A Simple Plan

A Simple Plan was not my favorite movie, but it was rather enjoyable. I wouldn't really think of it as film noir, but I see that the white snow represents the loneliness and isolation of the characters. The first scene of the film is a black crow, which usually symbolizes death and foreshadows trouble.

Hank was a respected member in the town and wouldn't normally get into trouble. He had everything he needed and at first, he knew to question whether they should take the money. However, when he saw how much money it really was, he was persuaded by Jacob and Lou. You would think that his wife would set him straight and make him hand in the money to the police, but she was overjoyed by the sight of all the money and was actually the mastermind behind the plans to trick this person and that person in order to keep the money.

The "simple" plan was supposed to be to hide the money and retrieve it later, but simple turned into complicated when Hank and Jacob ran into a farmer when putting back some of the money. The whole plan turns out to be futile because the money was marked and they would have been caught anyway. When everyone else is dead and Hank is burning the money, only Sarah wants to keep the money still and run away with it. She still has that greed, even at the sacrifices that have been made. Sarah surprised me the most with her greed for the money. Whhen shhe just had a child and held her for the first time in the hospital, all she could talk about was the plan with the money.

The movie poster says, "sometimes good people do evil things" and it's true. The three men were common people just going about their lives when the stumble about a stash of money. Their greed for the money (Hank didn't really need it but I guess Jacob and Lou did) made them kill others. Hank, who was the one who didn't need it and was the one who questioned it, survived the whole ordeal, only to live with the guilt for the rest of his life.

Merry Christmas everyone :)! The snow is crazzzy right now! I opened the door and got a face full of snow.

Memento

Wow. I was really just wow-ing at this movie. I don't usually like not knowing anything that's going on in movies, but I think that not knowing anything while watching this movie was pretty cool because you sort of understand what Leonard is going through. The color sequence is going backwards while the black and white is going forwards until they come together at the end of the movie (which is sort of the beginning).

Leonard was the character we felt sympathy for because of his condition and were suspicious of Natalie and Teddy for taking advantage of him and his condition, but at the end of the film, we learn that he in some ways, used himself. He knew he was going to forget everything and wrote down clues to lead himself to kill the wrong man. He doesn't have much to live for except revenge. But I wonder what he's going to do after he killed Teddy.

At one point in the film, Lenny mentions how memories are unreliable because they can change and morph into things you've changed them to. This proves true as even though he's supposed to remember everything before the accident, Sammy Jenkins and what he did like killing his wife wasn't real (according to Teddy). Even though he's supposedly just not able to make new memories, he forgot that his wife was diabetic.

Memento suggests that memories are flawed and that 'the truth' sometimes isn't even true. What Leonard perceived as 'facts' like his documents and pictures and what he tattoed were in fact only what he chose to be true. He can't trust the people around him, but he can't trust himself either.

This was a really really good movie and I enjoyed it very much. But I don't get how Leonard knows he has a condition, as he tells everyone he meets.

Dark City

At the beginning of this movie, I didn't really know what was going on and was very confused trying to figure it out; that kid with the Strangers also freaked me out. Despite this, Dark City has become one of my favorite movies because I couldn't stop thinking and rambling on about it after class.

The dark atmosphere of the entire city, as commented on by Murdoch when he notices that there's no sun, contributes to the aspects of the film noir genre. I happened to really like how the hotel looked when John was walking towards the front desk. John Murdoch, who was originally supposed to be like everyone else in the city, was somehow able to get away from the experimentation the Strangers did on humans and gained some of their telekinetic powers. He is supposedly a murderer who killed hookers, and yet he saves a fish before going out the door.

The Strangers change people's memories and fabricate new lives for the people in the city as experimentation, trying to find what it is that makes humans special. John's character shows that it isn't memories that shape our lives. His memories were filled with him being a killer, but when he tried to test himself, he wasn't able to kill the girl.

When the Detective and one of the Strangers fly off into space, you see that the "city" is actually just a spaceship in the shape of a spiral floating around. It's not even a real world; it's something that was made. Dark City leaves you questioning, What if our world was like this? That we're actually some sort of experiment and everything we know isn't real? I really enjoyed this film, but I wonder what the city will be like now that John is in control.

The Asphalt Jungle

I found out about the genre film noir when I came across it randomly on the internet. I was thinking that I should check out one of these movies because they seemed pretty cool. However, I never did, so it works out that I'm seeing The Asphalt Jungle in class. It must be a good introduction to the film noir genre.

