Brittany Garcia- Silence of the Lambs 1991

Title: Silence of the Lambs
Director: Jonathan Demme
Year: 1991

When looking for movies from 1991, I came across several horror/drama films that seemed interesting. One particular movie, The Silence of the Lambs, was very chilling to me. As a quick overview, the movie is based on the famous Hannibal Lector. It  goes into a little background about him, where he was currently being held, and how he finally escaped prison. I definitely underestimated this movie. Little did I know how detailed it would actually be. I loved the film. Throughout the movie, we saw different scenes where Lector would kill people by biting them to pieces. For example, in one scene, he traps two prison guards in the cell with him and tears the one guards face completely apart using his mouth. Although I enjoyed this movie, parts like that totally creeped me out. While watching the movie, I tried to pay attention to some different techniques used.
After reviewing the power point last week in class, I noticed a few things that we talked about that were utilized throughout different scenes. During multiple different interviews between Jodie Foster ( the detective) and Lector, depending on the subject, the cameras would use medium close-up shots and close up shots. They also used extreme close-ups when emphasizing certain aspects of the conversation. I thought this was interesting because it is not something I ever really paid any attention too until taking this class. In a different scene, where the girl who had been kidnapped was being held captive in a hole almost like a well inside the mans house. The film used a low angle shot. In this case, the man was superior to the girl, just as the angle indicated. Another technique I had never been too familiar with. You being to understand movies so differently when you begin to understand the little things like the ones mentioned above. 

Breathless. 1983. Dir. Jim McBride

Breathless
Year: 1983
Director: Jim McBride
Breathless is one of
those movies where you also want to be the bad guy that has fun breaking the
law and gets the most beautiful girl. I think breathless is one of those movies
that depict crime as a glamorous thing. The main character starts the movie the
same way he ended it. With no fear for anything and somehow no respect either. As
this guy that just kill a cop intentionally or not (we do not see the moment
when he shots) goes in search of a girl that he meet in Las Vegas, we wonder
what kind of person would steal a car shot a cop and break in to a woman house.
This is a love story where a beautiful architecture student girl that has
everything including the support of her parents, support of her professors,
money and a bright future. She still falls in love with a guy that seems to
have an adventurous life. When she found out all he has done she goes on the
run with him. For her being on the run is the most exciting thing she can think
of. When she goes to the store to get some food she realized her face and his
face are in the newspaper. At the end she comes in reason the calls the police.
He never gives up and even when he is totally surrounded be cops with guns he
decides to tell her that he loves her by singing and dancing a song while the
cops look confused. He reaches down to pick up a gun and turns around facing
the cops. The movie end and we do not hear the sound of gun shots, but we do
not need to. We know what happens when you shot at a cop. The movie is an
example of a person that lives to the extreme. Unfortunately he seems to hurt
indirectly the lives of other that way. I believe the central point of the
movie is to show how wild and crazy society can tolerate and a close company
can be brain-washed into doing it to. The end is tragic. He dies for nothing
when he was only 28. She ruined her own life by making that mistake of going
with him. Now she is alone and has no support from anybody.

The Keep. 1983. Dir. Michael Mann

The Keep
Year: 1983
Director: Michael Mann
The keep is a movie
that mixes the horrors of the human nature and the horrors of science fiction. What
gripped my attention the first half of the movie was the social and human drama
of war and invasion. It is almost out of my imagination or to understand to
think about what it would be like to be in the place of millions of people that
lose everything they had even their dignity. I can stop thinking what I would
do and how I would react to a situation of that nature. This movie does not focus
in the atrocities of the Nazi invasion, but it shows the drama of it at some
extension. The lack of respect for private property and even life itself is absent
in extremes situation like wars and invasions. The special effects on this
movie are one of the best for the time it was made. Computer generated visual
effects in the 80’s was in its infancy. Many of the effects were done with
camera tricks. The scenography was really good. The town where the keep is at
is in this mysterious place in the middle of Romania. The keep itself is very interesting
the movie manage very well to keep the viewer interested in the mysteries of
the keep. The second half of the movie is about a supernatural force that is
killing the people at the keep. The jump from the drama of war to the drama of
a ghost or monster is drastic. The rest of the movie is about the eternal
battle of good and evil. The humans in this case have to make a wise decision that
of course we are not prepare to make. At the end everything is fine the humans
make the right decisions the good defeats the bad. They save the planet of a
great evil but the evil of human kind still destroys the lives of millions. I
thing one of the messages of the movie is that the eternal battle of good and
evil does not come from supernatural creatures but from us. We are the ones
that create horrible situations like wars, repression, hunger, intolerance,
hate.

