Walter Benjamin and Films Effect on Society

Walter Benjamin reflects on the idea that ‘the greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sha­­rper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public’(media and cultural studies keyworks: 29). Benjamin touches upon the idea that if the ‘‘social significance’’ of an art form declines, then ultimately it would lead to what he terms a, progressive attitude towards art, or more modernly termed as popular culture. This is prophetic, in the sense that, especially within the western world, culture has almost merged; although cultures do show their own individuality within art, trends start quickly and through technology connect separate cultures to become a mass, especially within the entertainment industry, such as film.

In the fifth section of The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, he writes that ‘the film industry is trying hard to spur the interest of the masses through illusion promoting spectacle’(media and cultural studies keyworks: 28), and this resonates within today’s society too; blockbuster movies are about creating a fantasy world, be it horror or action and this is perhaps why on a mass scale film is enjoyed in its many stereotypical genres. Benjamin’s idea was that of we are suseptable, or open to the media, at its most influential and absorbing, then eventually society would become more forgiving of social taboo because they’d be used to seeing it in the artificial world of film; and this is true. Society is far more lenient now than at the time of publication.