The Movies

This original CNN series highlights the history of American film. Narrated by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman and featuring interviews with Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks, Baz Luhrman, Ridley Scott, Julia Roberts and many others, we look back at Hollywood's Golden Age and see how the industry is slowly moving forward. A journey of discovery in big pictures with original clips from countless film classics. The Jazz Singer is the first talking film. Meanwhile, King Kong and Dracula are helping the Americans out of the economic crisis. Walt Disney is working on his first cartoon: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Films like It Happened Over Night and You Don't Kiss Leopards are becoming audience favorites. John Wayne and Gary Cooper shape the Western film. While Europeans remember 1939 as the year in which World War II began, it is possibly the greatest year in the history of Hollywood: The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind hit the screens. Citizen Kane follows in 1941, Casablanca in 1942, and Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life in 1946.