True Grit vs. Stagecoach: John Ford's Stagecoach is a classic western. It has the beautiful setting of Monument Valley and also has John Wayne as its main character. One reason why it is classified as classic is because it makes the difference between good and evil extremely clear. A second reason why it is a Classic Western is because it has multiple girl characters who are described as a good girl or a bad girl. Stagecoach also makes the motivation to get to the destination clear. Ringo needs to get to it in order to get revenge on the people that hurt his family. True Grit was also a Classic Western for several reasons. One reason is that it also creates the line between good and evil. It also has the traditional setting in the American West. Thirdly True Grit's entire plot is that Mattie has to catch her father's killer and this idea is well known by the audience. Both of these movies follow the classic form of Westerns.
Unforgiven vs. True Grit: Unforgiven is the total opposite from the classic western Stagecoach. Unforgiven is a revisionist western for several reasons. One is that it shows the harsh and violent life of the west. These ideas are not shown in classic westerns. It also never draws a line between the good and the evil. When the movie starts Will seems to be a changed man that will never go back to his old ways but as it continues on Will changes into the violent sheriff Little Bill. Will goes back to drinking whiskey and killing a large amount of people in Big Whiskey. In the end Will kills Little Bill after Bill pleads for his life because he doesnt deserve to be killed. Another reason why Unforgiven is a revisionist is because after Schofield Kid kills one of the two men he ends up crying and saying that he isnt a killer like Will. When Unforgiven is compared to True Grit, True Grit appears to be more of a Classic Western because of these reasons.
True Grit: True Grit can be classified as a Classic Western for a couple ideas. One is that it has the classical setting in western America. Second it establishes a clear line between the good and the evil. In the end as with all the other classic westerns the bad guys get what they deserve and the good side is victorious. Also the characters in True Grit are fairly one sided and they do not get multi dimensional throughout the film.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Online Film Analysis
Clip A from Ocean's 11: This scene starts out with a long shot to compares the actors at the table with the rest of the casino. Also the lighting in this scene is key. The lighting is mostly focused on the table. This lights up the actors faces well but makes everything behind them dark and unimportant. Diagetic sound from the music in the club nearby is used throughout the scene. Mostly all of the camera shots in this scene are medium shot which show the actors head down to the edge of the table where there cards are. The camera does not pan around the table when it wants to move from person to person, however, it simply cuts from person to person as it wishes. Also the camera is located at the center of the card table for most of the scene.
Clip B from Strangers on a Train: This scene has several elements that are used to create more chaos in the scene. The first one is the use of different sounds. The scene starts out using diagetic sound that is coming from the merry go round. The music continues to speed up and up as the merry go round speeds up. After a little bit the sound switches to non diagetic which also creates a chaos kind of feel. The camera is mostly located in the middle of the merry go round which shows the all the people standing and watching as these two guys are fighting on the ride. This creates more chaos in the scene because it is able to show a comparison between the people standing and the people on the merry go round that are flying round and round.
Clip C from Silence of the Lambs: The cross cutting in this scene is the most important part of the scene. Because of it the viewer thinks that the police are surrounding the man's home. The audience continues to think this because the man's doorbell rings when the "flower man" rings a door bell. Then the man answers the door and a woman is there. Only now the audience finds out that cross cutting has been used. Diagetic sound is used in this scene. Rock music is blasting inside the man's house to create chaos in the scene. Camera movements used in this scene include steadicamm and panning. Also dark lighting is used inside the house to create a dark and ominous environment.
Clip D from Magnolia: The most noticable thing in this clip is the steadi cam that is used. The steadi cam is used all the way through the shot and it never stops moving. The scene starts out with the father and his son being late and the steadi cam seems to push them along through the clip. Even after the father and the son split up the steadi cam follows different characters until it ends with a secretary going into what appears to be a bosses room. Medium shots are used all the way through out this clip. The clip seems to be a long take because it doesnt have any cuts in the middle of it.
Clip B from Strangers on a Train: This scene has several elements that are used to create more chaos in the scene. The first one is the use of different sounds. The scene starts out using diagetic sound that is coming from the merry go round. The music continues to speed up and up as the merry go round speeds up. After a little bit the sound switches to non diagetic which also creates a chaos kind of feel. The camera is mostly located in the middle of the merry go round which shows the all the people standing and watching as these two guys are fighting on the ride. This creates more chaos in the scene because it is able to show a comparison between the people standing and the people on the merry go round that are flying round and round.
Clip C from Silence of the Lambs: The cross cutting in this scene is the most important part of the scene. Because of it the viewer thinks that the police are surrounding the man's home. The audience continues to think this because the man's doorbell rings when the "flower man" rings a door bell. Then the man answers the door and a woman is there. Only now the audience finds out that cross cutting has been used. Diagetic sound is used in this scene. Rock music is blasting inside the man's house to create chaos in the scene. Camera movements used in this scene include steadicamm and panning. Also dark lighting is used inside the house to create a dark and ominous environment.
Clip D from Magnolia: The most noticable thing in this clip is the steadi cam that is used. The steadi cam is used all the way through the shot and it never stops moving. The scene starts out with the father and his son being late and the steadi cam seems to push them along through the clip. Even after the father and the son split up the steadi cam follows different characters until it ends with a secretary going into what appears to be a bosses room. Medium shots are used all the way through out this clip. The clip seems to be a long take because it doesnt have any cuts in the middle of it.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Best Picture Nominee Assignment
Brainstorming
1. Toy Story
-Great ending to the series
-Funny
-Grew up with Toy Story my whole life
2. Inception
-A crazy idea
-Great action scenes
-Loved the zero gravity scenes
3. The Social Network
-Funny
-Great acting by Timberlake
-Entertaining story
4. True Grit
-Liked Maddie's acting
-Action scenes were good
-Ending was a little quick
5. The King's Speech
-Great story
-High quality acting by the King
-A different relationship story
6. Winter's Bone
-Dark
-Depressing
-Good acting by main actress
Best Picture Assignment
6. Out of all the Academy Award nominated films this year I believe that Winter's Bone is the weakest. The main turn off of this film for me was that it was extremely dark and depressing all the way through. Whether it was the shadows on characters faces, the economic hardship that they were going through or the cold and unforgiving world these people had to live in Winter's Bone was depressing. Winter's Bone had some good acting by Ree and Teardrop but otherwise I did not like the other actors. One thing I did like about this movie was that they did a great job casting their characters because I thought every character looked their part. So the main reason I thought that Winter's Bone deserved the 6th spot was that I did'nt think that it had a very good story line and it didnt have a happy part that gave the audience a rest from the overall depressing movie.
5. The King's Speech came in a close fifth place to True Grit. In King's Speech you watch as a man who suffers from a severe speech impediment work his way to becoming a great orator. I thought that Firth did an amazing job controlling when and how often to use his stutter throughout the movie. He did'nt go overboard on the idea yet he did it enough that I believed he had this problem in real life. Firth starts going to a speech therapist when he becomes King and this adds flavor and comedy to the movie. Geoffrey Rush does an amazing job as the King's speech therapist and during their many meetings a sort of romance starts. Several times Firth gets so frustrated that he walks out on Rush but with out fail he always comes back. This gives the movie a very unused sort of romance feel to it. The reason I put this film at number 5 is because it did not have as much excitement as the movies ahead of it on my list.
4. The fourth movie on my list was True Grit. It also came in a close battle with the movie with the movie ahead of it. I liked this movie for a few reasons. First the girl who played Maddie did a fantastic job and should be labeled as the main actress in this film. She played a young girl who was not afraid of anyone and she did this very well. Jeff Bridges also did a great job playing the John Wayne role in this film. His dark and rumbling voice adds a lot to his character. True Grit tells a story that is different from the usual western. This is because it portrays Cogburn as a vulnerable hero and in the usual western the hero is untouchable. I think this adds to the realistic factor of the movie. The main reasons I put this movie 4th on my list were because I liked the fight scenes and it was a great story that put a twist on most westerns.
3. The third movie on my list was The Social Network. This movie was overall a funny and entertaining movie. Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg added the comedy to this movie. Eisenberg makes it funny without even trying because some of the things his character Mark says most people would never say. This movie could have been extremely boring but there were a couple things that made it great. First the music. Club scenes and techno music make all the conversations that would be boring actually exciting. And second all the different camera angles and cuts they make are fantastic. While Mark is sitting on his computer they use cut ins and cut outs to make watching a kid looking at computer actually intense. These are the reasons why I think this movie is third on my list.
2. The second movie on my list is Inception. There are many reasons why I placed this movie over The Social Network on my list. First the idea behind Inception is genius. Its the type of movie that you would have to watch several times to really understand and then there is still some mystery about it. I thought Leonardo did a great job in this film. The only character I didnt like was Leonardo's wife. She continually caused problems for him and his crew when they already had enough stuff to worry about. The zero gravity scenes in this movie are great. They are some of my favorite fight scenes. Inception did a great job with special effects all the way through the movie. The reason why this movie is second on my list is because its one of those movies that you really have to pay close attention to and it ends up blowing your mind in the end.
1. The movie that is at the top of my rankings is Toy Story 3. I thought this was the best movie out of the bunch for a couple of reasons. First it was hilarious. The writing used in the Toy Story series has always included the obvious comedy but it also throws in some lines that a obscure and might take the viewer a couple times of watching it to realize. Second I have grown up with Toy Story all my life and I thought this movie was a great way to end the series. It ended with a touching goodbye from Andy and his toys and as always "You got a Friend in Me" was included in the soundtrack in two languages this time. I thought the story line was really good and it presented a different problem that none of the other movies had done yet. The Toy Story series has gotten better and better in each movie with its graphics and this was another plus. These are the reasons why I believe Toy Story should win the Best Picture award.
1. Toy Story
-Great ending to the series
-Funny
-Grew up with Toy Story my whole life
2. Inception
-A crazy idea
-Great action scenes
-Loved the zero gravity scenes
3. The Social Network
-Funny
-Great acting by Timberlake
-Entertaining story
4. True Grit
-Liked Maddie's acting
-Action scenes were good
-Ending was a little quick
5. The King's Speech
-Great story
-High quality acting by the King
-A different relationship story
6. Winter's Bone
-Dark
-Depressing
-Good acting by main actress
Best Picture Assignment
6. Out of all the Academy Award nominated films this year I believe that Winter's Bone is the weakest. The main turn off of this film for me was that it was extremely dark and depressing all the way through. Whether it was the shadows on characters faces, the economic hardship that they were going through or the cold and unforgiving world these people had to live in Winter's Bone was depressing. Winter's Bone had some good acting by Ree and Teardrop but otherwise I did not like the other actors. One thing I did like about this movie was that they did a great job casting their characters because I thought every character looked their part. So the main reason I thought that Winter's Bone deserved the 6th spot was that I did'nt think that it had a very good story line and it didnt have a happy part that gave the audience a rest from the overall depressing movie.
5. The King's Speech came in a close fifth place to True Grit. In King's Speech you watch as a man who suffers from a severe speech impediment work his way to becoming a great orator. I thought that Firth did an amazing job controlling when and how often to use his stutter throughout the movie. He did'nt go overboard on the idea yet he did it enough that I believed he had this problem in real life. Firth starts going to a speech therapist when he becomes King and this adds flavor and comedy to the movie. Geoffrey Rush does an amazing job as the King's speech therapist and during their many meetings a sort of romance starts. Several times Firth gets so frustrated that he walks out on Rush but with out fail he always comes back. This gives the movie a very unused sort of romance feel to it. The reason I put this film at number 5 is because it did not have as much excitement as the movies ahead of it on my list.
4. The fourth movie on my list was True Grit. It also came in a close battle with the movie with the movie ahead of it. I liked this movie for a few reasons. First the girl who played Maddie did a fantastic job and should be labeled as the main actress in this film. She played a young girl who was not afraid of anyone and she did this very well. Jeff Bridges also did a great job playing the John Wayne role in this film. His dark and rumbling voice adds a lot to his character. True Grit tells a story that is different from the usual western. This is because it portrays Cogburn as a vulnerable hero and in the usual western the hero is untouchable. I think this adds to the realistic factor of the movie. The main reasons I put this movie 4th on my list were because I liked the fight scenes and it was a great story that put a twist on most westerns.
3. The third movie on my list was The Social Network. This movie was overall a funny and entertaining movie. Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg added the comedy to this movie. Eisenberg makes it funny without even trying because some of the things his character Mark says most people would never say. This movie could have been extremely boring but there were a couple things that made it great. First the music. Club scenes and techno music make all the conversations that would be boring actually exciting. And second all the different camera angles and cuts they make are fantastic. While Mark is sitting on his computer they use cut ins and cut outs to make watching a kid looking at computer actually intense. These are the reasons why I think this movie is third on my list.
