True Grit [32]

“Fill your hands you son of a bitch.” Hard to believe this is the first film John Wayne got an award for, it’s his 139^th film; I would have guessed he’d beat everyone at the academy awards. I mean this guy is such a huge film icon, starred in more than 150 films and all of them were praised.

He plays, Rooster, a one-eyed, drunken, badass Us Marshall hired by a young Mattie Ross. Mattie is just a kid, she has a boyish haircut and man can she take care of herself. Her father was just killed and she’s determined to get the killer hung and avenge her father’s death.

Together they embark on a journey through dangerous territory. And with every passing moment Rooster gets more intrigued by how fearless and determined Mattie is and they form a friendship in which they save each other’s lives over and over again.

The Coen brothers are re-making this movie >.> And as much as I like their films, I don’t really think this one should be touched, but I guess it’d be interesting to see.

Grosse Pointe Blank [31]

Wow, time for me to rant on about John Cusack. He’s one of my most favorite actors, I love the movies where he plays the same quirky, troubled, fast thinking, sentimental yet totally chill and cool guy :3. Like in Must Love Dogs, Serendipity, and High Fidelity. Some of my other favorites are 2012, Being John Malkovich and Martian Child. I just learned right now that he’s a screenwriter and producer, so now I’m even more fascinated.

In this film he plays the guy I mentioned above, he’s a hit man and doesn’t really care who knows it. Even though most people think he’s just goofing off when he tells them he kills for a living, he doesn’t seem to mind whether they believe him or not. Anyways, he just messed up on a job and is tired of the lifestyle. After running out on his prom night from his home town ten years ago, he’s beginning to wonder if things are still the same and if he can get out of this business.

He heads home only to find that his house isn’t there anymore, it’s now a liquor store. He’s desperate to find some meaning or just anything that’ll reassure him that his choice is a good one. He reunites with his high school sweetheart, she’s still angry about him running out on her on prom night, but gives him another shot. People are out to get him and everything turns upside down once he figures out who his last job is.

This is a really funny movie if you enjoy Cusack’s character like I do, the sarcasm he uses so often and how he’s always somehow troubled.

On the Waterfront [30]

Terry Malloy [Marlon Brando] works for Mob boss Johnny Friendly. Terry’s not a smart guy but he is a good guy. After watching Friendly’s henchmen finish off a guy who didn’t deserve it, he starts wondering if he really belongs in that mess. The media and police are after Terry, they know he doesn’t have the smarts and won’t be able to pretend nothing happened, but he does have muscle. 

 

Edie and Father Barry are trying to recruit people to try and get Friendly out of their sight and all the trouble he brings along gone. The good people who work the docks down in New Jersey are terrified of Friendly and his men and they play deaf and dumb to whatever goes on. Terry all in all is very confused about what to do, Friendly took him in when he was just a kid but now he’s just pushed around to do errands and play bait. He falls for Edie, who’s brother was the last guy he unwillingly pushed into Friendly’s grip and he’d do anything to help her. Edie just wants justice, she wants Friendly and his men to rot in jail, but after all the pushing Terry’s been through, he doesn’t act anything other than violent. He can either kill Friendly and rot in jail or testify against him in a court of law and hopefully win the case against him.

Terry knows he’s worth more than what he is, that he deserves more, he could have had a better life, he could have “been a contender.” Poor guy grew up around violence and doesn’t have the brains to see what’s right in front of him.

This is a very dramatic and emotional movie, set in the 50s with black and white. The directing is beautiful because you get this sort of real emotion, time and real people feel. Our eyes are open to so much humiliation, bullying, lying and blood and confusion. The fact that it is based on some true facts and articles just astounds me, they did a great job of letting the feel of it leak through this film.

The Naked Spur [29]

Mm, ending is just astonishing and the love story that grew from all the tension is just a small bonus to the storyline. We really get to see how foolishly people can follow one another and how important trust is when you have to work together with someone else.

Howard Kemp is a bounty hunter looking for a man with a big price on his head. He got help catching him but wasn’t going to reimburse the fine gentlemen for their work. Their prisoner, Ben, lets facts go loose and Jesse and Roy, who blindly helped Howard, decide to tag along and grab a third of the reward.

Ben causes a lot of trouble between the three, with suggestions such as “money splits better two ways than three,” and sending his girl around them to distract the men from himself. Howard gets so irritated by Ben because he brings up the past over and over again and is about ready to kill him a few times but he stands above it. It is no wonder Howard is so ashamed of his past, when he left for war he lost all that he had for love and hopes that the reward for Ben will help gain some of it back.

Tension grows between the gang and they don’t feel as if they can trust each other at all. They have a long journey ahead of them, nowhere to hide out from the rain and Indians roaming around, and their loss of trust doesn’t make anything easier.

Last Train from Gun Hill [28]

 

This is a really fast movie, takes course in a day and had me wondering what is around the corner since the beginning. I’ve never seen a western until a year ago and now they all seduce me so easily. There’s always a hero, a damsel, some shooting and a lot of anticipation and buildup.

Story starts off with a boy and his Indian mother in a carriage headed to visit family. Two men ride up beside them and start causing trouble, and eventually get their way with the boy’s mother. They boy, left to witness, rides home to get help but he’s too late. His father, US Marshal Morgan, by reading the inscription on one of the horses’ saddles knows where the killer came from and heads over to Gun Hill. He finds out the killer is his best friends son and his friend, Belden won’t let him take his son away.

The whole town is under Belden’s hands, they abide his every rule and hide his secrets. They wait for Morgan’s death, they think he’s just being stubborn and should die for going against Belden. The odds are against Belden; No one is willing to lend him a helping hand, he’s in unknown territory with an assignment only a dead man could carry on.

Dances With Wolves [27]

This is the longest movie I’ve ever seen, but I’m not at all disappointed and I can seriously say I was never bored either. The story was nothing like I’ve ever heard so I was reeled in since the beginning. Every time I mentioned what I was watching everyone would bring up “It’s just a less blue Avatar.” I wouldn’t know because I don’t know anything about Avatar, just that it beat Titanic in the box office, but I surely am inclined to watch it since its compared to this work of art.

John Dunbar was a Lietunant/Officer with the Army but after being badly injured he tried to commit suicide, twice. Guy had luck written all over him, he was called out as a hero and was given the right to travel and see the western frontier as soon as he is done healing. He finds a post emptied and decides to wait it out in case anyone heads over and needs help. Here he starts his writings, and starts a lonely lifestyle just waiting to see something.

He encounters Indians, Sioux to be exact and they try to communicate with him, they’re fearful of how many soldiers will pass by there and what they’re capable of. John is discreet about that information, he knows he has to stay loyal to the army but he never lays eyes on any soldiers and his duty as lieutenant slowly fades. He’s amazed by the Sioux, how they’re so close with each other, how they protect and always look after each other. Slowly he starts to become their friend and they fight and celebrate together.

The story just kept unraveling and dragging me in, leaving me scared and wondering what will happen next.  John finds a new home with the Sioux and the Army won’t have it, they call him a traitor and are ready to execute him because he’s not willing to turn in his friends. We can see his determination from the beginning, how he wants to die with honor and we know how disgusted he is by those who kill for no reason. The world surrounding the Sioux camp is just horrible, at least the people are, the grass is always green and the water clear. The other tribes and soldiers walk around soulless, killing with smiles on their faces and without any appreciation for the animals and people surrounding them.

The Mummy [26]

Wow, first film I’ve seen in HD, made it cooler than it already is. I remember watching this as a kid and to this day those damn bugs creep me out.

Rick O’Connell [Brendan Frasier] is an explorer who was captured in Hamunaptra, City of the Dead, while trying to explore the remains there. Evelyn, a librarian fascinated by ancient Egypt and whatever’s left of it, helps set him free and they start a journey back to Hamunaptra. They accidentally resurrect a mummy who brings with him the curse of death, the plagues of Egypt and much more evil. The mummy is trying to gain back human skin by killing and hopes to resurrect the love of his life and keep on churning chaos. It’s up to Rick and Evelyn to put a stop to all this but the mummy is behind their every move. They don’t even know what they can do to put him back in his crypt, or if it’s even possible.

