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Reviews
The Whole Shootin' Match (1978)
The Whole Shootin' Match
I really like this film, I thought it was really comical most of the time and really just used the stupid cowboy approach to their advantage. The film is about these two dumb cowboys Frank and Loyd who spend most of their time drinking, flirting with women (even though Frank is married to Paulette) and thinking of get rich quick schemes since they can't seem to hold down jobs. They tried frog farming and squirrel ranching among other things and now are in a failing roofing business. Finally, Loyd invents a gadget he calls the Kitchen Wizard, and they each make a thousand dollars selling the rights to a patent attorney who gives them a contract worth much more. However, their idea is stolen and they soon run out of money. Frank contemplates suicide, but Loyd talks him out of it by reminding him of his family and their friendship. The film is kind of awesome that it ends the way it does, I mean it is almost like it fools the audience. The whole time you are just thinking that these are two idiots with rocks for brains, and there is absolutely no way that these two, or anyone in the film for that matter, could have a half way decent thought go through their mind. But then you realize that this guy has actual emotions and can truly contemplate on something, even something as vital as taking his own life. So it is like the whole film is a big oxymoron, it just shifts drastically from one extreme to the other. This film also majorly contributed to independent cinema. It even was one of the inspiring forces behind Robert Redford creating the Sundance Film Festival. So this film is definitely worth a shot, it is a really cool story.
Simón del desierto (1965)
Simon of the Desert
Simon of the Desert was definitely an odd film. I mean the whole movie it is just this legitimately insane man, named Simon, just standing on a pillar praying to God. The odd this is that he has been doing this for six years, six weeks, and six days (that's not coincidental at all). But seriously this guy is nuts. He abandons everyone he loves and everything sane about the human world for God. And now comes along Satan whose is constantly disguised so that he can try and convince Simon to come down from the pillar and stop praying to God. Satan first comes to Simon as a beautiful woman, hoping to entice Simon to get off the pillar, Simon refuses and continues praying to God. Then Satan comes disguised as Jesus Christ himself, but Simon calls the bluff again and ignores Satan again and continues praying to God. Then a coffin pulls up next to the pillar and out jumps Satan, without a disguise, and carries Simon off to some place unknown. The next thing you know you are staring at a nightclub full of people just dancing. We have gone from being back in the bible days to what seems like a modern day night club. And as the camera pans through all the people dancing. We catch Simon sitting at a table in the middle of the dance floor sitting there with Satan. He says he wants to go, but Satan says not and gets up and starts dancing. It is a very strange film, but it is very similar to the story in the Bible when Jesus was in the desert fasting for forty days and Satan comes to him three times and tries to tempt Jesus to bow before him. This film is like the satirical version of that story. I do not really what to think about the film, honestly, it just has to bizarre of an ending.
Gabbeh (1996)
Gabbeh
I pretty much hated this film. I didn't really get the story until I was well within twenty minutes of the film. Yeah, I guess you can say that the colors were really nice. But if that is the basis of the film, if that is the only superb thing about it, then that is really really bad. And that is about what I thought of it. Colors were nice, but the overall film just sucked. It was beyond boring, half the time it is just this old man and old woman washing some rugs. It is completely uninteresting. I mean I guess it is just a generational thing but I mean if the story is even a little interesting I will pay attention and enjoy it. But this film was just not engaging, the story was not interesting. It is hard to appreciate a work of art, which is what I think the filmmaker was going for, without a decent, engaging story.
Tsotsi (2005)
Tsotsi
Tsotsi is excellent. The whole story is just so engaging and enticing, it is just like one of those really good books that is just too good to put down. The man who plays David is awesome. He does not really approach his character like a Hollywood gangster, instead he is more realistic, and relies heavily on his facial expressions, or lack there of. The facial expressions really bring out the true darkness of his character. David's soul is truly scarred, there is something that happened in his past to make him into the monster he is. But at the same time you can still see that innocence in him, almost like a little ray of hope in his future. It really comes out when he chases the cripple under the freeway. But the fact that the baby is David's saving grace is the extraordinary thing. David saw the baby as a do-over from his past. His mother was terribly ill and his father was abusive and heartless which caused David to run away at a young age and fend for himself, growing up without moral values and ethics, which eventually turned him into a heartless soul. So he saw this baby as an opportunity of redemption, he truly wanted to love this baby, because he never got the chance to be loved as a child. The only problem is he does not really know how to love, and it takes the whole film for him to figure it out, that the only way he can love the baby is if he gives it back to its rightful mother. And it's even more sad that he ends up having to go to jail for it. Because by the grace of just this little infant he was saved from himself and a lifestyle that would have eventually got him killed. Overall, this movie is excellent, the film editing is awesome, the acting is awesome, and the story is awesome. It's just awesome.
