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.