The special effects are chilling, and add this creepy eerie feeling to the film. I wouldn’t consider it a horror movie without it. It’s a very entertaining film, full of one liner jokes and quirky characters. I don’t remember much about the other Mummy films, this one stuck on me even as a kid. Great adventure story and holds a form of “innocence.”

The Day the Earth Stood Still [25]

Klaatu is an otherworldly human-ish being who arrives in Washington with an important message for the US but no one really gives a listen. He’s shot on sight and kept captive in a hospital, but of course he gets out. He’s looking for anyone in power that will take him seriously and help him get his message out.

He makes friends with a young boy, Bobby and starts gaining more perspective on humans and their surroundings; which makes him more worried about his message not being sent out. He doesn’t want to have to kill off Earth so he’ll do what he can to help. He befriends a professor who is highly interested in him and his mission and decides to help. By now, the military and everyone else is keeping an eye out for this so called “monster.” It’s not his fault the civilians are so violent and don’t have trust for anything they can’t grasp onto, seems humanity is headed in the wrong direction and might as well be the real monster.

The special effects are adorable, and I tried to watch this film in a way to capture why it’s a classic [as I’m trying to do with every other film in this book] and try not to let my knowledge, or lack of, the movie world get in the way. This generation is so used to everything being fast, and we’re always tapping our feet and jittering around in movie theatres when movies are moving too slow for us. I want to be able to appreciate the classics and see what people saw in these films at their first showing and it’s not that hard when there are such great movies as these around.

Chicago [24]

What a sexy movie! Full of sex appeal, wonderful singing, spotlights and murder. We get to see Zeta-Jones, Zellweger, John C. Reilly, Richard Gere and Queen Latifah dance around and sing in this film-noir/comedy/musical. 

Roxie Hart [Renée Zellweger] just wants to be a star, to be able to sing in front of an audience and for them to love her. She’s fooling around behind her husband and gets smacked around a bit and is told she’ll never make it in “the business” but she won’t take it. She ends up in death row, alongside Velma Kelly [Catherine Zeta-Jones] who she’s a huge fan of. Kelly is a famous singer who killed her husband and sister after catching them together. Kelly is trying to smooth her way out of jail with the help of the deathrow ring leader and a very famous lawyer. Roxie’s a sweetheart and it doesn’t seem like she’ll last long in these waters but she grabs hold of Kelly’s lawyer and things start looking up.

Roxie is very imaginative; she keeps her head in the clouds, imagining how things would be glamoured up and with everyone singing their song. She gets her taste of fame but it doesn’t last long, trouble is always stirring up in these Chicago streets and no one’s name stays on the headlines for long.

City of God [23]

I could not stop repeating to myself how badasslycool this film was while watching it. The shots, fast cuts, and storytelling put together really make a masterpiece.

City of God portrays a story of the vicious cycle intertwined within hate, killing, and crime. It’s set in the slums where kids who own guns run around mischievously stealing to survive, at least that’s how the story starts off. Rocket is our storyteller, he’s not involved in all that, he aspires to become a photographer. He tells us the story of the “tender trio,” who were the first to start all the trouble. We end up back in the 60s where Rocket is just a kid and follow the tender trio on their journey. They decide to go ahead and rob a motel and leave a kid, Lil Dice, to keep watch. They never saw what was coming, they weren’t the killing kind, they only used scare tactics. Turns out Lil Dice had a hunger for killing even has a youngster, we watch him take over the City of God over the years, it isn’t so hard when you don’t stop to talk and let your gun take care of everything.

The cycle is never ending, no matter how young the kids are they crave for control and to kill; even after they see how bad things get they still want the same things. The tender trio started this sort of domino effect and younger and younger kids got into this mess. The tender trio lead Lil Dice into it, they even hand him his first gun and Lil Dice does the same thing, he hands these eight year olds the guns they’ll use to cause more pain and torment to the people of the slums.

The ending brought chills to my spine, to think that it was all a true story just makes me sick and brings so many questions about faith and goodness to mind.

