Do The Right Thing

Do The Right Thing was my favorite movie we watched in art of film so far. My favorite scene from the movie was when the white guy accidentally scuffs Buggin Out's new Air Jordans, then he and the rest of his friends freak out at the white guy. I liked the way the movie used bright colors and gave everything like an orange tint to exaggerate and show how hot it is.

I thought it was easy to concentrate more on Sal's pizzeria being destroyed than on the death of Radio Raheem, even though the death of Radio Raheem is supposed to be more important than a pizza store burning down. It was easy to pay more attention to Sal's pizza place being destroyed because that got more attention in the movie, and when Radio Raheem died it only showed him being choked to death for a short amount of time and then he was taken away in a cop car, and no one really payed any more attention to it.

I don't know if Sal is racist, there are some things in the movie that could say he is racist and some that could say he is not racist. You could say that he is not racist because he was always nice to Mookie and never fired him, and he was nice to Mookies's sister. And when Sal smashes Radio Raheem's stereo I think he would have smashed anyones radio white or black if they were doing that. You could say that he only called black people racist names when he was mad for his store being burnt down. But you could say that if he called anyone those names under any circumstance that he is really a racists.

The Battle of Algiers

I thought The Battle of Algiers was a good movie, because it showed both sides of the fights evenly, and the scenes looked like they were real. I knew that this film was viewed in the pentagon a while ago but i learned from the New York Magazine review that this film was also used by the Black Panthers as a training video. The article talks about how the movies distributer originally inserted the disclaimer “Not one foot of newsreel or documentary film has been used.” I thought that Pontecorvo did a good job making this film look realistic or documentary like, the way he was able to choreograph huge crowds in the same shot, and the way he used a hand held camera through out the film. Also from this article I learned that the screen play was originally written in a french prison by Saadi Yacef, who approached three directers after his release one of the pontecorvo. Saadi Yacef became the producer and also appeared in the movie playing a character similar to himself El-hadi Jaffar, the military leader of the FLN. The character of Ali La Pointe was played by an illiterate peasant Pontecorvo found on the steets.

Chinatown

Chinatown was my favorite of the film noir type movies. Chinatown had many similarities to classic noir films and many differences from a typical film noir. Jake Gittes was like the traditional hard-boiled detective because he was determined to find out who set him up, just because he wanted to know. Also Gittes is similar to the character in Kiss Me Deadly, because they both have the same profession. Gittes doesn't smoke as much as the Jeff Bailey in Out of the Past, but smoking is still used to give that film noir feel in Chinatown. The main difference that sets Chinatown apart from the classic film noir movies is that Chinatown is in color, so Chinatown had brighter scenes to darken with low-key lighting.

At first the character of Evelyn Cross Mulwray seems like she is being set up as the classic femme fatale. Evelyn Mulwray is dangerous, seductive, and mysterious, which is what you would expect to see in a film noir. As the film goes on though Evelyn seems nothing like the classic femme fatale as she begins to lose it, and eventually is shot and killed. The way that girl was Evelyn's daughter and sister was pretty weird. Even though it was a pretty depressing ending with Evelyn Mulwray getting shot I liked the way it all ended.

Kiss Me Deadly

Kiss Me Deadly was one odd movie. I preferred the second ending we saw where it doesn't show the characters escaping the house. I liked the second shorter ending better because when it didn't show them make it out it seemed like that was what it was building up to, plus the characters got pretty annoying so I was glad they died. I didn't like the longer ending where they make it out of the house, because then it doesn't seem like it is ready to end yet. And in the longer ending Mike Hammer was shot but then he gets out of the house alive, but will probably just die anyway. The end of the movie was really weird no matter which ending you watch. The glowing box of doom was ridiculous, also how Mike got information out of people was pretty funny. He would either slap them across the face a few times or break their records, both funny. I don't understand how this is considered by some to be the ultimate film noir. I thought that it started out pretty boring and then just got crazy as it went on. At the start of the movie it seemed to be more normal and realistic but that was all lost as it went on. The plot didn't explain many things like how the girl from the beginning of the movie tied into the other characters besides she had a key.