Amy Petter- What about Bob?(1991)

What about Bob?

Director: Frank Oz

Year: 1991

            What about Bob? is a well made comedy. The beginning of the movie really gets you interested as the first few scenes are moving shots of Bob Wiley leaving his apartment and going into the city. Bob’s problems are introduced to the viewers within 5 minutes of the film. The beginning focuses of his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as he is nervous about leaving his apartment, touching doorknobs, and using public transportation. The zoom shot of his hand opening the door with a Kleenex really adds to the humor of OCD.

            One thing that was very different from the other films I watched was the split screen that was used when Dr. Marvin’s assistant Betty answered the phone. Bob Wiley was shown on the left side while Betty was on the right. I thought that this was a very good technique because we got to see both characters facial expressions while they were on the phone. One technique during the same scene that I did not like was the transition that they used from one slide to another. They used a basic transition that you would find in a very unprofessional movie.

            For a movie that was made in 1991, I was very impressed with the special effects that were used during the scene where Bob accidently blows up Dr. Marvin’s house. The special effects were much better quality than I have seen in other 1991 movies.

            Overall, I was very impressed with the film. It was much better than a few of the other ones I watched for class. Bill Murray did a great job playing Bob Wiley’s part in the movie. I would definitely watch this movie on my own time.

Amanda Valderrama Demolition Man(1993) #1

Director: Marco Brambilla

I really enjoyed the film Demolition Man because it had a perspective on the world in the 90’s that can still be said in the 21^st century. I feel that the film revolves around this whole ideaof the future and the director depicts his ideas of it very visually appealing. The film brings youinto this prediction of the future world, a place where violence is no longer a big issue. Yes, inthe world today violence is becoming more of a occurrence and problem but to say that we canbe able to rid of it in the next ten to 20 years is inaccurate.

I don’t think we can live in a perfect society where profanity and weapons do not exist because it would cause a much bigger problem. We wouldn’t understand the ways to defend ourselves, our lives would be sheltered andwe would all live very mind-numbingly. The police officers in the film are naïve to everything around them, much like today we too are naïve to important things. I feel that “the man” is always above us controlling what we do and that causes us not to know the truth about important matters. I would compare Dr. Cocteau in the film as “the man” because he was leading the city of San Angeles and all of his people praised him but was unaware that he was unleashing a criminal killing machine behind the scenes. My favorite shot was the medium close up shot of Simon Phoenix because with how director set it up and with lighting, you could tell that he was the antagonist of the film. I also thought the performances by the actors were well portrayed. My favorite scene was when Dennis Leary gave a whole speech about the things he enjoys to do that are frowned upon. The whole quote was almost an exact summary of what our civilization is today.

Lauren Potts Post-5 When Harry Met Sally 1989 Dir Rob Reiner

When Harry Met Sally 1989

Director: Rob Reiner

Lauren Potts

I finally saw it

                It was a long time coming, but I finally saw the infamous diner scene in its entirety.    When Harry Met Sally, is a romantic comedy about two people who bump into each other thought-out their lives.  From the romantic-comedy aspect this movies deals with the relationship that men and women share, but it also shows that finding your “true love” might take 12 years but it is worth the wait.

                I would say this is the college version of Say Anything, their plots are different, but the bases of the story are the same: guy meets girl, guy falls in love with girl, and they fall in love.  Harry meets sally after they graduate from college.  They carpool to New York to start their lives, and bump into each other over the next 12 years.  When Harry first meets Sally I thought he immediately liked her but was to macho to admit.     Somewhere in those twelve years they become friends and their friendship evolves into a relationship sort of…   After a big fight the two calls it quits.  In say Anything  Lloyd is on the chase to win back Diane’s heart , this is the same for Harry is on a chase well running in New York to win back Sally.I that the men are fighting to win the girls heart, chivalry is not dead after all at least back in 1989.  In an interesting way both men profess their love and the women kind of give the same speech, Sally repeats “I hate you” and Diane say “I need You” both showing their vulnerability.

                In watching the iconic diner scene there many different shots used.  It started out as an over-the-shoulder shot to a two-shot, then jumps to a close up of Sally’s face and back to an over-the-shoulder-shot, and it repeats the order until the scene ends.  There were a few cutaways too, mostly of older people talking about relationships and when they fell in love.  Showing how relationships evolve over time.     In the ending it ends with them kissing then of a voice over of them talking, then a shot of them talking about their weeding three months later after that cuts to black. 