Days of Heaven (1978)
Days of Heaven
I thoroughly enjoyed Days of Heaven, there was just this sort of mysterious feel to it. It is almost like you do not know what is going on half the time. You do not know much about the characters past, you just know their mannerisms by their previous actions that they show in the film. The movie relies heavily on its cinematography. The film truly makes a wheat field look beautiful and dreadful simultaneously. Which, in a way, says that the setting has a way of symbolizing the emotions that the characters have. The character played by Richard Gere, Bill, loves a woman which he refers to as his sister. But right away the viewer can infer that they are in no way related. I think Bill has the best of intentions, he has a couple of girls who follow him wherever, and Bill sees them as family and he wants to take care of them as best as he can. His fault is where he lets his emotions get the best of him. His emotions are definitely not his friend, they cause him to make catastrophic decisions in order to take care of his "family". The next aspect I really loved abut this film was its lack of dialog. I think the film feeds so much off it's artistic cinematography that there is honestly not time for a whole lot of dialog. The film also feeds off of close ups. In other words there is no need for dialog because the viewer can infer the certain emotions of the characters just by their facial expressions. But the most ingenious thing about the film was the emotion emitted towards Bill at the end of the film. This is a man who has seriously injured and even killed people because of his issue with anger. But in the back of your mind you know he is just taking care of his love as best as he can and when he is gunned down it is sad to see the man kill just because he was doing what he felt was right at the time. Overall, it was an excellent film in more dimensions than one.
Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962)
Cleo de 5 a 7
Cleo from 5 to 7 is not any ordinary film that you might see today. It literally follows Cleo and the events that transpire in her life for just these two specific hours. There are no flashbacks or fast forwards it is a second by second documentation of her life for two hours. Which is kind of an ingenious little story in a way. Sure that two hours that you watch the film will not be a boring event in her life but every little detail of her life is in the film. And through this film you kind of have to infer what has happened in her past and how she got to these two hours in her life. It seems like a hard film to write just because there is so much extraneous detail that has to be inserted into the film subtly, while still making every detail of the characters life an interesting story. The main character of the film, Cleo, is roaming around Paris while awaiting the medical test results from the doctor. She meets with several friends and strangers and discusses her thoughts on mortality which is a big issue for her at this point in her life. These people seem unsympathetic towards her cause so she starts to question her solitude and whether or not she has anyone in her life that she can lean on for support. She finally meets a stranger who happens to be a soldier from the Algerian war. He is able to comfort her and is able to relate to her. And in the end he accompanies her to the doctors appointment to receive her results. This film definitely has an existential feel with conversations such as mortality, solitude, and leading a meaningful life in it. Overall, I thought this was a great film with an interesting story behind it.
It's Always Fair Weather (1955)
It's Always Fair Weather
It's Always Fair Weather is kind of a cheesy film. I wasn't much of a fan of it just because it was so absurd. I mean the whole first scene where they have just returned from the army and all of a sudden they break out in song and eventually they are tap dancing with trash can lids. And given this is supposed to be a musical, I get that, but at least make the musical somewhat realistic. Don't have the characters just returning from war break out into some cheerful song. War has the exact opposite effect on people, most people are psychologically disturbed from the events that have occurred during their time. I know they are happy to be home, but I do not think anybody is that happy on any regular day. Probably the most significant thing about this film is the fact that, at the time, the film industry was trying to fight it's battle with television. With televisions in homes all over America, the film industry was losing business, because all the citizens had to do was wait until the film was broadcast on television to actually see the films. Nobody wanted to pay money to go to the theater to see a film. So the film industry responded by creating the anamorphic widescreen picture, which could only be shown in the movie theaters and on a big screen, it would cut off part of the picture if it was shown on a television. This sort of revolutionized the way films were made. Filmmakers were able to bring more elements that might be vital to the artwork of the film into the picture. And while the overall story of this film is unbelievable and jut not very good. I think the way the film was shot and how they were able to bring tons of people into one scene really spoke a lot about the revolution of the film industry.