Out of the Past

Before watching Out of the Past, I had never heard of film noir, and had no idea what it was. Know I know film noir is basically smoking in trench coats in low-key lighting. I liked Out of the Past, even though some parts of the plot got confusing, it wasn't really important if you didn't know what exactly was going on. Out of the past used a lot of low key lighting, which is typical to film noir. Low-key lighting was used in a lot of different scenes, like while they were driving through the night or in Whit's house. Low key lighting wasn't used during the scenes of Jeff Bailey's present life, but was used during the scenes of his past life. This gave the effect that his present life is more boring and safe and that he used to be involved in dangerous and mysterious things. Just about every single scene in the movie had someone smoking in it which is another typical element of film noir. There were a lot of mysterious aspects to the movie too, which I liked. The character of Kathie is mysterious because you never know whether she is lying or not, also the ending scene with the message the kid gives Ann leaves you thinking about it.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I liked Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, usually I don't like any movie that doesn't show scenes in chronological order, but I liked the way it worked in this movie. I also usually don't like sci-fi movies or movies with an unrealistic aspect to the plot, but it was alright in this movie. This movie being a romantic comedy was much darker than His Girl Friday which was a screwball comedy. This Film has a darker and more serious aspect which makes it a romantic comedy. In this movie it seemed darker than a screwball comedy because bad stuff could actually happen to the characters in this movie. In His Girl Friday it didn't seem like any one could get hurt, like when the lady jumped out the window and survived it wasn't a big deal, just kind of funny. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind you would think that if someone jumped out the window they would die, or it wouldn't be so funny. Also this movie is more serious because Joel starts to regret erasing Clementine and tries to stop his memories of her from being erased. In a screwball comedy like His Girl Friday there would never be a character with a serious problem or serious conflict.

I liked in the movie how Howard who was the doctor who erased peoples memories chose not to erase his own memories of Mary, but he chose to just deal with it like normal. I thought that his relationship with Mary was pretty weird though. In both relationships whoever had there memories erased fell back in love with the person they had erased, but in the Mary Howard relationship Howard didn't have his memories erased and didn't fall back in love with Mary.

His Girl Friday

This movie was alright, there were a lot of things that I did and didn't like about it. One thing that I liked about the film was the way it was about a couple getting back together, but there were other things going on like with the murderer, so you aren't bored. I thought that having the characters constantly talking so fast and constantly having more than one character talking at a time got progressively more annoying. The film lacked cinematic techniques, because the focus was supposed to be on the dialogue and acting, but that didn't help make the film any more exciting. Another thing that I didn't like about the film was the long duration of shots and the few settings of the film. The majority of the scenes took place in the press room, the restaurant, or the jail. I know that His Girl Friday was originally a play, which is why there are few different settings, but I thought that it made the film seem boring and pointless, since they never really went anywhere. I liked the way there was more than just a couple getting back together going on, but some of the parts got pretty confusing. One part that confused me was the part of the plot with the man who was bribed by the mayor or whoever that guy was, then he came back later at the end to confuse me more. I also thought that the end of the movie was confusing, the way Hildy and Walter were going to be arrested but then let go.

UNFORGIVEN

I hadn't seen any westerns before stagecoach and after watching it I didn't want to see anymore, but I thought that Unforgiven was a pretty good movie. After seeing Unforgiven, I can see the differences between classical westerns like Stagecoach, and newer revisionist westerns like Unforgiven. I also now like the revisionists westerns more than the classical westerns. Although Unforgiven followed a plot similar to a lot of westerns I though that the way it all happened was better. Unforgiven was unique from most westerns. Unforgiven showed that the westerns heroes might not be such respectable characters. This is shown through the main character William Munny, because of that fact that he has killed women and children, and because by the end of the movie he is back to his old ways of drinking and killing. Another example is of the character English Bob. English Bob at first seems like he would be a typical cowboy hero, but it is later revealed that he killed a man whose gun miss fired and had to walk up and shoot him point blank because he was so drunk. Also killing is portrayed differently in this film. When Will, Ted, and the Schofield kid are shooting down the first cowboy, they miss a few times and once they actually hit him he doesn't instantly die, which is what you would expect from watching other movies. Also the second cowboy they kill is not in a typical or expected way. They kill the second cowboy while he is in the outhouse, and not in some shoot out like you would see in other westerns.