                Yes it is a chick flick and I must say I liked it. It was a cute movie.    You can never go wrong with a simple love story.   It can teach you a thing or two.  I learned to say how I feel to people whether than holding it in, even if is sappy you can’t hide how you feel about a person.

  

Lauren Potts- Post 4 Stay Together 1989 Dir Lee Grant

Staying Together 1989

Director: Lee Grant

Lauren Potts

Warm

            Facing adversities can be hard enough, but having a family to go through them can make it easier.  Staying Together is a movie about a family trying to keep its self together after losing its family business and father.  This movie illustrates how people can overcome hardship, and satisfying yourself should always be a priority.

            Dealing with a death and loss of and business is no laughing matter, but it is a sour lesson to learn.  Being able to handle adversities allows you to mature more as a person.  In the first half of the film the three sons were young carefree men taking life day by day.  Flashed forward to the ending, they are all on their separate path, one is going to college another is running a marathon in New York, and the oldest is settling in to family life.  None of them thought the death of their father and loss of their family business would bring them to the men that they are in the end, but that is was adversity does to a person.  That made me think about my own journey and the adversities I faced.  It still shocks me today that I am in college; I didn’t even pack until 12 hours before I left for school.  2011 was a scary year for me and my family but as we are in 2012 we have grown a lot.

            Their father decides to sell the family fast food restaurant, because he doesn’t “want die a chicken man.”  For many years he has given himself to his family and restaurant, but now it is time for him to stand on his own despite his son’s anger.  I thought this was very admirable for him to do, no matter how old you are or what position you hold in your family, going against your clan is a tough pill to swallow.  It made me think of Say Anything toward the end of the fill Diane made it clear that she only wanted to be with Lloyd, despite her father’s refusal.   When you believe in something you fight for it no matter what.  

            Some shots that interested me were when the brothers were together.  It was three of them total but I mostly saw two shots of them.   When they were all on the screen the camera was in a wide shot, sometime the shot was narrow in few scenes.  A series of reaction shots I noticed was when the mayor (who had a physical relationship with the oldest brother) saw him at a weeding with his new girlfriend and her son.  It showed Brian and his new girlfriend, cut to Nancy expression her looking sad and walking away.  Overall I really enjoyed watching the film and seeing the characters grow.

Amy Petter- Cape Fear (1991)

Cape Fear

Director: Martin Scorsese

Year: 1991

            In Cape Fear, the beginning started off very slow. The film was extremely corny.  Scenes were shot, ending with a blank red scene, trying to frighten the viewer, but added to being cheesy. In the beginning, Sam and Leigh were having sex when the camera switched to reverse lighting where the whites were black and the blacks were white.

            The movie was rather bizarre, not one of my favorites. It has a lot of different parts that need to be put together than don’t come together until the end. The movie didn’t really pick up all too much until over an hour and a half into it. I found many scenes to be completely unrealistic, especially when Danielle goes into the theater for her drama class and sees Max there. She figures out who he is and is frightened, but makes out with him and puts his fingers in her mouth. Max also takes on three men in a dark alley. I can take a lot of horrible acting, but this was just too much for me.

            For a film a little over two hours, it was extremely boring. The filming techniques were decent as they took advantage of using extreme close-ups. The music added to the foreshadowing in a corny way.

            They seem to use the zoom technique frequently to key in to certain parts and bring emotion into the scene. The real thrill to the movie didn’t come until over an hour and a half into the movie when Max was in the house and killed Claude Kersek and Max followed them to the river, where he tried to kill them.

            Overall, the quality of the movie was extremely disappointing. I was expecting a the movie to be a lot more interesting and scary from the start, not when its over half way over. The techniques used for the film was strange, but effective. The main downfall was that everything that happened was completely not even believable and corny that it made it almost unbearable to watch the film.

Claudine (1974)

Claudine (1974)

Director: John Berry

On our first day of class we were asked the question of "what's your favorite movie?". My answer at the time was Love Jones. Although that is still my favorite movie, I have added the 1974 classic Claudine to the list also. While viewing the movie I became intrigued by the acting abilities of Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones as well as the direction that had taken place within the movie. Carroll plays Claudine, a single mother of six who secretly works as a maid so she can still collect welfare. Jones' plays Roop, a garbageman who is very attracted to Claudine yet has baggage he has to deal with as well.

