You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story - Part 1
- Episode aired Sep 23, 2008
- TV-14
- 3h 48m
Documentary about the first 85 years of Warner Bros. Studios, with scenes from hundreds of films that reflect the values, morals and attitudes of several generations, especially in the Unite... Read allDocumentary about the first 85 years of Warner Bros. Studios, with scenes from hundreds of films that reflect the values, morals and attitudes of several generations, especially in the United States.Documentary about the first 85 years of Warner Bros. Studios, with scenes from hundreds of films that reflect the values, morals and attitudes of several generations, especially in the United States.
Photos
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe original version, the short version, was broadcast on PBS in 2008, and ran ninety minutes in one episode. The later version, the long version, was broadcast on PBS in 2012, and ran two hundred twenty-eight minutes in (four) fifty-seven minute episodes.
- Quotes
Self - Author of 'Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend': Jack Warner wrote that Rin Tin Tin was the best leading man that Warner Bros. ever had. He never had a bad day, He never made a bad movie. He never made unreasonable demands. His family life was above reproach. Remember, these were silent films. Dogs were on the same level as human actors, all of them were mute. So you could have a story in which the dog was as capable of communicating as the people were.
- ConnectionsFeatures My Four Years in Germany (1918)
That said, it's hard to complain when you're treated to clips of Al Jolson singing, or the great gangster films with Cagney and Robinson, or the hard-boiled social dramas of the early 30s, and of course the Busby Berkeley musicals. Part One covers the years from the beginning of the studio, through the pivotal year of 1950, just as the studio system was really starting to collapse, and film forever relinquished its title to television as America's first choice in entertainment.
Part Two covers the period of 1950-1989, and in many ways is just as interesting as the first part, even though we've seen many of these clips before. From the studio's grappling with television, to its cutting-edge films of the 60s (Warners was one of the key studios in the American New Wave, with films like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", "Bonnie and Clyde", and "Mean Streets"). The segment takes us through the 70s and 80s, with entirely too much time spent on Clint Eastwood, and not nearly enough on Stanley Kubrick, whose work remains some of the most intensely personal and unique to ever come out of a Hollywood studio.
Part Three is essentially a re-hash of Warners' biggest hits over the last decade-films like "The Matrix" and "Harry Potter". Half the episode is devoted to Clint Eastwood, one of our finest filmmakers (and I felt his inclusion here, as the director of films like "Bird" and "Unforgiven", was far more justified than spending so much time on the Dirty Harry films in part two). Considerable time is also spent on George Clooney, who remains something of an anomaly in 21st century Hollywood-a star with great taste in selecting intelligent projects, and who is able to alternate between well-produced entertainments like "Ocean's Eleven", and more serious-minded films like "Good Night and Good Luck".
The good news is that the documentary includes many clips (all restored) that help to give a really good view of the changing trends in cinema over the last century. The bad news is that too little time is spent on the actual workings of the studio. We hear surprisingly little about the Warners themselves, for instance, in the first episode (although more time is given to Jack L. Warner in part two, which covers the years when he essentially took control of the studio.) It was especially good to see the early years covered. It's important to remember that Warners' biggest earner in the silent days was Rin Tin Tin, even though they also had prestige director Ernst Lubitsch under contract, who made some of his best films there in the 1920s. A real treat was the clip from "My Fours Years in Germany", the first film produced by Warner Bros. in 1918, and one of the real classics of its time.
A fair amount of time is spent on some of the major directors, such as Raoul Walsh, Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock (who worked briefly but memorably at Warners in the early 50s).
Ultimately, though, even at five hours, the documentary leaves viewers hungry for more. This is perhaps an inevitable problem when trying to cover an entire studio's history. It's good to see this update of Warners' history, which was previously tackled in the 1992 documentary "Here's Looking at You" (also hosted by Clint Eastwood).
The history of the great studios of Hollywood's golden age is a subject that is of great importance to the history of American show business, and world cinema in general. MGM, the most prestigious studio in its day, was documented in the superb "When the Lion Roars" documentary in 1993. Unfortunately, neither Paramount, 20th Century Fox or even RKO (among the major studios) have ever had anything approaching a documented history like this. Paramount and Fox, in particular, with their galaxy of stars and directors, would seem ideal candidates for the next such documentary, although neither studio presently has any interest in preserving their history. RKO of course is not as well known today, since the studio itself is long gone, and lacked the contract players, specialty genre films and distinctive studio moguls that defined the other studios. And while studios like Columbia and Universal have grown to a staggering size today, they were distinctly "minor" studios in the golden age, making their history of that period less easy to document.
As it is, "You Must Remember This" is a commendable effort to provide a survey of the output of Warner Bros. over the last 90 years. It's flaws are understandable, given the amount of material to be covered.
- classicmoviecomedy
- Sep 26, 2008
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Warner Bros.: Una Historia Para El Recuerdo
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro