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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.
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 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
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.
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.
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.