The early '70s are remembered for the so-called blaxploitation films, the action pictures that gave African American audiences a new set of screen heroes to cheer for. But thankfully director John Berry showed us a beautiful Black love story to cheer for as well. Jones' character Roop is no knight in shining armor, however he is supporting wives and children from two previous marriages, and his motives for romancing Claudine don't run to commitment and further responsibilities. Claudine hides her employment as a maid as well as the presence of Roop's and gifts from her welfare worker, knowing that discovery of any of them will reduce her payments. Therefore, both characters had issues to deal with upon entering the relationship.

The film also tries to deal with oldest son Charles' growing political militancy and oldest daughter Charlene's budding adolescence. Although it's unclear what Charles and his friends are fighting for, Charlene's personal crisis leads to one of the film's strongest scenes, a violent confrontation with her mother. John Berry did a remarkable job directing the movie as well as telling the story of a struggling single Mom. Although the characters did a remarkable job acting, the script, in my opinion, is repetitious. While viewing Black films from the 70s, characters were usually portrayed as struggling families who were looking for work or broken familes who were trying to hold on to some sort of dignity although they lived in poverty.Although I was happy the two characters became married in the end, I wasn't pleased with how the director chose to end the film where in turn caused it to have a hasty wrap up. It looked as if the filmmakers either ran out of money or time which therefore caused it to have the abrupt ending it did. Although these are small critiques, both lead actors were strong and very believable.

Krull, 1983. Dir. Perer Yates

Krull
Year: 1983
Director: Perer Yates
Krull is a movie that
has to do with the power of love. It is suggested that profound and true love
will prevail. The most entertaining part of the movie is to see the 80’s
special effects. Although, there was computer generated animation, a lot of the
animation was done with camera tricks. The story in general lacks of motive. I
was interested in seeing how the whole journey was more about finding and
rescuing the loved one that actually saving planet earth. The acting was bad
for nowadays standards. We have become very visually demanding. We want
everything to be fast precise and perfect. I believe this could affect the true
message of a piece like this. The movie is about adventure, fights, love, and ultimately
saving the world. I call this movie a forgotten in the incredible world of
technology and visual effects. The scenography of this movie is very
elaborated. Some of the scenes are outdoors some other where studio shots. Most
of actions scenes were too slow to be believable. I think the use of a good choreographer
would have made a big difference. The Story itself was somewhat entertaining.
This one of those movies that need like three or four more movies to tell the
story. Everything is compress in a single movie, and everything happens so fast
is easy to get lost. Kull proposes some interesting life lessons. At some point
in the movie a character stays behind because it is time for him to die and he
just knows it. The character said: -Every
man to his faith. Also at the end of the journey they have to decide to
risk their life to save a friend or leave and for sure save their lives. In
general The movie is not the greatest movie but sure it is interesting to deconstruct
a movie like this to understand not just the technical challenges of a movie like
this but also the concept behind it.

Amy Petter- My Girl (1991)

My Girl

Director: Howard Zieff

Year: 1991

            My Girl directed by Howard Zieff had a very interesting plot.  An 11-year-old girl, Vada, was obsessed with death. Her mother had died, her father ran a funeral home, and towards the end, her best friend Thomas J died. The movie was well composed, following the rule of thirds and had some well-known actors such as Jamie Lee Curtis.

            The film started off to be interesting but towards the middle it lost interest. There was no very specific plot like other movies. It had a good meaning to it, but the movie could have been better. It was funny until the end when Thomas J died.

            The moving shot on the bicycles really set the 1970’s scenery of the movie, along with the music. The scene also began to get us to understand that Thomas J was Vada’s best friend. Vada really only had one friend.

            The film did a really great job at getting us to become attached emotionally to Vada. Her grandmother was surely to die soon, her father ignored her, and other girls teased her. It also helped that the film was shot from Vada’s point of view.

            The camera looked up at Vada from the bottom of the stairs to show how little Vada felt in the world and in her father’s house. The lighting, much like in the other movies I watched, was dim to symbolize fear and unknown.

The scene where Vada's father answered the door and the cop told him that Thomas J died was shot from the top of the stairs to the bottom. It made us feel sorry for her father. He had to go upstairs and tell his daughter the news.

            What I really enjoyed about the film that was unlike other films was if someone said something to Vada that she didn’t agree with, it would give us a thought from inside her head that made us realize what she was thinking. It helped us realize that she was still a young girl trying to grow up in a household with out a family and a house full of death.

            Overall, I think that the movie could have been a lot better with a more intriguing plot, but the director did a good job with the lines, the humor, the sadness and the composition. 

