[HPFGU-Movie] movie length

[TripChick]

On Nov 24, 2005, at 7:17 AM, HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com wrote:

> If you watch old movies, like I do, then you'll notice that most of  
> the
> credits are actually at the beginning of the films.  I think Star Wars
> was one of the early films that got straight to the story and put all
> the credits at the end.  Films have been doing that now for the better
> part of 30 years.
>
> Tim A


While I don't remember all the exact particulars about that, it was  
Star Wars and several other movies in 1977 that started this (I think  
Apocalypse Now was another one). What happened was that Lucas didn't  
want all the 'directed by', 'written by', 'produced by' stuff right  
at the beginning of the movie. He felt it would interrupt the flow of  
the story. (Apparently, according to the various unions involved,  
certain credits are supposed to be shown before the movie, and in a  
particular order) The Directors Guild of America wouldn't allow him  
to have "Starring<Hamill, Fisher, Ford, etc>" pre-movie unless  
"Directed by" was also included. Lucas, in order to get his way, just  
decided to nix it all, leaving only the studio credit and the movie  
title in the beginning. And Coppola even one-upped Lucas by leaving  
ALL the credits off the celluloid in the original run of Apocalypse- 
the credits were all printed out in a booklet you received when you  
entered the theatre.

Frankly, I prefer the credits afterwards. Answers my questions better  
when I know what to look for ("Who wrote that song? Who played the  
little boy?" etc)

tc