Friday, February 26, 2010

Psycho: With Sound and Without

Seeing the shower scene in the beginning I thought it was unrealistic and corny, but it still made me jump and feel nervous. When watched without sound it became very obvious that the directors use of music and sound, is what made the scene frightening and surprising. The large sharp noises as Norman pulled the curtain back made you jump because It was a drastic change to the regular low key noise of the shower. Then as the attackor was stabbing Marian with the knife, the director used sound effects that were similar to large brush cutters, kind of a chopping noise. This made it seem as though the knife was cutting into Marian even though the picture showed clearly it didn't. Then the scene ended with Marian grabbing the shower curtain, it ripping and a loud thud of her hitting the ground. I think this part showed the audience that Marian was really dead, because before with her sitting in the shower it was difficult to see if she was truley dead or not. Then the entire scene fiineshed with just that steady shower noise, which calmed the audience and told them the action was over and the attaker was gone...for now.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Casablanca Review

Casablanca is said to be one of the greatest films of all time. Authough I wouldn't put it at the top of my list, I can certainly see why it was put there. It was produced in 1942, and at first its story wasn't anything special, just another movie made during the boom era of filmaking. The story I thought was good, a man who meets up with his past love and has to choose between hving her back again or supporting the revolution by helping her and her husband escape from a nazi controlled city. When this issue of Nazi takeover became really recognized in the states, the people were able to relate to Casablanca much better I believe. Because now I cannot relate my situation to Rick and Ilsa's maybe that is why I couldn't really get into the movie. But I do have to appreciate the use of gauze filming in this movie which gave Ingrid Bergman a soft look to her. I felt the romantic quality it gave to her and it helped me to at least relate to the movie emotionally. what also helped me relaste emotionally to this movie was the flashback scene.The flashback was a major part of the movie because it let you in on the past love between Rick and Ilsa, when you got back to the present I felt the emotion that was still between them and I wanted them to be together again. In the end when Rick told Ilsa to leave with Laszlo, I could feel Ilsas pain, torn between her want to be with Rick, and helping Laszlo fight for his cause. All in all the movie itself was good. Not my favorite but the director did a good job really bringing the viewer into the story. It was a good movie for emotion. It allowed you to feel emotion and relate to the characters, ( which helped me because I was unable to relate with the background story).

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

2005 King Kong Review

Authough this King Kong was a remake of the original, Peter Jackson changed the story a bit. I liked the changes though. In this remake Ann is made more sensible, she refused Carl Denhems request more than one time while in the original Ann seemed giddy and Naieve. A big difference between the two was that in the original movie Jack Driscoll was a sailor on the boat while in this movie Jack was the writer of Carls movie screenplay. I think the director changed this piece because it allowed more emotion into the story. Jack was just a regular guy, not the most handsome, but he wrote Anns favorite play, it was almost destiny that they would meet up and fall in love. Also in the new movie the natives were scary and mean, which again I think the director did this for stronger emotion, he really wanted the audience to hate the natives, to get the vibe they were savage. Which in the original you never really got that vibe. I think the most major difference between the two movies is that You really got to see how much Kong loved Ann, and how much Ann loved Kong. The emotion between them was clearly shown with the scene of Ann sleeping in Kongs arms and her tears when all those cruel men went to harpoon him and capture him. My favorite part was when Kong and Ann were on top of the Empire State building at sunset and Kong tapped his chest referring back to the scene when Ann did the same to tell Kong how beautiful the view was. All and all the movie was excellent, a good protrayl of the original in my book.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

1933 King Kong Review

I had never seen the original King Kong before, but I have to admit I was impressed. For a movie made in 1933 I have to give Shoedsack and Cooper credit, very good special effects for the time. I think that was the most amazing thing to me about the film. Sure compared to our computer generated monsters of today Kong seems kind of corny, but at the time he was the first scary monster! Which brings me to my next point, were Cooper and Shoedsack protraying Kong as a monster, or an oversized gorilla trying to protect the girl he loved? I don't believe he was a monster on the inside, I think he was just monsterous in size. If you really look at it Kong never wanted to hurt Ann at all, in fact the entire movie was about him protecting her from all the monsters on the island. I think Ann screamed a lot because obviously she was scared, but I'm sure in the end when Kong fell to his death, Ann felt sorry for him. So he trashed the city, and ate a couple people, that doesn't put him in the scary monster category automatically does it? I would have trashed the city too if I was chained up in front of a crowd for all to see. The only reason Kong trashed the city was because he wanted his Ann, and was in fear that she was in danger. If you look back to the island scenes, you can see all the things Kong did to protect Ann.First of all Kong had been giveen many wives before, but he didn't like them, so he killed them. If he was just a heartless monster then he wouldn't have taken fancy to Ann, he would have killed her just like the others. In the woods that T-rex would have eaten Ann alive if it wasn't for Kong. Kong wrestled the oversized lizard until the end when he skillfully broke the t- rexs jaw so he wouldn't be able to harm Ann again. Then Jack and crew were trying to steal Ann from him. Kong just saw them as another threat to Ann so he did away with them too. When they were cornered on that log he lifted it and rocked it until all the sailors fell into the spider pit! Then as you know Jack escaped and followed Kong into the cave where yet again he protected Ann from a snake lizard creature. So make your own opinion i guess.