Gojira (1954)
Gojira
OK so it's hard not to like this one. Despite the incredibly cheesy nature of this English dubbed Japanese freak show, it just set the bar for those crazy science fiction monster movies. Not the best technical movie, even though back then it won a Japanese Academy Award for best special effects, but still a good story. And in a larger sense it was kind of seen as a symbolic film and a film a lot of Japanese could relate to. In fact America had just drop an atomic bomb in Japan so it was definitely a movie that the Japanese people could definitely relate to in terms of disaster. I do feel bad for this movie though because it is so easy for my generation to make fun of how incredibly cheesy this is. When really I think that the director was trying to send a legitimate message and use symbolism to his advantage in order to make a movie that was terrifying to the Japanese people on so many levels we could not even begin to fathom. And this definitely opened the door for the crappy American remake and many other less authentic remakes. About the only good movie I have ever seen that Gojira influenced was Cloverfield. But this movie speaks very highly of the creative filmmaking that the Japanese had at there disposal back then. And while they were technically behind the rest of the world in so many ways they were still able to come up with original stories and certain ways of doing things with their films that really defined Japanese cinema as a contender of their time.
Paisà (1946)
Paisan
The film Paisan from Roberto Rossellini is a very influential film in terms of it truly expressed Italian neorealism. The film itself deals with the poor soldier class during World War II in Nazi Germany as they are basically losing the war against the Allied forces. I got this sort of authenticity from the film though just because Rossellini went with non-professional actors which is very common in Italian neorealism films. Because most of these actors were probably soldiers during World War II it gave me a better view of what the characters actually went through in terms of how they experienced the war and it just made the movie more authentic which is what you want in a film like this. It was a relatively long movie, split up into six different chapters, and all the dialogue is spoken in Italian. The Italian dialogue has it's ups and downs for me in terms of, yes, this is an Italian neorealist film so the basic language should be Italian. But for me being of a newer, younger generation these types movies can be hard to sit through just because my generation is used to the violent action packed cinema. And while I really enjoyed Inglourious Basterds (which is like 2/3 in another language besides English) it still just makes the watching experience that much longer and unenjoyable. So my only complaint in this movie is the Italian dialogue with English subtitles, but overall it gets the point across. And I now have a set example of how an Italian neorealist movie is made.
Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Stranger on the Third Floor
Stranger on the Third Floor is a typical example of a film noir thriller. In fact it is actually considered to be one of the first film noir's of the classic era which is considered to be from 1940 to 1959. But it's style is very interesting, it has many characteristics that mad the noir style very famous. The film is set in an urban setting, the shadows are heavy, diagonal lines, low camera angles shooting up multi-story staircases, and an innocent protagonist falsely accused of a crime and desperate to clear himself. I, personally, love the shadows and lighting techniques used in this movie. It gives the characters that sort of mysterious edge, but of course that is the main point of the story. The intention of the movie is for it to be a mystery we are not supposed to know who "the stranger" really is and we are not supposed to know about the darkness that haunts ward. And for the audience to feel that effect, the lighting has to play such a crucial part, because it was hard for actors of that time, who are still trying to find their way to sincere acting, to emulate and give off the impression that they truly are mysterious without the lighting. I think this film also had a wonderful effect on Hollywood movies from then on out. I know it sure did wonders for a lot of the gangster movies at that time, which was the type of movie that used it the most. Probably my favorite film noir thriller though was Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. This movie may not have the best story or the best acting in the world, but as far as the technicality of the film goes, it sure did have an effect. It truly revealed that all parts of the film are subtle arts within themselves whether that be acting, cinematography, or camera angles.
