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Reviews
Tsotsi (2005)
Summary and Review
Tsotsi is a South African dramatic film that examines the soul of a young man. This film is very carefully made, and although it is made in South Africa, it shows a heavy influence of Hollywood and American styles. The language remains the African native language, but many clothing styles are modern and ones you would see in the Unites States. The movie begins with a small gang of young men who provide for themselves by robbing others. One of the beginning scenes, they discuss the word "decency", which gives away the fact that it will be one of the major themes of the film. Tsotsi is the word for gangster, and he is the leader of their gang. His real name, David, isn't revealed until later. He steals a woman's car and once he drives away, he realizes there is an infant in the back seat. He is so shocked because he realizes he can't go back to return it. Thus far, the audience has only scene the cruel side of him. Here is a critical turning point. He must decide if he will follow his hard, gangster reputation and leave the baby on the side of the road, or will his inner compassion finally show itself for the child. After several minutes of battling the two options, he decides to take the baby with him. Once he brings it into his home, humor is first shown when he tries to change the diaper of the newborn. He faces many challenges, one being how to feed the child. He notices a woman in the village with a baby of her own. He uses violence to get her to feed, and eventually take care, of the baby. He sees himself in the child, which he names David, and grows an extremely tight bond with him. The woman taking care of David encourages him to return the child to his rightful parents, which he does. He sacrifices his freedom by doing this though. He had a chance to leave the baby at the house and run away, but he chooses to be caught by the police. There is obvious change in the heart of this gangster. The character began as a soul-less killer, and ends a weeping boy.
The Whole Shootin' Match (1978)
Summary and Review
The Whole Shootin' Match is an example of the American "get rich fast" way of thinking. It is made in sepia, which wraps the entire film in a similar tone. It is a passionate film about two men trying to chase their dreams and pursue happiness. Frank and Lloyd are two best friends that are just trying to get by and do not have a secure income or way of life. Frank shows his unhappiness with his life by cheating on his wife. Lloyd is also unsatisfied with his current situation and he is always trying to find some magical cure and a way to earn a quick buck. He continually opens small shops and little businesses. One invention he stumbles upon is a dust mopper. Their plan is to sell the idea for a ton of money and get it advertised on television. The two friends go to a company to try and sell their new invention, and makes a deal for $1000. They do not realize at the time that they were signing away their rights to their invention. Frank spends the money very quickly on a car and other unimportant material things. As soon as he realizes that his fortune that he made was gone, he attempts to kill himself because he become conscious that he will never get ahead. Lloyd hears a gun shot go off and rushes out to see what it was and he thinks that Frank is dead. But, Frank is unsuccessful at his suicide. This movie examines the concept of material wealth versus true friendship and what the meaning of life really is.
Gabbeh (1996)
Summary and Review
Gabbeh is unique because it is only the second Iranian film distributed around the United States. The definition of an actual gabbeh is an Iranian carpet that is produced by women. It is similar to American quilts. They are usually full of color and sometimes tell stories. This quality is what this movie plays off of. The beginning of the film shows an elderly couple at a stream washing their rug. There is a couple sewed on it, and they begin discussing the story behind it. The woman from the rug comes to life. It takes the viewer a second to realize what had happened, because there are no special effects or special camera angles used to make this clear. The fact that only one face at a time is shown, and when the camera back up, only the elderly woman is shown what seems like talking to herself. Another thing that gives that she is not real is that fact that she is wearing the same shawl as the elderly woman, and her name is Gabbeh, the name of the carpet. She begins to tell the old woman her tragic story, which all ties in with the overwhelming theme of color. She wants to marry her lover who stays on horseback and is never shown up close. She can not do this until her uncle gets married and several other stipulations have been met. Color is used as a rebellious symbol because it usually is not allowed or considered appropriate for bright and rich colors to be worn by women of that time, but in this film, every woman is a multitude of colors, fabrics, and even dangling tokens coming off of their dresses and shawls.