2. The second movie on my list is Inception. There are many reasons why I placed this movie over The Social Network on my list. First the idea behind Inception is genius. Its the type of movie that you would have to watch several times to really understand and then there is still some mystery about it. I thought Leonardo did a great job in this film. The only character I didnt like was Leonardo's wife. She continually caused problems for him and his crew when they already had enough stuff to worry about. The zero gravity scenes in this movie are great. They are some of my favorite fight scenes. Inception did a great job with special effects all the way through the movie. The reason why this movie is second on my list is because its one of those movies that you really have to pay close attention to and it ends up blowing your mind in the end.
1. The movie that is at the top of my rankings is Toy Story 3. I thought this was the best movie out of the bunch for a couple of reasons. First it was hilarious. The writing used in the Toy Story series has always included the obvious comedy but it also throws in some lines that a obscure and might take the viewer a couple times of watching it to realize. Second I have grown up with Toy Story all my life and I thought this movie was a great way to end the series. It ended with a touching goodbye from Andy and his toys and as always "You got a Friend in Me" was included in the soundtrack in two languages this time. I thought the story line was really good and it presented a different problem that none of the other movies had done yet. The Toy Story series has gotten better and better in each movie with its graphics and this was another plus. These are the reasons why I believe Toy Story should win the Best Picture award.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
My First Movie Review
BRAINSTORM - Film: The Fighter
1: An extremely well made film
2: Funny at parts
3: Great inspirational speech at the end
4: A story that needed to be told
5: Christian Bale - Best supporting actor at Golden Globes
6: The Fighter - Best Film Nominee
7: I enjoyed it a lot
8: Mark Wahlberg actually trained for the boxing and it made the movie much better
9: Both Mark and Christian look the part of their characters
10: Not a lot of fighting scenes
11: I enjoyed the fighting scenes though
12: Predictable ending
13: Family is messed up
14: Good music
15: Kept me interested the whole movie
REVIEW OF THE FIGHTER
The Fighter was an extremely entertaining movie from start to finish. One of the reasons why it was so entertaining was because it is a sports movie that has great acting to accompany it. Christian Bale was fantastic throughout the whole movie. From his physique in the Batman movies compared to it in The Fighter you can tell he lost significant weight in order to fit the part. Also Mark Wahlberg trained at a boxing gym in order to get prepared for this film. With his training Wahlberg was actually able to perform the fighting that was shown in the film. This preparation made the film even better. Its not a surprise to me that The Fighter was up for the Best Film nomination at the Golden Globes this year due to the great acting by Bale and Wahlberg, Bale's amazing inspirational speech at the Championship Fight and the perfect choice of music. The only negatives of this film were that I would have enjoyed to see more fights and the end was predictable. However, it was a great story that needed to be told and I enjoyed it thoroughly
1: An extremely well made film
2: Funny at parts
3: Great inspirational speech at the end
4: A story that needed to be told
5: Christian Bale - Best supporting actor at Golden Globes
6: The Fighter - Best Film Nominee
7: I enjoyed it a lot
8: Mark Wahlberg actually trained for the boxing and it made the movie much better
9: Both Mark and Christian look the part of their characters
10: Not a lot of fighting scenes
11: I enjoyed the fighting scenes though
12: Predictable ending
13: Family is messed up
14: Good music
15: Kept me interested the whole movie
REVIEW OF THE FIGHTER
The Fighter was an extremely entertaining movie from start to finish. One of the reasons why it was so entertaining was because it is a sports movie that has great acting to accompany it. Christian Bale was fantastic throughout the whole movie. From his physique in the Batman movies compared to it in The Fighter you can tell he lost significant weight in order to fit the part. Also Mark Wahlberg trained at a boxing gym in order to get prepared for this film. With his training Wahlberg was actually able to perform the fighting that was shown in the film. This preparation made the film even better. Its not a surprise to me that The Fighter was up for the Best Film nomination at the Golden Globes this year due to the great acting by Bale and Wahlberg, Bale's amazing inspirational speech at the Championship Fight and the perfect choice of music. The only negatives of this film were that I would have enjoyed to see more fights and the end was predictable. However, it was a great story that needed to be told and I enjoyed it thoroughly
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