Audition [22]

Shigeharu has been a widow for the past few years and has always been loyal to his wife, whether dead or alive. His son and co-worker talk him into starting to date, Shigeharu and his co-worker and close friend come up with the idea of an audition. The scheme behind the audition is that Shigeharu will choose one of the actresses, date them and maybe even re-marry. Once he sees Asami’s picture he knows she’s the one. His buddy starts double checking her information but can’t find anything solid. He warns off Shigeharu but he just can’t let his feelings go, he’s falling for her and we are given the impression that she is too.

This is a love story gone horror and nightmare-ish the anticipation and build up is hectic. Shigeharu starts looking around for Asami but he can't find a trace of her, or truth in anything she's told him. He ends up in a world of confusion, where what he feels in real life and his nightmares are both real, a mirror world where all he feels is pain. After growing up in a world of incest, masochism and sadism who’s to say Asami is really the sweetheart Shigeharu believes her to be?

Top Gun [21]

This movie was a bit too corny for my taste but it does tell a good story. Maverick [Cruise] is training to be a pilot for the Navy, he’s sent to the top aerial combat school, Top Gun, with his good buddy Goose. Maverick is a totally cool guy but he’s very dangerous. He flies without concern, when he gets a goal in mind he only cares for achieving it, no matter what he has to do. His peers don’t like him much since he’s a threat to their safety. On the other hand there’s Goose, who’s liked by all and always roots for Maverick no matter what.

There is a love story and a friendship intertwined here, we get at all sides of Maverick. He has to deal with a lot of things and his recklessness increases. Even through his disregard for safety, he does good, but no one is really willing to take any chances with him. Things turn around completely for Maverick, he loses his closest friend and is ready to give up, but now he has a few more people that believe in him, people that can see through the trouble he causes and know he’s truly a great pilot; people that realize that someone with his headstrong skill is desperately needed.

Angel Heart [20]

This movie left me with my jaw open, I just really didn’t see the ending coming; but then again I don’t seek around and try to piece things together, I like getting surprised and shocked, makes everything much more enjoyable. This is in the horror section of the book, it a film noir-y detective movie that deals with faith and voodoo. There are some beautiful shots that creeped the hell out of me, and the dreamlike states were what kept dragging me in; I can see why its in the horror section, its just an all out creepy and intelligent film.

Mr. Angel is a detective with no faith for anything whatsoever and a fear of chickens. I really love his character, he's a klutz and a spaz but manages to somehow be really smooth and badass at times. A hot shot attorney [De Niro] asks for his help to find Johnny Favorite, who owes him some money and disappeared a few years back. Angel is money hungry so he takes the job even though it's like nothing he's ever dealt with before.

Angel enters a village where Johnny's family resided and it’s filled with voodoo and Satanism, after that everything starts going downhill. He ends up in a bunch of trouble, whoever he questions ends up dead, which means everything somehow traces back to him. He’s being framed but he has no clue by who; and the killings are far from inhumane. He can’t seem to find out anything about Favorite, and when he does get close to finding out something, someone ends up dead. He’s scared for his own safety and for those around him, but the money is too good to give up. Considering he doesn’t believe in the voodoo stories, he doesn’t buy into what he does find out, sadly it’s all true and he ends up in the hands of the devil.

Raise the Red Lantern [19]

This movie is slow paced and sometimes hard to watch because the emotion just overflows. Songlian marries to a wealthy Chinese man, she’s named his fourth mistress. She was a university student until her father died and she couldn’t afford school anymore. She arrives an independent woman, who does everything for herself but everyone’s at her feet, being that she’s the new and most dear mistress now. Even though we never see her husband’s face we know the kind of man he is, culture and tradition is severely important to him.  The main custom we see in the film is that, well the mistresses all have a different house, and whoever he decides to sleep with that night, the red lanterns outside and inside their house are raised and lit.

The mistresses all plot against each other, except for the first one, she’s too old and it’s not like she could get the husband to want her anyway. The second mistress is the worst, with a “face of a Buddha and the heart of a scorpion.” The third is awfully spoiled, she’s an opera singer who’s still looking good but the husband tires of fulfilling her every want. Songlian wasn’t going to play this warfare game but she gets pushed too far and can’t help but join in. It’s sort of a game of survival, they start to “need” the husband to come over every night. The ones who did got special gifts, first they get a foot massage and the next day they get to choose the dinner plates. They all become spoiled one way or another and fight for their nights.