The whole gangster feel of the film is really cool and I like the black and white. The Asphalt Jungle deals with a bunch of characters who are together in this bank heist, who all have their vices for getting involved with crime. Emmerich, someone who has a wife and lots of money, is getting himself into these crimes because he's broke and needs to get money as quickly as possible.Dix is the one with the most sympathy because he just wants to get home to his farm. Riedenshneider or "Doc" is the brilliant mind behind the whole thing and enjoys the pleasures in life, whether it be girls or money. Louis is also sympathetic because he has a family to provide for, but I'm not sure what Gus is doing this whole thing for.

The actual robbing of the bank surprisingly was not cut out because of the Hayes Code, and I'm glad it didn't. I was really hoping that they would be able to get the jewels and get out without getting caught. Even though they were the criminals, I was rooting for them, but as explained before, the Hayes Code makes sure that every criminal is punished in the end. Emmerich is able to see that criminals are just like everyone else, telling his wife that they're not so bad. I like the fact that the film shows that criminals are ordinary people and that there is no black and white in people. Everyone has some bad qualities about them, but still have good ones too.

Unforgiven

I've never watched a Western film before, but I did know some things that Western films 'had to have' like the swinging doors, saloons, the hay, dust, and the gun fight. However, Mr. Bennett mentioned that 'Unforgiven' shows more of the truth of the West instead of the Hollywood West.

The movie starts off with a man cutting up a prostitute, but they only had to pay horses as a consequence. The women obviously see this as unjust and hire a killer to kill the two men that were there. Even though Little Bill is there to bring justice to the town, he lets the men get away. I did find the Schofield Kid annoying at first because of all his claims about how he could kill a man easily and how far he could shoot. But later on, I felt bad for him after he killed one of the men because he was clearly shaken up. He had claimed to kill so many because he wanted to impress Will, but he hadn't killed anyone.

Will Munny is not just a good guy or just a bad guy. He's both, and that's what I like about him. He's good to his children and he seemed like a good guy when Delilah asked him if he wanted a reward, but he refused on account of his wife. However, we can see that he's a bad guy because he's going to be off killing random men for money and because he was a drunk murderer before his wife. The gun fight at the end was definitely living up to its Western movie-ness, not to mention exciting. However, the way Munny nonchalantly kills all the men there is unnerving. Munny's good and bad character shows the moral ambiguity of the film.

The theme of exaggeration is shown in the film many times as the story of the 'cut-up whore' is embellished upon as it gets told from one person to the next. The movie's title, Unforgiven, refers to how Will Munny didn't forgive himself because he went back to all the things he had left behind when he married his wife: drinking whiskey and murdering people.

Seventh Seal [Ending]

I find it pretty amazing that they made the film in a month, with all its great shots and everything. The film doesn't necessarily argue for or against the existence of God. It presents all the different viewpoints you can have and sort of lets you choose for yourself. Jons, the existentialist, thinks there is no meaning in life, as he states several times in the film. Antonious Bloch is unsure of whether God exists and goes to great lengths to find out, including asking the 'witch' where the Devil is.
When Jof sees Antonious Bloch play chess with Death, he is able to see Death while his wife is not. I was wondering why? I thought maybe when it is your time, you are able to see Death and it was Jof's time, but then he doesn't die in the end so I ditched the idea. The silent girl, who says "It is finished," at the end is significant, but I'm not sure why she was the one who accepted death since we don't know anything about her.
The end of the film is the scene where they are all eating and Death comes to them; then Jof sees them doing a dance with death - implying that they have not escaped him. If the knight's friends, like Lisa and her husband, had not been with them, would they have been able to put off Death a while longer? The knight's chess game with Death proves that you cannot escape Death; you may be able to stretch out the time in which you have to go with Death, but you will eventually die.

The Seventh Seal

We've started a Swedish film called the Seventh Seal. Reading the subtitles isn't that bad for me, but I guess I understand when people say that you can't concentrate on much else.

The film began with a chess game between Antonious Block and Death. The theme of black and white is prominent in this movie, from the actual film to the chess board and pieces. The chess game can be compared to life because in chess, every move affects the next, just like in life, the choices you make affect the rest of your life. If we had decided to make a different move, we could be in very different places right now.

After the scenes with Block, a new group of people is shown. Mary, Joseph, their friend whose name I forget, and the baby Michael. They obviously remind me of Mary and Joseph from the Bible; I'm curious to see what will happen with them. The scene we left off with was when the people come through the village and beat and punish themselves, and it was a pretty intense one. The music, which was cut off abruptly, gave the sense that you don't choose a nice time to end your life, like at the end of the chorus or verse. It just happens.

The movie is starting a little slow, but I have a feeling it's going to get better!