Days of Heaven (1978)
Summary and Review
Days of Heaven is a film that makes the audience ponder about the simple ways of life. The movie begins in the 20th century and in the busy and crowded Chicago. The main characters are a poor couple named Bill and Abby who pretend to be brother and sister. This romantic drama has a powerful way of using symbolic imagery over a simplistic shots and dialogue. The couple goes down to the Texas panhandle to find a job and end up working for a farmer in the middle of the country. The dramatic switch from the busy city to the calm and serene farmland, which causes the audience to think about life and enjoying the simple things. Once the couple begins to work, the farmer falls in love with Abby. Since they pretend to be brother and sister, they can not tell him that she is actually married to Bill. The farmer proposes to Abby, and she decides to accept. She accepts because the farmer is ill and it predicted to die within a short amount of time. If he died while she was still married to him, Bill and Abby would inherit all of the farmer's wealth and property, leaving them in a good position. Their plan seems flawless until the farmer does not pass away. This creates a lot of tension, awkward moments, and frustration between the secret love triangle and other unfortunate events. The fact that this extreme situation is set in such a tranquil setting is ironic. The symbolic imagery is a powerful tool in this movie; there is a reflection of the plot in the symbols. Overall, this was a great movie with a powerful and moving story line.
Simón del desierto (1965)
Summary and Review
Simon of the Desert is a religious based movie illustrating the difficulty of living a holy life and the temptations of sin. Simon, a man in the 4th century, lives on top of a beam for about 35 years giving the example of a sinless life for all to follow. He becomes known as a saint and people from all over came to visit him and get blessed by him. God has blessed him to remain holy, but the devil has other plans. Simon can recognize when the devil tries to tempt him to sin. Once, the devil came as a vixen and tried to seduce Simon sexually. This was one of the more comical scenes in the film. The tone of the movie was rather solemn and serious, and when she came, she began to tempt him by taking her top off and being absolutely ridiculous and humorous. Most people do not imagine the devil as a sassy Latin girl, but this was the form he came in. The devil's many stunts did not sway Simon. At the end, he was in a club full of sensual dancing in the 1960's, and this still did not prompt Simon to sway from his beliefs. Bunuel, the director, did an excellent job of filming, although it was only a short 45 minutes. He filmed the movie in black and white. The screen shots were also filmed creatively and effectively. The camera angles were used to make Simon look more holy and glorified, while making the woman look more dirty and sinful. This film was a balance between serious moral issues and humor. I enjoyed it and thought it was craftily made.
Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962)
Review and Analysis
Cleo de 5 a 7 is a intriguing movie with an underlying theme of mortality. It follows a young pop singer around town for a day while she awaits her diagnosis to see if she has cancer or not. The movie is one of few that actually match the time in the movie to real time. It follows her every minute of the day. This can be a challenge to do, because it is easy for the film to become boring or lose the interest of the audience. Cleo, the central character, is presented in the beginning as a spoiled star that has most everything handed to her and all the difficulties of life taken care of by her "nanny". There is one thing that she can't escape though, and that is cancer. Her fear of death is depicted through out the film with symbols of it. One example of this is when she is driving in the taxi and keeps driving past tribal masks of death. She is very superstitious and that makes her even more paranoid when coincidences keep happening that predict her death. At the beginning of the film, she sees a fortuneteller looking for comfort, or a definite answer. She also goes through several men looking for them to take care of her and meet her emotional needs. She meets a soldier in a park, and immediately has a connection with him. He gives her some kind of comfort and courage to face her doctor and diagnosis. Once she accepts that her life is fleeting, her persona changes and she seems to immediately to lose her heavy burden of fear and become grateful for the life she was given.
Hypocrites (1915)
Review and Analysis
Hypocrites is a silent film that deals with issues on a deeper level. Most silent films of this time were not complex and did not deal with controversial issues. Moral hypocrisy and religious materialism were two main themes explored in this film. It begins with a minister preaching to his congregation who are obviously not truly absorbing what he is saying. The monk creates a statue of a naked woman who represents truth. It is based on the story of Adam and Eve. For this day in age, it was extremely scandalous to display such a figure. Ironically, he is killed by the angry mob. The minister seems hopeless after his sermon, because he can see how the words of God have no meaning to his rather snobby church audience. The sequence after represents how the righteous path to heaven is very difficult and the path to hell is easy and full of sin. Some women try to follow him up the steep and narrow climb, but most cannot handle it and once again fall down into sin. Weber, the director, was very talented when creating this film. The exposures and complicated editing helped to not only create excellent films, but it also helped boost her career. She was ahead of her time with this film, due to the subject matter, editing skills, technology, and the fact that she was willing to use scandalous material to make a heavy point. The soundtrack in this film matched the circumstance well. Classical music was used, and it reflected the feelings well. Overall, this movie was successful in presenting its point and doing so in a professional, avant garde manner.