As if the movie needed more emotion, the cinematography really added on. The main color is red, we see the white snow during the most intense scenes though. The story is sort of slow but we get more into the characters’ life and emotions, why they do what they do. When the intense scenes happen, I really didn’t want to watch but the colors just emphasize so much.

We never see them leave where they live, it gives off this eerie feeling of a prison; they just sit around all day plotting and hoping he chooses them that night. Seems they have nothing else to live for. How far can they take things? For a man they don’t even love? Things get really messy though, one ends up dead and another insane.

Memento [18]

 

I first heard about this film in my high school psychology class, then in my Intro to Psych, then in Abnormal Psychology; now I can see why they always bring it up. This movie is a trip to watch, the order of the story is all over the place and there are different colored scenes to show different parts of the story.  The editing is miraculous; the scenes were cut to keep us on our toes and wondering.

Leonard has this condition where he can’t make new memories so he forgets things in the matter of minutes, sometimes even seconds. This was the cause of an accident, someone broke into his house, assaulted his wife, hit him and damaged his brain. Since then Leonard’s been looking for the guy that did this, the cops won’t help him because they don’t believe his story. He has a method to living, he’ll tattoo himself, take pictures and write notes to remind him of important facts; he’s not totally useless.

Leonard is playing detective and doesn’t know who to trust and who to not. Who’s advice to take or who’s playing him. Poor guy doesn’t remember what happened a few minutes ago or how long it’s been since the accident. Even if he does find the guy who made him handicap, then what? Will he remember killing him? Will all his notes and tattoos help him find who he’s looking for, or has he found them already?

Run Lola Run [17]

 

This is such a cool movie, its certainly a Magical Realism film, like Amélie. Filled with bits of magic and things that certainly couldn’t happen in real life. As if screaming at the top of your lungs would help you win at the casino? Or as if before taking your last breath you could say “stop” and be able to start all over?

Run Lola Run starts with some philosophical questions about life and time. The movie switches a bit from cartoon/drawings to real life. Lola’s having a really bad day, her boyfriend just called to tell her that she has 20 minutes to get 70,000 to him, or his boss will kill him. This is a really fast paced film, but we get a lot of detail. Lola runs throughout the whole film, guess love can really make you do crazy things.

The soundtrack goes really well with this film and the anxiety we’re dealing with, its sort of pulsating/almost techno music. This is a very amusing and intense film, we follow her through 3 runs, once something goes bad either her or her boyfriend, Manny, turn back time to find a better solution. Through every run we catch a glimpse into the future of those she bumps into, I think that’s just really cool, something totally out of the ordinary. During these runs Lola points a gun, finds out a harsh truth and prays for help. You don’t have to ask yourself how much she loves this guy, she runs and runs, seeking any kind of solution to save his life.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence. [16]

Cybertronics is a company that creates humanish robots, called Mechas. They try to create a childlike robot who can love, the only question about it is, will it be loved back? Henry and Monica’s son has been in “suspended animation,” which is sort of a frozen state until they find a cure for his illness. Henry brings David home, the first of his kind, a child robot who can love. These child mechas are only good for one try; what that means is that once you set them to love you, the wont love anyone else, you’ll be imprinted on them forever. So if you ever change your mind about them and send them back, they’ll have to be destroyed because they’re no good anymore.

Monica sets David to love her, but once her real son comes home she doesn’t care for him as much, not like she even did in the first place. All David wants is for her to love him back, so whenever Martin, Monica’s real son, puts him on “special missions” that get him in trouble he goes for them anyway because Martin says it’ll make mommy love him. The day comes when Monica starts to wonder if her family is safe around David, and dumps him in a forest. David, inspired by the story of Pinocchio, starts to seek the Blue Fairy so she can make him a real boy and he can go home.

