The early 1930s are remembered for the Great Depression, but they also jump-started the Golden Age of Hollywood. Movies provided a cathartic release for people overwhelmed by economic and social instability, and moviegoers escaped reality by plunging into fantasy worlds of glitz, glamour, and gilded cages. In spite of the bread lines and soup kitchens, the film industry boomed with movie stars, “talkies,” and the beginnings of color photography. Americans couldn’t bear to give up their entertainment, and they found other ways to scrimp and save.

Does this sound familiar to you? It is happening all over again. The loose credit and greedy Wall Street policies of the 1920s initiated the Great Depression, and the loose credit and greedy Wall Street policies of the early 2000s—well, you get the idea. So now that we are in the middle of the Great Recession (or “Obama’s Magical Money Machine,” or whatever you want to call it), are we Americans being good little spendthrifts by cutting back on all unnecessary spending? No, of course not. Box office receipts prove we are still spending millions on the cinema; the only difference is that whereas the wise Depression crowd spent their money on movies like “Frankenstein” and “The Public Enemy,” we gave our money to a Tyler Perry movie. The Golden Age of Hollywood has indeed ended.

Now we are in May, the month for summer blockbusters. Once upon a time, summer blockbusters were, in fact, released in the corresponding season; but Hollywood moguls are too greedy to wait on Mother Nature, and began releasing their post-springtime films in May to beef up fall DVD sales. “Wolverine,” “Terminator Salvation,” and “Star Trek” are among this month’s highly anticipated films. These movies guarantee weird legions of twenty- and thirty-something fanboys dressed in Halloween costumes will descend upon theaters throughout America, absorbing every detail so they can later argue about the films on Internet message boards until their mommies make them go to sleep. The rest of us will definitely see these films too, because we want to escape the idiotic policies of our elected officials by watching fake mutants, cyborgs, and aliens. It sounds glorious.

I could lament how we are wasting money on frivolous entertainment. I could explain how nearly the entire industry we are supporting endorses economic policies detrimental to a free America. I could point out that as Americans are losing their jobs, we are providing enormous salaries to mediocre actors whose performances are upstaged by special effects. But doing so would make me a hypocrite, because I will be at the theater for all these movies, too. Shunning the movies in time of economic crisis would be distinctly un-American.

Sometimes a good dose of Hollywood magic is needed to jolt someone out of the doldrums. We saw this right after the 9/11 incidents, when certain films produced before the terrorist attacks took on special poignancy. To be fair, “Lord of the Rings” and “Spiderman” were great movies in the first place, but in late 2001 and mid-2002, the films’ messages of good of evil seemed especially appropriate. I doubt any of this year’s blockbusters will carry such significance, unless Wolverine battles overpaid CEOs and John Connor saves the world from mechanized politicians. But who knows? Maybe the crew of “Star Trek” will finally locate Nancy Pelosi’s home planet.

© 2009, Timothy Samaha

First published in PoV Magazine.