Patrons’ Choice

Cinema and the Native

PISTOLS AT DAWN OR THE RIO GRANDE IS

(Contributed)

.is day when the effect on the .mature mind of television ist being introduced to Aus and well-established over is being argued back and the effect of an older medium tertainment the übiquitous —is being argued in Honiara, •t of complete audience segre , which is attempted only in -New Guinea, there appears nothing much that can be to soften the blow for the 'listicated savage, our correspondent points out Westerns are preferred fare •e generally regarded as “safe” i se in authority. Frankly, we ilways wondered why: Surely is no more inane form of the i-picture art; or one so zd from present-day reality. ,e matter of that, the Ameri ilt of the two-fisted, hairy d he-man, who settles all dif es of opinion in a free-for-all would put nine out of 10 lood movies outside the : of reality, or “safety”—if s what is to be aimed at. ever, it is pretty certain that he dumbest savage perceives here is a subtle difference be life as lived by the cowhands xas and that lived by the al Service in Honiara. hope that he brings the same f reasoning to bear on the love passages and the bed scenes that slip by the censor. first cinema in Honiara, itish Solomon Islands, has w been operating for over a and it is interesting to note langes it has made amongst five population, it from the start it was s that to be a financially proposition, films would have directed more at native lers than at the handful of jans living in and around ra. n other Islands groups, native soon showed itself in favour Western picture, or colourful >-historical stories with plenty tion and an uncomplicated more flashing guns, the more ig swords, the greater was ice-approval. Musical ex :anzas, and the more subtle turned out by Hollywood and i studios, played to small ices, composed mostly of Euro-

The cinema has brought plenty of surface changes. On picture nights the native population dresses in best clothes. The carefree dress of pre-cinema days has given place to whites and shiny black shoes, and house boys on a night-off lean against the soft-drinks counter with

all the aplomb of hardened habitues of filmland bars.

Audience reaction is easy to fore -3£ a ? at i ve if a picture was enjoyed a £ d hls reaction is straightforward.

Good picture—plenty fight long gun”—with variations according to the era being portrayed. Romantic stories devoid of action are usually dismissed as having “Too much love”; or “Too much talk-talk.”

Whether or not the cinema has had any harmful effect on immature minds is a point often argued about locally.

There has been no official at tempt to point out that the films

shown are “just stories”—imaginary creations, and not portrayals of real life. And in view of the low standard of so many Hollywood films this seems important.

Most of the films seen by natives prior to the opening of a com mercial cinema were the products of the Central Office of Informa tion, or Mission bodies; films which were factual and often dealt with a type of life known to the local natives. (But having once sat through a long film about copra drying in West Africa which was shown to a large native audience in Honiara, we must admit that the level of entertainment has certainly risen with the new cinema).

Any cinema owner operating under

local circumstances faces great dif ficulties. Honiara is at the end of the line as far as film circuits are concerned. There are no other cinemas to take over programmes; films arrive, are screened once, and are shipped out again.

Supply is an erratic business, due to restricted shipping services, and it is almost impossible to please both European and native tastes with the same film.

Recently it has become policy to show the better films as one of the week’s two programmes mainly for the benefit of the few Europeans.

IT has often been remarked that since the opening of a cinema, there have been cases of natives

molesting, or attempting to mcj European women in their hu at night—a thing hitherto pm ally unknown in the Protects This leads to the question censorship of films, which s« ingly is not very rigid.

When commercial cinema op: in Honiara, a board of censors? formed comprised of Governm commercial, and Mission re sentatives. The board rarely films privately; during the pas? months it has examined one fll A synopsis of each film forwarded to the Chief censor apparently judges its effect on population after reading it.

It is sometimes difficult to dtl what policy is followed in cer

’ films. Extreme violence is out, so, it seems are films purely political theme. As f the American political films ti-Communist, it is safe to it Communism is out. just how much understanding srage native has of such films itionable. His command of l is usually too small to a, picture other than visually, inless a film shows the i of people over “Authority” we cannot recall many that nished on that note —it seems s point is lost on a native ;e. t of questionable scenes do and these are the backbone argument about the harmful >f the cinema in this ccm and the need for a firm hip policy. g women in a state of un women being manhandled t, intense love scenes; news owing negro boxers hammer

dr white opponents—all are

of wrong interpretation by audiences. l of the problem revolves this question of whether or ; audience realises it is just , and that generally speak ite men and women do not as shown on the screen. > is also the suggestion that rs of the audience may r screen characters with with whom they are in con cally, especially in the case ien. It is, we suggest, easy immature mind to assume scause the screen character ig to be pushed around her n by all and sundry, the real rallel may feel similarly, ara has a large floating ion of labourers who spend months in the community ; their womenfolk and while lot suggested that the in of the past years or so have from this body, it is sug that certain screen offerings •avate an unnatural situation, ore realistic film censorship seem to be one solution. A j attempt to explain the dif between screen fact and fiction would probably help, difference between the offer f the Central Office of In lon and the commercial , is somewhat akin to the from Grandma’s lantern to a seat in the stalls at a ue theatre. ss one has had the oppor to acquire a little “Worldli n the meantime, that change very disturbing.

J. A. East, founder of the iross movement in Western , has been made the first life r of the Apia Red Cross