David goes through a grand adventure, but doesn’t find such a person. It’s such a sad movie, left me crying like a baby. The ending is just beautiful but I find myself wishing that David would have had more happiness. Most humans were against the robots, jealous that once they die the mechas will still be around.  David ends up wishing and wishing for more than 2000 years to become a real boy, will his wish ever come true?

Breakfast At Tiffany's [15]

Holly’s got her head in the clouds, she’s so easily liked because she’s so adorable. She’s a sort of escort, she lets men give her money for her company but when it comes to the bedroom she always locks them out. Holly is quirky, childish, stubborn and a big dreamer. She wishes for a life of leisure and wealth, and to live in a place like Tiffany’s where “nothing bad could happen to you.”

This is a charming movie, I’ve already seen it twice today, once I finished I wanted to watch it all over again. Holly is a total doll, a few think she’s a phony, but the girls got heart. Her only problem is that she won’t give it away, her hear that is, real relationships frighten her. She won’t be “put in a cage” or be tied down. She puts up this front to make others believe that she really doesn’t love them back and that she doesn’t believe in love in the first place. She runs from those who cherish her, scared that she won’t be able to run around anymore and dream. She’s lost sense of reality, she’s tangled up in money and parties, even lost herself somehow, she doesn’t know who she is.

I love how most of the classics have either one song they play over and over or an artist. The score for this movie is “Moon River” and it just sounds so darling when Audrey Hepburn sings it herself. The cinematography is very classy, from the dresses/suits everyone wears to the apartment rooms and the beautiful shots of New York.

Holly’s past catches up to her, she’ll do anything to be able to keep running. She’s seeking out the wealthiest men so she can get married and take care of her dear brother, the only person she seems to love back. Her new neighbor, Paul, is an escort himself and he slowly starts falling for her. She crawls into his window at times of need and calls he doesn’t mind helping her out. After Holly finds out of her brother’s death (he was in the military) she’s a total mess and now more eager than ever to get away and live a life of wealth. She’s ready to leave but Paul won’t have it , she breaks down to explain that people don’t belong to each other, she doesn’t want to be caged and that she doesn’t know who she is anymore.

The Last Picture Show [14]

 

Anarene is a small town in Texas full of hopelessness and boredom. We watch the high school kids go through different rites of passage; mainly sex and death. Everyone’s so wound up in themselves, they don’t really care for anyone else; except for one man, Sam the Lion. He takes the innocent under his wing and is the father figure for the town, he owns the movie theater, pool hall, and the café. Everyone looks up to him and respects him, so when he’s pronounced dead everyone’s shaken by it.

Sonny and Duane are in the football team at their high school, movie starts off with everyone bugging them about their losses. They’re bored of this town, Sonny’s even bored with his girlfriend of one year; she won’t give it up so he doesn’t even bother with her anymore. Duane, on the other hand, has the homecoming queen as his girl, Jacy, the prettiest and wealthiest girl around. She’s sure bored of him though, the only reason she gives it up to him is so that another guy would want her. Jacy just sort of plays around with her sexuality because she can tell it can get her anything she wants. Sonny gets it on with an older woman and Duane runs off to the army.

There isn’t a soundtrack for this film, which makes it somewhat more real and fresh. You can get more into it because there isn’t anything going on in the background.  

This town is full of affairs and depression, everyone is down for one reason or another. There’s so much sexual attraction but nothing deeper, no real love. Both the kids and the adults will do anything to fill the void. We follow these kids lives, most don’t find peace within themselves, how can they if they’re either running away from everything or not moving around at all?

Bonnie and Clyde [13]

This movie left me in tears, they weren’t such bad people.. and to die such a way. Guess I’m looking at it differently because I really got the feel of what good people they were, they wanted good things, they just went about it stupidly. They’re nice to people, if they’re robbing a bank, they won’t steal your money, if they ask for something they do it nicely. I watch out for the little things, and on screen they seem greater, I just feel bad that they’re wave of crime ended how it did. They crave to not be on the run, Bonnie wants to see her family and start a life where she doesn’t have to be on the watch out all the time. She changed Clyde, you could tell he wanted that too but he just had a passion for getting money the easy way. He starts off telling her how much of a “loverboy” he isn’t but as the film progresses he holds her hand, makes love to her, and always watches out for her safety.

