Top Film Review

Here is my top list for this film Studies class:

1.Shooter
2.Simpsons
3.Ben Hur
4.The Graduate
5.Shawshank
6.The good, Bad and the Ugly
7. V for Vendetta
8.Psycho
9.The Great Debaters
10.Cinema Paradiso
11.Gone with the Wind
12.Citizen Kane

The good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Genre: Western (Italo)

Director: Sergio Leone


Our recent movie we watched in our Film-Studies class is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It is classified as the best western ever, but its purpose was to make fun of other movies of it's kind. The first difference of this movie is that there are three main characters which are specified by Sigmund Freud as the Good (supergo), the Bad (ID), and the Ugly (ego). The Good is played by Clint Eastwood, who is nowdays a very famous actor with multiple awards.

Italo Westerns

The Italo Western, also called Spaghetti Western, is a sub-genre of the regular American Western. As you can guess Italo Westerns are made in Italy because it is cheaper to produce than in Hollywood. Usually Italo Westerns are seen rougher and more dramatic than the ones from Hollywood.

Story

The Good and the Ugly are working toether in a special way. The Good (also known as Blondie) hands in the Ugly (also known as Tuco) to the officials and gets the reward. Later when they are hanging Tuco, Blondie cuts the rope with a gunshot and helps him to escape, after that they are splitting the reward. The problem is that these two characters are in a hate love relationship and were in several moments very close to kill one another. The Bad one is searching for a guy called Bill Carson and a cache of stole confederal gold. Shortly later the two other characters are finding out about that gold as well and are on the way to hunt after it.

Positive points:

+I just love westers
+3 main characters (something different)
+strong theme music

Negative points:

-slow Buildup

Rating: 85/100
Fun Rating:80%

Shawshank Redeption

Link for the Socratic Discussion on
ShawShank Redemption
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIUZlBHk3ks

The Great Debaters (2007)

Release:2007

Dircetor: Denzel Washington

Genre: Drama, Based on a true story



Story

The Great Debaters is a drama about a black-college debaters team, which has to prove itself by competing against other negro-colleges. In this time period is was very rare that negro-college team had the chance to compete against white college team in America. That was the goal of Wiley College, where the debaters coach Melvin B. Tolson (in the movie called Mr. Tolson) wants to create a succesful debaters team which can even compete against white colleges in the country. The biggest hurdle of that goal was not the quality of speeches his student presented, it was the many Jim Crow Laws which created a fear against the black people.

 One of the main characters of this movie was James Farmer Jr., a 14 year old boy who joined Wiley's debater team after graduating high school. After a slow start of his season he climbed his way up to be one of the main debaters, who are dreaming of debating in the probalby most historical college of the United States, Harvard University. In the Beginning he was not in the starting lineup for the debating team, because the coach did'

Other Facts

Denzel Washington donated $1.000.000 to the Wiley College to re-establish a debaters team.

The movie won 5 awards, 4 out of them are Image Awards.


Positive Points:

+Deep and emotional story about racial equality
+Good Director's Message (racial equality)

Rating:81/100
Fun Rating:75%

The Simpsons (2006)

For this movie I would like to present examples of political satire, puns and irony.


Satire:

-Itchy makes fun of the presidency, he is pretending to be Abraham Lincoln.
-The police officers don't recognize the dead body in a bag the gangsters try to throw into the lake.
-Policeman eating donuts.
-President Schwarzenegger
-Springfield got removed from the map by the government.

Puns:

-Binge Responsibly
-I would like to lead, not to read!
-he is pure gold
-but girls will se my doodle
-what am I Tommy Bahama?

Irony:

-Ralph makes fun of 20th Cent. FOX in introduction scene.
-Itchy and scratchy are making fun of the moon landing by showing a camera which records it.
-Green Day Scene makes fun of the Titanic
-Homer is making fun of the Bible: "this book doesn't ahve any answer"

V for Vendetta (2007)

V for Vendetta

This review is going to be about the movie V for Vendetta. A movie which is even used in political campaigns like Ron Paul's although it is an action movie. I have found so many symbols throughout this movie, new and old ones from movies before.

Symbolism

Symbolism is especially in this movie a great factor. I found very many symbold copied from old movies like the shower scene from Psycho and the bells from the Graduate. But there were new symbols aswell. The biggest one is probably the letter "V". It represents the name of the character with the guy fawkes mask, the number 5 in latin numbers, and the letter V. You are going to see things in context with V throughout the entire movie.

Like in the movie "Psycho" by Alfred Hitchcock, V is killing someone in a shower.

Story

The movie is about a character called V, who is an anarchist and wants to make a political revolution because the government is corrupt. His goal is to kill everybody in the government and free the citizens from the fascistic party norsefire. He saved a young women Evey from a gang of secret police officers, who wanted to rape her. Shortly later V takes Evey to a roof and detonates a bomb in the British Parliament. In response of that Eric Finch, the head of the nose (the police of norsefire), had the task to stop V from bombing political important buildings.V was planning his big attack on the governmant on the fifth of novmber, remember fifth=V. He started this day with an epic domino stone scene, which symbloizes if one of them falls everythning will collapse.