Paisà (1946)
Review and Analysis
Paisa is an important and well-known postwar Italian neorealist film. Is made up of six vignettes that are about the Allied invasion from July 1943 until the winter of 1944. They focus on the relationships between the freed Italian people and the Americans as their liberators. They begin in Sicily and end in Venice. A group of soldiers need an escort through the minefield terrain because they are not familiar. A woman offers to lead them, but ends up dying trying to protect one of the soldiers, but the Yanks think that she killed him. Then, a orphan boy steals the shoes from a soldier. The soldier becomes angry and follows the boy back to his town. In another story, a soldier meets a lady during the time where Rome was being liberated. She ends up being a prostitute. The United States nurse decides to chase her lover during the middle of the war, and there is much miscommunication between the characters. In the next one, there is a long and rather humorous discussion between a Catholic, Protestant, Jew, and a group of monks. The film ends with a lengthy and violent battle in the Po Valley with the OSS and a band of Germans who will not surrender. Each story in this film supports a different theme, tone, and set of characters. While regular movies are constricted to one or two themes, Paisa is not limited to this because of the fact that there are six stories. This allows for much more creative license to display different positive and negative aspects of this war. There are some historical facts within this film which allows it to not only be considered a creative masterpiece, but be applauded for its historical document.
Gojira (1954)
Summary and Analysis
In America, Godzilla has always been viewed as a poorly made comical movie with low production values. This however, was not the intention of its creators. Godzilla is more than a movie about a giant rubber monster that comes out of the ocean and devours Japan. Godzilla is a powerful symbol of the distressing after-math of the atomic bomb on Japan that also represents the "evils of science", and a countries ability to deal with disaster. Throughout its many translations, the serious message in Godzilla has been completely over-looked and lost. The fact still remains however, that Godzilla is the beast of war. There is vivid imagery throughout the 1954 film of Gojira, that depicts WWII and it's effect on the people. An example of this would be the overflowing hospital after Godzilla attacks the city. During these scenes, heartache and death were depicted when innocent children were screaming for lost family members. It is implied that the purpose of those scenes is to identify the similar consequences of the Japan bombing. Another scene involves some citizens on a train talking about the safest place to hide from Godzilla, when one man mentions taking his family to the shelters, another man responds, "the shelters again?" (2). By saying "again" the man is referring to the way of life during WWII when people would take refuge in shelters and live there for as long as they could. It was an uncomfortable and depressing time for Japanese citizens while they waited for the war to end. Other depictions of post-WWII trauma is a scene in the film where a woman is sitting in the street of the town waiting for Godzilla to kill her and her three children while saying, "It's okay. We will join your father soon"(2). It was a highly emotional scene and some people would even get up and leave the theater (4). Not only was this woman terrified of Godzilla, she was scared of continuing her life without her husband. It is an emotionally jolting metaphor of how the war left families in shambles and destroyed most of their means of living. This scene was cut out in the American version. Because American's decided to delete these emotionally trying and important scenes, the film that was released in the United States did not target the same audience, cause the same effect, or inspire compassion for the Japanese civilians affected by this terrible tragedy.
It's Always Fair Weather (1955)
Summary and Review
It's Always Fair Weather is a light-hearted, witty, and humorous musical. The three main characters begin as war buddies and are having a drink at a local bar, when therefore they say their good byes before they go and lead their civilian lives. As best friends, they make an agreement to meet at that same bar ten years down the road to see how their lives turned out. They collect money from each of them and put it in the hanging light fixture. There is a song after this scene that shows how each of their lives progress. This scene is especially comical. Each one of the men have a distinct personality: one is a ladies man with no ties, one is a family man, and the other a business man. When they meet up, they quickly discover that they were not the same men they were during the war. The progression of their lives have separated them and made them quite different. A dramatic and ridiculous TV hostess decides to base one of her episodes on getting these three gentlemen back together as friends. It turns into a chaotic scene, including fights, chases, and accusations. In the end, the three rekindle their friendship. This movie is also a critique on television itself. There are several jabs in the movie about how phony television is compared to the movie industry. An example of this is the dancing girls that are wearing boxes as advertisements for the television commercials. This makes the television industry look silly compared to the high class world of the movies. This movie was made in a period of time where television was on the rise, and the movie industry was having to work at keeping ahead and their profits up. This was a technique. Overall, this was an enjoyable movie with a lot of laughs and impressive dance numbers.
Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Summary and Review
Stranger on the Third Floor is a dark movie that does have some humor to lighten it up. It focuses on the justice system and how people sacrifice their integrity for material things. It was not a typical "court room" movie where the camera just films the concentrated faces of the jury, the worrisome face of the accused, and the determined faces of the lawyer and attorney. A dream sequence is used to portray the guild of Ward, a young lawyer, who wrongly sent somebody to the chair. In this dream, he was the one that was wrongly accused of murder and sent to the chair. The film style during this dream sequence is German expressionist. Now, he is facing how to handle a murder he himself witnessed. The lighting through out the film was consistently dark and thick with deep shadows and sharp contrast. This lighting was parallel with the tone, story line, and setting of the movie. It portrayed the emotions of the characters well, especially the wrongly accused young man. Along with that ominous setting, the bug-eyed character gives off a creepy vibe with his posture, voice, and overall character in the movie. Jane, Ward's girl friend, is somewhat influential when coming to Ward's decisions. She also provides some of the humorous relief when she is caught in her boyfriend's room and is told to get out. There is a lot of sexual tension going on between them, but it is somewhat discreet. The characters in this film bring several different tones to this movie, all of them being beneficial to the overall theme.
Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925)
Summary and Analysis
The Battleship Potemkin begins headed to Odessa in 1905. Aboard are many sailors returning from the war with Japan. Each scene is titled, and the first one is called "Part 1: Men and Maggots". This is a perfect title because it shows the men who look a little bit worn out, and then the food they are about to eat. It is a large piece of meat hanging in the dining hall with no refrigeration. The camera gets an up close shot to reveal that there are maggots crawling all over the piece of meat. This disgusts the sailors, but the doctor insists it is okay and nothing to worry about. The sailors disapprove and decide to rebel. This caused the officers (who were very well taken care of) to attempt to execute the sailors that had caused trouble. They were about to fire when a sailor named Vakulinchuk speaks up. He gives a motivational talk and asks everybody on board whose side they were on. As they lower their guns, an officer grabs it to try to fire, but this only caused chaos to break out. The only person that ended up getting shot was Vakulinchuk. Once they become docked and anchored at Odessa, the townspeople come out to give honor to Vakulinchuk. The shot shows streams of people and it seems never ending. This invokes a feeling of togetherness and pride. During this, a group of Czar soldiers appear and start firing on the crowd, including children, women, and the elderly. The sailors realize that this was going to turn into a bigger fight and turn the ship around to face opposing ships head-on. Once they get closer though, they realize it is fellow sailors. This film has some historical facts in it, and proves to be one of the great films of its time.
Metropolis (1927)
Summary and Review
Metropolis is a film full of symbolism and radial thought. When this silent science-fiction movie came out, it was far beyond its time with the technical side and the conceptual side. German Expressionism is clearly expressed here. The main theme was how technology is taking over the lives of people and their jobs, and how monopolies are not good. It is a long and bizarre movie with a futuristic setting. The movie shows two distinct classes. One is the thinkers and the other are the workers. It emphasizes how the elite live many levels higher than the working class and poor. The workers are depicted as having a mundane, repetitive, cruel, and non-stop lifestyle that is constantly monitored. There is much tension between these two and this leads to an overall revolution and take down of the factory that runs the city. One of the messages it is sending is that people should be able to think for themselves, use their own creativity, and be allowed to move up in the work force. A mad scientist clones the main character, which is a young woman. She represents evil and temptation. Her evil twin leads the workers into revolting and destroying their work place to make a point. They are so caught up in the fact that their life is about to change, they don't take into consideration until the end that they are destroying the city along with the factory, because that factory is what the city runs on.
True Heart Susie (1919)
True Heart Susie Summary and Opinion
True Heart Susie is one of the most beautifully crafted early silent films. It does not put so much emphasis on the story, but rather the formation of the characters. The story begins with Susie being obviously infatuated with a young man named William Jenkins, but he is clueless to her deep feelings. She keeps her love for him discreet while she pays for his college tuition. He leaves town leaving Susie upset. When he returns, William marries another woman named Betty Hopkins. Betty is high maintenance and mean, and after awhile becomes very difficult for William to live with. William is a very clueless guy and is portrayed as an innocent boy whose intentions are not to hurt anybody. But Susie becomes totally heartbroken. The film focuses on Susie's up-close facial expressions. This was the first time in film that the up close shots were really utilized for film. Small non-verbals were a key to telling not just the story, but rather the emotion of Susie's one-sided romance. An example of this is when Susie kicks up her foot out of disappointment when she is walking with William. Also, when she is overhearing people talk and she is outside the door, the camera zooms in on her face, and she gives a series of very descriptive quick facial movements that indicate surprise, distress, and disappointment. After many days of being love sick and agonizing over her lost love, Susie's aunt can no longer take her pain and decided to help Susie. She tells William how Susie paid for his education and how she has loved him for a long time. William becomes so overwhelmed with emotion; he then takes her in his arms and promises her forever.