# The Movies (2019)

> A six-episode CNN documentary miniseries that traces American cinema decade by decade and the cultural, social and political forces behind its changes.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/76977

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 6
- Episode runtime: 80 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary
- Network: CNN
- Cast: Jessica Savitch
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10468676/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: reflective, informative, nostalgic, contemplative, warm

## What critics say

Viewers and reviewers generally find the miniseries an engaging, well-informed survey of American film history that places classic movies in their cultural context.

## Synopsis

The Movies (2019) is a US documentary miniseries created for CNN, running six episodes of roughly eighty minutes each. Rather than following a single protagonist or a cast of performers, it works as a guided tour through American film history, moving decade by decade and asking how the national mood, social upheavals and political currents shaped the movies audiences went to see. Each episode is built from archival clips, production history and commentary that connect a studio era or a genre's rise to the wider culture around it. The engine is curiosity about cause and effect: why certain pictures appeared when they did, and how the stories behind their making reveal the country's anxieties and ambitions. Its archive-driven format gives the series a reflective, measured register, informative and warm toward its subject while remaining grounded in the historical record. The tone is earnest and contemplative, suited to viewers who enjoy seeing familiar films re-examined through the circumstances that produced them. Fans of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and of archival history series such as The Vietnam War will find the same blend of cinema scholarship and social context here. Because it is a single miniseries with no continuing narrative, each episode can be followed on its own terms while the whole traces a clear arc across the twentieth century.

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