Domino Scene on Nov,5

Positive Points:
+Lots of Symbolism
+Great Plot
+Lots of recognition (Guy Fawks)

Negative Points:
-Bad Soundtracks
-Could use more special effects
Movie Rating:91/100

Fun Ration:86%


sources: www.wikipedia.com

PHS Paradiso

This Post is going to be about a movie we watched. Its name is Cinema Paradiso, a successful foreign drama from Italy. This movie is about a small community in the middle of Italy, in which a new movie theater opened. This theater was the central point for people to hang around and to escape the often tragic and poor real-life. I am going to present 5 pictures about places I see or enter day after day in my life, like the people did in the Cinema Paradiso.

our Film-Studies classroom

Driveway from my Home

English Classroom

School entry

Lunchroom

My top 10 Movies

This is my top 10 movie lost, they are not ordered (that would be too hard)

1.Borat
2.Ong Bak
3.Hangover
4.Hangover 2
5.The Dark Knight
6.New Kids Turbo
7.Public Enemy
8.300
9.Gone in 60 Seconds
10.Drive

Rating Scale

My Rating Scale has 2 scores: one is the movie score and the second one is the fun score. In the First one take in things like director's message, symbolism and the plot. The fun-rating is just a score which tells you how much fun I had when I watched this movie. Both of these scales are from 0/100, 100 is the best and 0 is the worst score.

The Graduate (1967)

Genre: Comedy

Director: Mike Nichols

This post is going to be about the movie The Graduate, which was released in 1967 and directed by Mike Nichols. For me this movie is probably my favorite pre 70s movie. It has just some really funny elements and is actually really entertaining even in now days 45 years after the movie was released. The Graduate is probably the first modern comedy and is thus a fundament for many other comedy shows like South Park or Family Guy or even modern comedy movies.

The movie is about a young men Benjamin Braddock played by the famous actor Dustin Hoffman, who is about to turn 21 years old. He came back from a College to the parent's home in Southern California. He was really successful in college as a student and as a track star. His parents want to send him to graduate school after his graduation party, but Benjamin just wants to relax after his college live after a woman called Mrs. Robinson tried to seduce him. At first he didn't want to be close with her, but after a moment them ending up having a secret relationship. Later on in the movie Benjamin gets a crush in Mrs. Robinson’s daughter Elaine Robinson, who doesn't know about the relationship of him and her own mother. Benjamin tries everything to stay out of graduate school and keeping his dual-relationship secret.

Another famous part is the soundtrack of the movie called "Mrs. Robinson" by the Beatles. The song became a hit of the Whit Album in 1968. Although the version in the movie is different from the version on the cd, it definitely helped making this track famous. It is still ranked 6th in the AFI's 100 years top 100 songs, which is a database of all soundtracks in movies.

I think that the Director wanted to make a very good point with the movie. Because in the late 1960s, many people, especially young people were concerned about what to be or what to do. The protagonist Benjamin is in the same spot like many other young men were. People started to change into the direction against living by the rules and religion. He showed these facts with symbolism like the cross or a fish tank.


Positive Points:

+ Many funny moments (even for today's standards)

+ Well played Characters (Benjamin Braddock)

+ Very recognizable and famous Soundtrack ("Mrs. Robinson")

Negative Points:

- Soundtrack overplayed

- Some unreasonable scenes


Rating: 90/100

Fun - Rating: 85%

Psycho (1960)

Genre: Horror

Director: Alfred Hitchcock



This Blog is going to be about the probably most classic horror-movie Psycho from Alfred Hitchcock. It was released in year 1960 and is a fundamental part of the horror-movie industry. Many other movies of this genre are based on this one or have certain features, which Psycho had invented like the famous Violin of ten, which is basically the theme of a horror movie.

I think for 1960 this movie has a pretty impressive storyline. It is about a woman names Marion Crane from Phoenix, Arizona, who was supposed to escort 40.000$ from her boss to the bank. But instead of that she flees from Arizona to California with the money. Over the story she meets interesting characters like a creeping Policeman or Norman Bates played by Anthony Perkins, who is the owner of Bates Motel and has some crazy characteristics and habits. I think Alfred Hitchcock's choice to put Perkins in this role is absolutely genius, because he just fits in the role of Bates perfectly. You are going to see that!

This story is actually based on the story of a man called Ed Gein, who was known as a murder and body snatcher of at least two people. Officials searched his entire house and found four noses, whole human bones and fragments, a head wrapped in paper and many other weird founds.

