Hollywood - Aufstieg der Titanen

Clearly the inspiration for this was "Movies and Money" by David Putnam, a book which I heartily recommend for anyone interested in the subject.

I heartily loved this show. Even though I'm no fan of the French I do have to say however it's pretty cruel to not acknowledge that it was the Lumiere Brothers who invented the projector to Eddisons "viewing box".

Proper "features" also needed funding and it was Credit Suisse who made the first. But when it gets into the story of Carl Laemmle I became hooked.

It is also ultimately very uplifting as it shows what entrepreneurs and imagination and energy can achieve. Really loved this.

We thought we knew a lot about the origins of movies, having watched the 13-episode series "Hollywood" narrated by James Mason. But each episode of "Titans", especially those covering the 1890s to mid-1910s, had us saying "I never knew that." By focusing on the business perspective--innovators who had a feeling that motion pictures could be big, but struggled to figure out how--the series explains how and why the innovations happened.

The docudrama is narrated as oral history by an older Adolf Zukor. The dynamics between the competitors/collaborators are often fascinating. The final episode or two, covering the end of the silent era, get bogged down by details about corporate wheeling and dealing, which can be hard to follow. Nevertheless, the earlier portions more than make up for it.

I was really worried when I started this that it would be cheesy and shallow. Now as many others said. The recreations were horrible and wooden. But especially the early episodes are very very interesting about the exchanges and how Edison had somehow created a monopoly. Edison was well known for suing the hell out of anyone that he thought was not paying him for his inventions. But luckily he over reached with the movies and ended up losing. The music was so bad through out especially the music for the introduction for each episode. But this is a definite watch for anyone that likes movies.

While packed with enough Hollywood history to make even the most avid movie goer salivate, this series falls short in almost all other categories. The acting is wooden and shallow. Why they decided to use a narrator who sounds like Peter Falk is unanswerable. If you close your eyes, you'll swear you're watching the Princess Bride. Overall, it plays like an 8th grade attempt at docudrama. Watch for the history or don't bother.

I love history and docushows or podcasts that bring it to life. This is a great insight and fascinating show. I hope all true. My only real critique looking past the average acting, EVERYONE almost at EVERY second is smoking a cigarette. I couldn't really understand why. Even if that were true of the time, I don't think they smoked endlessly everywhere and everyone. Seemed excessive.