and proved cult status to not only the trilogy, but the 3^rd movie in its own right. The best part about the presentation was the personal connection that was displayed towards the film, and the impact that it has had on her from her childhood, to her homecoming parade.

Unfortunately I missed the screening of the Warriors this week due to having a cold. I am semi upset I missed this screening because it really does sound like a great cult classic. I have done some research on the movie since I missed because, I have not had time to sit-down and rent it to watch. From the research I have done I can tell why this movie has become such a cult classic to many. One thing that was mentioned in the readings and also what I read online is the amount of violence that came out of the film. Since the film is about gangs many people who were apart of gangs liked the film causing deaths following the opening weekend. Still it has become a cult classic and overcame that little hiccup when it was first released. The movie made over $22 million compared to its $4 million budget. It also since has had video games made about it and a comic book series which helps the movie be broadcasted to more people, raising its overall cult status. I will be sure to watch this movie as it seems like a great cult classic.

Next, I want to talk about the presentations we had this week. Anna’s presentation on Back to the Future Part III. You could really tell how into the film she was and how much love she had for the film. I think she did a great job describing why she thought it was a cult movie and her reasons behind it. My dad loves the Back to the Future movies so I grew up watching them, so when she said she got to ride in a DeLorean I was semi jealous. Zane also did a great job on his presentation on Space Jam. You could also tell his love for the film since he has seen it since growing up. I think many people could agree on the movies cult status that it has. Overall the presentations were great in my opinion.

Lastly, I want to talk about the Cultural Economy of Fandom. In this reading in the book I want to talk about a quote in the Productivity and Participation section. The very first line says, “Popular Culture is produced by the people out of the products of the cultural industries; it must be understood, therefore, in terms of productivity, not of reception.” This quote was also something that Dr.Schlegel had repeated during the readings. I think this quote really helps define the whole section. Many things that are produced such as films, are not made or advertised as a cult film, therefore the people start loving them due to how well they are produced and give them the cult status. Fans then also like with the warriors create products like the video game, giving the productivity of the film more of a way to get a reception.

Coming into this week I had never seen the movie, The Warriors before, however as soon as I told my father that it was the film this week I was immediately interrupted by his best Luther impression reciting the classic line, “warrriorrs come out and plaayyyay.” Now this is something I had heard from him many times before but never really understood the reference and just shook it off as my dad being weird. That was until this week when I saw this movie and fell in love with it. After watching this film I had many thoughts and questions about it and am very eager to talk about them here.

I really liked how Chris described it as ‘a very long chase scene’ and what I believe Mary said about seeing other films cover the whole plot of this movie in about 15 minutes, because I believe both those things are very true. I don’t think you could really make this movie and specifically this movies plot again now as I think the audience would get bored but the way Walter Hill directed it, it never did. The main thing that kept my attention was all the very weird gangs that kept coming after our heroes the Warriors. I am used to gangs in films being depicted as tough and leather glad, which to their credit some of them were, but others were just plain weird. I honestly couldn’t pick a favorite between the Lizzies, the all lesbian gang who seduced the Warriors with their femininity only to pull out guns and be just bad enough shots that our heroes get away, or the Punks, the large gang of long haired men in overalls or the Baseball Furies, the baseball clowns? Each one gets a little weirder then then next.

When it came to our readings this week I thought Peary’s article on The Warriors was a really interesting almost ‘behind the scenes’ look into the film. What really stuck out to me first that I found to be quite fascinating was how inciteful the poster was compared to the film.

Getting into the mindset of the crazed conservative down the street I could see how this poster could be scary, the eye contact of the characters is very confrontational and the phrase “They out number the cops five to one. They could take over New York City” is a daunting thought. However once you see this film you can clearly see, through the lack of civilians except, for some innocent prom goers, that these night armies mean no harm to you, they are only after The Warriors.

My last quick thing about this film that I found to be quite confusingly funny is how even though everyone in the city was out to kill them all the Warriors, who didn’t die, at some point in the movie stopped to have sex. Whether it was Ajax trying to rape the undercover officer, Swan and Mercy getting close in the subway tunnels or the three Warriors seduced by the Lizzies they all had one track mind while everyone else was trying to kill them. Call me a prude or not romantic but thats way to stressful of an environment for me to even think about anything like that.

              This week in our film class, we learned about  and discussed fandoms in our reading of “The Cultural Economy” by John Fiske. We learned about the importance of the support of fans and how fans make up necessary communities in the world of cult films. Our Screening of the week, The warriors, is a 1979 American action film directed by Walter Hill, based on Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel of the same name. This movie is one that flourished through its fandom, from the late night showings to the success of video games and things of the like, the fans of this film allowed it to gain its cult movie title. 

     The Warriors is a unique film with an intriguing aesthetic and dialogue throughout the entire movie. The film stars Michael Beck, James Remar, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Marcelino Sanchez, David Harris, Tom McKitterick,rian Tyler, Dorsey Wright, Terry Michos, David Patrick Kelly, Roger Hill, Edward Sewer, and Lynn Thigpen.  The plot of the film: Cyrus,played by Roger Hill, leader of the Gramercy Riffs, the most powerful gang in New York City, calls a midnight summit of all the city’s gangs, requesting them to send nine unarmed delegates to Van Cortlandt Park. The Warriors, from Coney Island, attend the summit. Cyrus proposes to the assembled crowd a permanent citywide truce and alliance that would allow the gangs to control the city since they outnumber the police by three to one. Most of the gangs applaud his idea, but hidden in the crowd, Luther, played by David Patrick Kelly, leader of the Rogues, shoots Cyrus dead just as the police arrive and raid the summit. In the  chaos, Luther frames the Warriors’ leader Cleon, played by Dorsey Wright, for the murder, and Cleon is beaten down and apparently killed by the Riffs. Meanwhile, the other Warriors escape, unaware that they have been implicated in Cyrus’ murder. The Riffs put out a hit on the Warriors through a radio DJ. Swan, the Warriors’ “war chief”, takes charge of the group as they try to make it back home. The rest of the film watches the gang and their encounters on their journey home. They come in contact with several gangs who are targeting them as they think the Warriors are responsible for the death of Cyrus. They fight off gangs and policemen throughout the film making it action packed and exciting. They meet a girl along the way, (because-of course there has to be a girl dressed in skimpy pink clothes following around a gang of muscly men through New York City in the middle of the night, begging for one of them to pursue her) Mercy, Played by Deborah Van Valkenburgh, who becomes a sort of sidekick in for the rush. She often just puts herself in dangerous situations getting involved in the violent gang fights. A part that I found insanely intriguing was the scenes with the radio broadcaster. Played by Lynne Thigpen, this character broadcasts reports to the gangs of the city. The only part  that can be seen of her is her mouth talking into the microphone which highly reminded me of the opening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show where there is just a mouth pasted onto a black screen singing a song. 

    The release of the film in 1979 caused a bit of a violent breakout among the fans of The Warriors. The film had linked to vandalism and three separate killings following the weekend of its release. This prompted Paramount to remove advertisements from radio and television completely and display ads in the press were reduced to the film’s title, rating and participating theaters. In reaction, 200 theaters across the country added security personnel. Due to safety concerns, theater owners were relieved of their contractual obligations if they did not want to show the film, and Paramount offered to pay costs for additional security and damages due to vandalism. In the case of this film, the fandom got out of hand, attempting to role play what had happened in the film. This makes sense as it was the first film of its kind and has a violent rhetoric towards police officers. However, this is just a film, but this kind of reaction shows how influential a film can become to its fans, and how fandoms are a huge part of the film industry, both positively and negatively.