Runaway Train

If we didn't watch Runaway Train in class, I probably would never have picked it up and watched it on my own. The movie was so exciting and fast-moving that I couldn't really think about the other important things like symbolism, but from Mr. Bennett talking about it a little before class, I was able to pick up on some of it. What I didn't like about the film was the part with his hand and the blood and him climbing under the train. That was just disturbing; the violence, I could deal with, because it contributed to the chaos of the prison, but since I haven't figured out what the meaning behind the hand thing is, I'm just going to label it as unnecessarily gross.

Manny is the prisoner who is "a hero" to all the others. He was sort of their 'Jesus' and Manny is compared to Jesus a few times in the film. Both Jesus and Manny were stabbed in the hand, and when Manny was escaping, the prisoners were going crazy and a picture of Jesus was sprayed off the wall. Especially at the end, when he decides to save the others and disconnect the head of the train from the other carts. Manny is also compared to a train, especially at the beginning, foreshadowing the events to follow: He makes steam noises that sound like a train. Because you know that Manny is like this runaway train, many of the train's actions show us something about Manny's character. The train keeps going, crushing anything in its path, and you get the sense that Manny is like that too.

I like the character of Manny because he isn't what you expect. Because he's a prisoner and a criminal, people automatically assume him to be a terrible person that doesn't know anything about the value of life, but Manny disproves that throughout the film. Buck's character isn't as likable because well...his voice is funny and he's a raist.

We talked about existentialism the day before we started this film and I see the connection. Manny's speech about working the job and just sucking it up and cleaning that spot conveys that life sorta has no meaning and people just go through everyday cleaning that spot. And the whole thing about being alone in life is something Manny constantly reminds Buck (and Sarah) in the film.

Citizen Kane

We have started (and finished since I never post) a new film called Citizen Kane by Orson Welles. At the beginning, it was really fast-paced with the whole newsreel scene, but it really caught your attention with all the headlines. It's confusing to watch when we have a DVD player and can stop it any time, so I can't imagine what it was like when people were watching it on the big screen. I love how they almost told you the entire story in a matter of seconds, but it was too fast to really comprehend. After watching a scene, I feel like I have to sit and think about what just happened to understand it.

The film begins with a dark, gloomy place that is Charles Foster Kane's home, 'Xanadu.' He is on his deathbed and whispers Rosebud and drops a snow globe. The camera angle after is shown through the snow globe, which was a really interesting choice. His dying word was 'Rosebud.' The film is a mystery, as someone is trying to figure out what Rosebud meant by interviewing the closest people in his life. The someone (whose name I forget) doesn't find much even from the closest people in Kane's life, showing how surrounded by people he was yet so alienated.

The themes that Mr. Bennett first mentioned in the beginning were alienation, loss of innocence, materialism, and power. The alienation was clear in the beginning as he was the only person living inside this huge castle. He had no one to share it with and wanted no trespassers. Throughout the film, we see that even though Kane is surrounded by so many people and had two wives, he was still a private and secluded person. No one really knew him or what he was thinking. Materialism is pretty obvious since Kane was extremely rich and built structures to try to satisfy himself, including the opera house for Susan Alexander and his paradise home, Xanadu. Even at the end of the film, you see all the statues, things, etc that he collected throughout his life. He had so many materialistic things, but could not satisfy himself and had no one to give them to when he died. Kane himself even says that if he hand't been rich, he might have been a great man.

Loss of innocence was first introduced when Mr. Thatcher came to take Charlie Kane away from his drunk father and his mother who was supposedly trying to help Charlie by sending him away. I really don't get how that's supposed to help. Kane is only a child and is being sent away to live with the bank; his childhood innocence is lost.
Power is also prominent in the film; the gain and loss of power makes up much of Kane's life. Kane, when he first started The Inquirer, was very powerful and everyone wanted to please him. However, as his life goes on, and he starts cheating on his wife with Susan and loses the governor position, his power is deteriorating. Charlie Kane seems to believe he has a lot of power over everyone, as shown when he says that people will believe whatever he tells them to believe in his newspaper. But during that scene, the reality is that he is losing much of his power. Even when he builds the opera house for Susan, his own friend Leeland has his own opinion: that Susan was terrible. Also when his screaming was bleeped out into a car horn noise. What Kane says is no longer held up on a pedestal; now, all he says is just common noise.

During the scene where Kane is making a declaration of sorts, he turns the light off, keeping all the characters in the dark. I liked this scene because Leeland suggested that Kane might not keep to his promises, and sure enough, he didn't. It connected with another scene when Kane receives the declaration in the mail and he furiously rips it up. In the last part of the film, the other people in the film never find out what Rosebud is and just let it go because 'a word can't describe a man's life.' However, we as the audience find out when the sled, named Rosebud, is thrown into the fire to burn. The sled is the last thing from childhood that Kane owns, the time when he was 'innocent' and happy. Even after he gained all this power, wealth, and material things, on his deathbed, he said the name of just a sled from his childhood.