Scarface Behind The Scenes

Scarface was one of director Brian DePalma's most difficult, but also most career boosting movies. The script was written by Oliver Stone who said, "I wrote SCARFACE basically as an adieu to cocaine. It had beaten the hell out of me, but I got my revenge by writing about it." Oliver Stone used to be addicted to cocaine, which is what influenced him to write the movie. Before Stone began to write the script he researched the crime scene in south Florida, and also traced drug export routes back to Latin America. Stone spent time in Bimini a Caribbean island, part of the drug chain to track down drug dealers he was gathering information about. Stone ended up snorting cocaine with the group of drug dealers, and he accidentally dropped the name of a defense lawyer he knew, who happened to have been a prosecutor of one of the guys he was with. Stone had to convince them that he was a script writer, because they all thought that Stone was setting them up to get busted again. Stone tried to include this into the chainsaw scene from the movie.
The main character Tony Montana (scarface) was played by Al Pacino. To prepare for the movie Al Pacino had to become used to local customs, the local style, and speech patterns. Pacino would prepare for his role by using his accent and communicating in Spanish to the director of photography John A. Alonzo. Also in addition to just learning the culture, he had to go through a lot of physical training. Pacino worked with a combat expert to help with his role in the movie. Another actor in the film was Steven Bauer, who played Tony's friend and partner in the movie. Bauer was chosen because he was a Cuban born actor, and he was just one of many of the Latin American actors chosen.
Info from here

Stagecoach

Doc Boone is usually pretty drunk throughout most of the movie so most of what he says isn't found to be very meaningful, except for his line "Well, they're saved from the blessings of civilization". This line was from a scene at the end of the movie where Ringo and Dallas are riding off together. This line meant that, because both Dallas and Ringo were outcasts and not very well respected that maybe if both of them got married and moved away they would be "saved" from having to deal with their social status and everyone else.

An important scene of the movie and my favorite was when the stagecoach was under attack by the Indians and they needed to defend themselves. In this scene the 180 rule was broken, but you didn't even notice it because your attention was on the action happening with the characters. Also in this scene everyone wants to see the stagecoach victorious against the Indians, because you are attached to those characters and never get to know any of the indians so when one gets killed no one really cares.

The main conflict in westerns is civilization vs. wilderness. I think that the civilization side was victorious in this film, in many ways. One way is to say the Indians represented the wilderness and the people on the stagecoach represented civilization, civilization is victorious here because the Indians are run off and the stagecoach escapes. Another example of civilization being victorious is say that civilization represented members of higher social class, and in the film the only characters that are respected are the members of the higher social class.

Citizen Kane

The use of cinematography in Citizen Kane out did previous movies before it, and inspired many that came after it. My first example of a technique used is deep focus. This is used many times throughout the movie, almost always with Kane in the center of the shot, even though he may be far off in the background. The way deep focus is used with Kane in the center, shows you that he is the one who is important to what is happening in that scene. Like when Kane's parents are sending him away with Mr. Thatcher the whole time you can see him in between the parents and Mr. Thatcher in the background, because he is the one that is actually important to that scene. Another technique used is the crane shot, this is also used multiple times. One way it was used was to give the effect that you were trespassing. The camera would go up and over fences with No Trespassing signs on them, or would enter the restaurant by coming in from above and looking down into the window, which gave you the feeling that you were intruding. A third time it was used was at the end of the movie to move over all of Kane's belongings, this time it was used to emphasize the huge amount of stuff that Kane owned.

KING KONG

I'm reviewing King Kong produced and directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, staring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot from 1933 so I am sure they are all dead by now. The three main characters in the story are Carl Denham, Jack Driscoll, and Ann Darrow. Carl Denham (played by Robert Armstrong) is a movie directer who is inspired to capture real settings in his films. Jack Driscoll (played by Bruce Cabot) is a young film crew member who falls in love with Ann Darrow. Ann Darrow (played by Fay Wray) is found by Carl Denham on the street, where he takes one look at her and is convinced that must be in his next film. The plot is that the movie crew sets out to an exotic island for their shoot, where they learn is home to a danger named Kong. Once at the island the crew angers natives by disrupting a ritual they are performing for kong, the natives capture Ann and tie her up and leave her as a gift for kong. Then the crew sets out into the jungle in hope to save Ann from Kong the gargantuan Gorilla, the crew comes across many other enormous dinosaurs on there way to Ann. The crew eventually is able to get Ann, and they also knock out Kong with their gas bombs. They bring Kong back home, and let the public come and see him as the eighth wonder of the world, but Kong breaks free to terrorize the city, until he is gunned down by airplanes.