Metropolis (1927)
Metropolis
Metropolis is a German expressionist film made by Fritz Lang. It is a visually extraordinary film for its time. You could almost consider it the Avatar of the 1920's. But then again it's like Avatar in more ways than one. One it spent a ton of money on the set design and production of this movie. It is said that Metropolis spent over half of the studios annual budget just to create this masterpiece, and it definitely paid off. The architecture of the great wonder city is brilliant. It truly grasps the vastness and wonderment of a futuristic city. The story however is not revered as being so in depth. This might have been because Fritz Lang built the reputation of the movie too much, I don't know. All I know is that Metropolis has gone down in history as being one of the most expensive, and visually groundbreaking films ever to be put on the screen, exactly like Avatar. I tend to agree with the critics. I did not think that the story was awful by any means, I thought it explored the aspects such as Christianity and romanticism. I thought the robot was a great human metaphor as people do always appear to be who they really are on the inside. The part of people that only themselves and their makers know is a self that is hardly ever revealed. But as far as the story being silly at some times, and just sort of boring at others, is what really gave it a negative effect for me, and once I got past the awe of the set design I soon became tired of the movie. So I believe the greatest amount of credit goes to the design team here. They are truly the ones who provided the label of "masterpiece" to this film.
Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925)
The Battleship Potemkin
In The Battleship Potemkin made by Sergei Eisenstein, he uses a form of film editing called Russian montage, which combines a lot of different shots shot in different settings and edits them to tell multiple stories at one time. It can also show different perspectives of different people at the same point in time so that the viewer is aware of the different effects that that certain event has on the different types of people experiencing it. This is the main reason why this film is so effective. And it has influenced many films up to this point such as, 2001: A Space Odyssey which starts at the beginning of mankind and jumps to a time far in the future. But this film presents a dramatized version of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their officers of the Tsarist regime. And the most interesting thing about this film is the organization of the shots. If Eisenstein would have reorganized these shots any other way he could have told a completely different story. But that's the beauty of the montage film editing, it allows the editors to bring the "invisible art" to life. It allows them to be the true artists and storytellers that editors can be.
True Heart Susie (1919)
True Heart Susie
This is a good little film. Seems like one of D.W. Griffith's more calmer films especially considering he directed Birth of a Nation. But it is the acting that is the essential backbone of this film, particularly Lillian Gish. It is said that most actors starting out in silent films were once stage actors in plays, so their expressions and styles of acting can tend to be dramatized and somewhat overreacted. But not Lillian Gish, she basically created the sincere actress, her facial expressions are brilliant and it totally personifies her character in the film. In the film the character Susie has to sit back and watch the person she loves most in the world love someone else. To most actresses of that time that would be a pretty hard character to act especially when there is no dialog to be said, but she does it with such great poise and sincerity that the audience gets a true feel for the pain she is experiencing. I can't help but think that most actresses of the present time wouldn't be near what they were if she hadn't raised the bar from where it was. There are also signs that D.W. Griffith was a feminist filmmaker. The lead male actor in this film, Robert Harron, plays William Jenkins, a stereotypical male who is, quite frankly, more oblivious than Griffith gives the average male credit for. Griffith does a wonderful job of creating a want to hop through the screen and tell William to wake up and stop loving the "slightly unfaithful" woman. But in the end all is well and justice is served to those who deserve it.
Hypocrites (1915)
Hypocrites
Hypocrites is an extremely slow film and one of my first experiences with a full feature length silent film so it was definitely a hard film for me to get through. But it did do the job of living up to it's title. And it sure did tick off the church going people of it's time so overall it was a pretty successful film. The film, in a way, somewhat revealed the true nature of the Christian people at that time by throwing in symbols such as the "naked truth". I just found it ironic that Lois Weber would throw in a nude woman in a film that is supposed to criticize the human nature of Christians, but then again that's probably the point of it. Make no mistake that Lois Weber was one of the great feminist filmmakers of her time and this movie did nothing but elevate her status in the movie world. Although, the church going people might have been ticked that she is somewhat ruining their reputation, but it got her name in their heads. It just goes to show that making controversial such as this one is the best way of getting a filmmakers name out there. Look at Oliver Stone as a more modern day example. Would Oliver Stone's status in the movie world be near as popular if he hadn't made JFK. Sure the government probably wasn't too happy that he was revealing believable facts that the assassination of Kennedy was a government conspiracy, but that didn't stop him from making a great film that put his name out there. And that's exactly what we have here with Lois Weber, she had the guts to put her reputation on the line to make a film that made a statement, and she succeeded in making a decent one.