Jessica Docksteader

White Men Can’t Jump

Year: 1992

Director: Ron Shelton

I was told by several of my guy friends to watch the movie White Men Can’t Jump for a review. I can see why guys love it, but this movie is not really for me.  The film deals with topics of race and stereotypes that come along with race. The main stereotype in the movie is that white men are not as good at basketball as black men When in reality both the main characters are good at playing basketball no matter their skin color.  The two characters one white and one black, play on this stereotype to scam people who are betting the odds. The movie is funny but at the same time is quite serious. 

             There are many things that really work for this movie that makes it good to the viewer. The acting is great, you cannot really go wrong with Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes as the two main characters.  Also with the time period the movie takes place the costumes and set is perfect. The other thing I really liked was how the camera angled the actors very well. The director used all the main shots that puts the story all together and stages the actors as realistic as possible. Even though I was not the biggest fan of this movie, because it was just a little to geared to a male point of view. But all in all it was pretty good and I enjoyed it for what it was and what it represented.

Jessica Docksteader

The Resurrected 

Year: 1992

Director: Dan O’Bannon

 I had never heard about The Resurrected until I began looking up movies from 1992. Maybe that is because it is a film that went straight to at that time most likely VHS.  The Resurrected is a horror film about a woman that hires a private investigator to find out what is wrong with her husband because he has been spending a lot of time in a cabin that his family had owned for several years. The husband had been acting completely different and there were weird smells and suspicious and extremely gruesome murders occurring in their town.  They later learn that the husband is possessed by his great-great grandfather and is living through his body and he is trying to bring these dead bodies back to life with weird chemicals and magic. After a long and gruesome discovery of the dungeon of the cabin they find many dead bodies waiting to come back to life. The movie is quite gruesome and in my eyes at times extremely horrifying and weird.

The film starts off by foreshadowing events seen later on in the movie. I think this works well because it makes the story seem realistic and it makes the audience think about what happened before what they see in the first five minutes of the story.  Even though the movie is twenty years old and a bit dated, the special effects work very well and to make the movie scarier and more gruesome. I liked that the movie starts off with an establishing shot of the insane asylum as well as continuing establishing shots throughout the rest of the movie. It sets the tone and helps the audience know where the action is taking place. Unfortunately for this particular movie, I was not thrilled with the acting. At times is seemed too “acted” and felt so much like a movie. When I watch a movie I like to picture myself as a certain character in the and how would I react to the events taking place within the film. But, with The Resurrected I felt like it was just to scripted to be that horrific.

Lauren Potts Post 3- Say Anything 1989 Dir. Cameron Crowe

Say Anything 1989

Director: Cameron Crowe

Lauren Potts

Charming

            Taking a chance on something that seems impossible can be very possible.   Say Anything is a romantic comedy about an average boy who falls in love with and extraordinary girl.  This film brings on the idea of carpe diem, seizing the day, living in the now and not the future.

            Lloyd is your average high school kid, who had a crush on the school valedictorian Diane.  On their graduation day he decides to go on a date with her.  Eventually he goes out on a date and the two become involved.  Diane’s father urges her to end her relationship, he feels that Lloyd his not good enough for his daughter.  Lloyd’s character spoke to me, he never really looked too much into the future, he was more focused on the now.  He even said in the movie “no one know the future” when Diane father ask what are his life plans.  This made me think, I have no idea what is going to happen in the future but I can focused on the now.  In my mind I am always thinking about tomorrow, next week, next month…etc.  But for what?  I’m seeing that sizing the day is far more important than planning tomorrow. 

            Along with the theme of seizing the day, the movie speaks on judging.  Diane’s father forbids her from seeing Lloyd merely because he thinks that is not going anywhere with his life.  He judged him purely on his outer personality but he did not see how much he loved and cared for his daughter, to me this seems to be more important.  Lloyd’s character is able to see people for who they are and not judge them for it.  Diane father goes to jail for tax fraud and instead of Lloyd criticizing him for that, he helps him and his daughter reconnect; I thought that was very admirable.  Those scenes remind me of how important it is to not judge someone; you never know when you might need that person in the end.

            The film played out well, in one shot the camera takes on the point of view of Lloyd when he and Diane go to a party.  The camera is used as Lloyd’s eyes, I see all the drunken people at the party, people dancing etc.  What I thought was interesting the first shot it was an establishing shot of Corey’s house one of Lloyd’s good friend.  Later I connected this shot to him not having a home; he stays with his sister while his parents live overseas.  It added a sense of loneliness to his character and showed how important Diane meant to him.  A cutaway that I noticed was Diane giving her speech at graduation, the scene cutaway to parents focusing their cameras and taking pictures.   It was quick and cute it showed how funny most parents are on graduation day.  The film was entertaining and made me reminisce on high school love, how innocent it can be.