The camera work and cinematography is so good, the cuts help you get more into the film. You can tell they’re in the great depression, from how the banks are low on cash to the people living in the deserts.

Bonnie meets Clyde when he’s trying to steal her mother’s car. He has no problem stating what he does for a living, and she’s intrigued by him and what he does because she’s so bored with her life. They go along robbing banks innocently until one guy hooks on to the car as they’re getting away and Clyde shoots him. Until then violence was just a scare tactic, you can see how much they change after that. They have less of a respect for human life and laugh about when they’re being chased. They join up with Clyde’s brother and wife, Buck and Blanche, Blanche doesn’t want to life this kind of lifestyle but she’s too wrapped up in Buck to give it up. Everything turns around, Buck ends up dead, Blanche blind, and Bonnie and Clyde in pools of blood, they do survive through it, thanks to their partner C.W.

They’re not so good at covering up their tracks, they always end up in some kind of trouble. Seems they’re about ready to give up this lifestyle, but the law won’t have it. Guess you really pay for what you do, one way or another.

The Graduate [12]

Ben is back home, he just got his bachelor’s degree and his worried for his future. Seems he has no aspirations, wishes and has no clue what to do. Everyone around him is pushing him one way or another, he seems like a quiet/shy guy; he’s not rude, doesn’t party, and it doesn’t seem like he has many friends.

The silence in this film is astonishing, there’s not much of a dialogue going on but some very famous lines derived from this feature film. Seems to me the director, Mike Nichols, shortened the dialogue, added long shots and random cuts to show how awkward of a story we’re dealing with. Not only is Ben awkward but he leads an awkward/funny lifestyle. He’s lost interest, he’s just “taking it easy.” He’s having a fling with some married woman and then ends up with her daughter. This guy is totally out of whack, he falls in love with her after a date. I mean its sort of romantic but really creepy at the same time. I don’t really get what this movie is trying to get at, seems it just changed film a few years ago and that’s why its now entitled a classic. Maybe I should look in deeper to what was going on in the film industry/the world when this came out but I just didn’t feel a really deep theme going on here.

The soundtrack consists of just Simon and Garfunkel. “Sound of Silence” but is played over and over and over. It does go along quite nicely, but it makes it seem like a music video. I don’t have much to say on this film, overall I really liked it, I end up liking the films that confuse me the most. I’m going to have to watch it over, I’m sure, to get more of a feeling for it. It pulled at me because I know the feeling of being worried about my future, feeling awkward, confused and scared. Seems Ben would do anything just to feel somewhat normal and not so confused.

Citizen Kane [11]

This is the first film in this book that bores me. The whole middle just feels so drawn out to me, maybe just because I’m of the recent generations and we don’t have such a big attention span, we need something to keep us on our toes, to keep us wondering. Don’t get me wrong, I mean, I can still see that there’s a classic here, I’m not totally out of range. I can respect the fact that Orson Welles is truly a mastermind, he played a big part in making  the film noir genre [Hollywood crime dramas, black and white, low lighting, crime feel] well known. He was 25 when he directed, co-wrote, and starred in this film.

There are some great shots in this film, might be what kept me awake. The “deep focus” shot truly is one of my favorites, looks like this

the technique makes it so you can not only see what’s closest to the camera but also what is furthest and in the middle, it draws out this depth feeling; I’ve just always been attracted to it.

This is a story about a famous man who murmured his last word and no one had any idea what it meant. Everyone’s at a rut by it, his friends, co-workers and the press; turns out no one really knew him. Charles Foster Kane was one of the most powerful businessmen out there, but he wasn’t happy. No matter what he did, he couldn’t find the happiness he wanted and so badly craved; something that was torn away from him and could never get back. I like the story, the base of the film, what everything else surrounds but this is my fourth time sitting through it and the middle has never reeled me in. I’m intrigued by the beginning because you get to see who he was, how he started out and what a mess he left with his last word. The ending reels me in because, who’s to think that a man who had been known by some as cruel could want something so innocent?