When Mr. Bennett mentioned that people called it the greatest film of all time, I had a bad feeling because whenever someone says that and I watch the film, I end up thinking 'Oh that really wasn't that good.' and I feel disappointed. However, the 'cinematography' (I'm starting to really like this word =D) was great, and I actually did like the film. It was really interesting and even though it's negative, I will deal with it. I'd just like to say that I liked the scene where it was connected with "Merry Christmas..." as Kane was opening his present "...and a Happy New Year" when Kane was much older. I just thought it was cool :P

All Quiet On The Western Front [End]

So we have finished watching All Quiet On The Western Front and I haven't posted for a while now. Where to begin on the things we've seen over the past few days?

The scene with the women really showed the effects of how terrible the war was because even though the women had no idea what these men were saying and were ignoring them, once they saw that the men had food, they immediately flocked to them. They were selling themselves just for some bread. That is just not cool.
I think the director made a good choice in using German soldiers instead of American soldiers because this was being shown to an American audience who had prejudices about Germans. Watching this film would have made them see that everyone in war is practically the same. There are just men who are told to fight, but do not want to die. It is similar to the scene where Paul stabbed another soldier. I forgot what country he was from, but Paul realizes that they are both men with family at home and both are human beings not that different from each other.
When Paul returns to the teacher's classroom, he has changed so much from when he had left the teacher's classroom. When he left, he did not know the truth of war, only that it was supposedly a great thing to die for his country. But when he returns, he has seen the horrors of war and that it is not a great thing to die for the fatherland. He realizes that because the teacher has never been in war, it is easy for him to advertise for young soldiers to enlist.
During the ending scenes of the film, Kat is killed. Kat was the only person left that Paul could relate to. I think it's terrible that Paul can't even talk to or connect with his own family because he has been through war. He's very disconnected from society and can't live that kind of life anymore, even choosing to go back earlier. Many of his other friends were killed, and he only has Kat left. Kat says something about how the war won't end till they get him, which of course, is a jinx. He's probably gonna die...really soon. And that's what happens!
The ending scene of the film is with Paul being killed with a sniper while reaching for the butterfly. The butterfly seems to symbolize freedom and change, some things that Paul will never obtain. The scene where the boys are looking back at their old life is replayed, bringing the film to a full circle.
There are many examples of dehumanization in this film. The first example is of Kat telling a soldier that even though his friend had died, a body is just a body. Then the scene where Kat himself dies. Kat is dead and Paul is clearly shocked, but the other people in the tent continue playing cards and casually talk about his information. So many soldiers have died in wars and they are just numbers, statistics for history.
The doors and windows that Mr. Bennett keeps talking about are actually very important because they give points of view and sometimes foreshadow. For example, the closing of a door usually means closing an opportunity. Closing the door on Paul seemed to show that he was going to die, but in the next scene, there is an open window with light shining through. This could mean that he was given another opportunity to live. Looking through a window into a scene is much like being on the outside looking in and never being able to do anything about it. You are just a viewer.

So I can't believe we have finished our first movie! Yay! It still isn't my favorite film, but it is definitely a good war film.

All Quiet On The Western Front [Day 2]

Today was the second day of watching All Quiet On The Western Front. We had already been introcued to this film in AP World History last year, and I will admit that I didn't really find it interesting and I may or may not have fallen asleep. However, when we started the film a day ago, I decided that I would give this film another chance and start from the beginning. It's still not my favorite film or anything, but it's interesting. Even though Mr. Bennett stopped the film about a million times to comment on something, it was okay because that's how I learned that directors and writers and everyone working on a film really put a lot of thought into every part of the film, even the small details, like say a small line of dialogue that turns out to be the most important thing. It was also interesting to learn about the camera angles and how the first shot of each scene is really important.


In the film, there was a lot of foreshadowing for things to come like Behn being the only one to stare at the dead man with his vision and later on, he becomes blind and dies. It wasn't shocking that Behn was going to die first, but what was shocking was what the boys had to go through...and they didn't even go into battle yet. I think the characters themselves were shocked that one of their own friends had died so quickly and the officer that was with them didn't even think of him as a human, just an it. People today know that war is usually a horrifying thing, on account of all the books published and all the personal accounts that survivors have made. It really messes people up. It's like a big wake up call to the main characters! They had all thought that war was going to be a great thing, and that they were going to be heroes. I wonder who's going to die next...just kidding! That was a really mean thing to say :P, but we all know it's coming!


SHARON CHOI =D