King Kong was a pretty unrealistic story to begin with, but it didn't help that Kong looked like he was made out of clay, and never appeared to be the same size. The setting of the jungle was unconvincable with some tress and branches, and then a painting of a jungle in the background. There wasn't much acting in the movie because most scenes were of Kong fighting dinosaurs, but what acting there was, was very convincing, and believable. The dialogue was also appropriate which helped the unrealistic story of Kong seem more believable, however there was one line in the movie that brought it down, it was after the whole crew had been looking at a giant foot print in the mud for about 10 seconds and Carl Says "Yeah thats a track alright".

I am guessing that at this time when the film was made (1933) that there were not many cinematic techniques used, at least you would get that impression from watching this. You could find a few scenes where the camera would pan the jungle as it followed a character, or some low angle shots looking up at Kong to make him appear powerful, and a couple times where deep focus was used to show more than one important thing going on. All of the scenes had high key lighting , except for one, which was a scene taking place at night when the crew was watching the mysterious natives, whose fires stood out as the only light in the black of the night. The final scene faded out, but other than that there were only cuts between shots. The movie also had energetic movie played when ever Kong was on the loose, which made it more exciting to watch.

Personal Viewing Blog

Last weekend I watched the movie You, Me and Dupree on cinemax, I don't have the channel, but for some reason I get it when I turn on my VCR. I thought that the movie was pretty well made for a comedy, and it was pretty funny too. The story is about a newly married couple that allows the best man and best friend of the husband called Dupree to temporarily move in with them until he finds a new job. But The Character Dupree played by Owen Wilson doesn't do anything but provide the funny scenes for the movie. The part of the movie that I didn't like though was how they tried to make the plot more complex besides just a friend moving in. Over all I liked the movie and would recommend it.

Critique the Critic

I read a review of the movie superbad, the most recent movie i have seen in theaters. This review was written by James Berardinelli. I had never heard of this film reviewer before, but he really seemed to know about movies not just superbad which he was reviewing. Before he even explains any of the plot line or any of the characters, you can tell that he thought it was a good film. In the beginning he also compares the movie with other movies so you have an idea what its like.

What if Quentin Tarantino collaborated with John Hughes on a teen comedy? Superbad is a decent approximation of what the result might be. As with Borat, there are no sacred cows here. The movie, produced by Judd Apatow, written by Seth Rogan & Evan Goldberg, and directed by Greg Mottola, pushes the genre's envelope a little farther than anything before it has done. It recalls American Pie but with less nudity (in fact, there's none to speak of) and dialogue that is more clever and more profane. The movie is frequently amusing and occasionally uproarious.

I liked the way he started out by giving us an idea of just what the whole movie was like, without even getting into what the story was about yet. I also liked how he started out comparing superbad to Borat and American Pie because it gives you another idea of what kind of movie it will be, although I would never have compared the movie to American Pie because it doesn't relate to the movie at all. Another thing that I didn't like was when he used the name John Hughes, because I have know idea who he is, and I think that he could of gave an example of a movie he directed or some description. Next he went on to give a short description of the main characters in the movie.

The protagonists are three stereotypical male high school seniors whose thoughts turn to sex once every 3.5 seconds. There's Evan (Michael Cera), who's close to an "average guy" - shy around girls but open with his friends. Seth (Jonah Hill) is overweight and pugnacious, and aware that his appearance doesn't make him a babe-magnet. Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is the uber-nerd whose social inadequacies and lack of emotional maturity allow him to think that the single moniker of "McLuvin" is a good name on a fake I.D.

I thought that he gave an alright description of the characters, but it was pretty brief. The description was good because it lets you know a little of what each character is like without telling you what actually happens in the movie, but there is more to the characters than that and I thought that he could have easily given a more detailed description without giving anything away. Throughout the review James Berardinelli makes you think that this is one of the best comedies there are, which I disagree with.

The prime requisite of any comedy - that it generate laughs - is amply met.

I like this movie and thought that it was funny, but wasn't that funny and sometimes predictable so i disagree with him there. He also said that the movie's trailers did not present the movie well enough. I disagree with that also, because the movie was exactly like I thought it would be after watching the trailers for it. In his review he hardly ever talks about any of they movies plot, even though that plot is not too complex I thought that he should have given some kind of summary.