Positive Points:

+ Good story

+ Well-chosen characters

+ Decent effects for 1960

Negative points:

- By today's horror-movie standards not really scary

- Unreasonable scenes (policeman-scene)

Movie-Rating: 79/100

Fun-Rating: 65%

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_(film)

Ben Hur Socratic Discussion Podcast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=451lw-UlCqY

Citizen Kane

Movie: Citizen Kane

Genre: Drama

Release: 1941

Publisher: RKO Radio Pictures

Director: Orson Welles
Introduction

Citizen Kane is not a movie, which goes like every abc movie with a simple good/evil story. It has many hidden features and symbols you have to find to enjoy this movie. I watched this movie one time and I think that is not enough, because I have the feeling of missing many parts in the movie, which are essential of understanding the storyline. That is probabaly the reason why this movie is the favorite for film-critics, because they have a different point of view for movies and  look for different things in movies than regular people, who watch movies just to get entertained.

Story

The movie starts out very secretly and awkward with a No-Trespassing sign and a huge scary castle, which is in the building process. The main character is a boy named Charles Foster Kane, who lives in Colorado and was given away from his parents to get a better chance for life than it is possible in rural Colorado, because he got adopted by a rich man. You will see that the natural parents of Kane had different opinions about Kane and whether it is the right descision to give him away. When he becomes an adult he is saying for me a special quote which I had in my mind for the entire movie. He said: "If I would be rich, I would be a good men". Later on his way of life he becomes a newspaper tycoon and gets that wealth and from this moment I started to look at his way of life as a wealthy man and how his love, satisfaction, friends and way of behavior goes. He's going to encounter the highs and lows of the life of beeing one of the richest and wealthiest men, and if money is really everything and makes him a good man.

Another essential part of the movie is the Kane's seek for Rosebud. The word Rosebud and it's possible meaning was bugging me over the entrire movie. It was also the last word Kane said before he passed away.

Rosebud, probaly the thing you are going to question about the most.

Camera Technique

Citizen Kane was also revolutionizing in how to record the scenes. There were some new techniques, which fascinated the people of 1941. Just watch for the camera techniques they use throughout the movie like zooming into a building through a window or the angles to emphasize special characters. I think everybody should give a chance to Citizen Kane, because if this movie hooks you, it is going to be your favorite!

Conclusion

All in all this movie is just a big puzzle whose pieces and parts are spread and hinted throughout the movie. In my oppinion you have to be a passioned movie watcher to find these parts and put them together, because there are so many things to discover in this movie, part of them are through symbols aswell.

Positive Points

+ Lot of things to discover
+ Awesome  and revolutionizing technique in camera & sound
+ High possibility to rewatch the movie
+ Deep story

Negative Points

- Hard to understand for non experienced movie watchers.
- Couple awkward scenes which are not unterstandable

Movie Rating: 85/100

Fun Rating: 60%


sources:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Kane

Review: Gone with the Wind

Movie: Gone With the Wind                                                                           

Genre: Drama

Release: 1939

Publisher: Selznick International

Director: Victor Flemming

Introduction

I am going to blog about the most successful movie of all time with the calculation of inflations Gone With the Wind, under direction of Victor Flemming and produced by Selznick International. It was recorded in Technicolor. The Drama was released in year 1939, so shortly before World War II started for America. The time period of the movie is the Civil War.

Story

The movie Gone With the Wind is about a young woman called Scarlett, who is in a desperation to find her way to happiness in love. She is the main character of the movie and affects many events throughout the movie. She is in love with a man called Ashley, although he is in love with Melanie. Scarlett married Charles Hamilton after a while, who unfortunately died in war. Another character called Rhett came with a horse into scene saving Scarlett’s life from the battleground, which made him from then on to one of the important characters in the movie. This short meeting ended with a kiss and the glorious men went back to war. Out of this scene we can say that Scarlett is very unsure according to love.

Later on a Yankee attempted to do a robbery in Scarlett’s house, but Scarlett pulled the gun and shot him. This scene was not unheard by the Yankees, like expected they came and wanted 300$ in taxes from her. Because she didn’t had the money she went to her lover Ashley, who was in prison, but instead of money they kissed once more. After that she went to Rhett, who was in jail as well, but the begging didn’t work also because she lied to him. At the end she stole the money from Mr. Kennedy, who married Scarlett later on but got killed in war after a short time once they got married. I think here does the action slowly go to its highest point.

Shortly after that Rhett got in love with Scarlett and they married and got a baby names Bani, but the relationship really didn’t work at all red found out that Scarlett still has feeling for Ashley. This moment starts of the climax of the movie. Many people and especially main characters are passing away; this is very unusual for a movie.

You are going to see famous quotes in the movie like "Frankly, my dear i don't give a damn." from Rhett. The definition of this quote is, that he doesn't care about it anymore.

I think that the director made this on purpose to message the people that war is bad. The time period is perfect for that; 1939 is shortly before World War 2, and most parts of Europe were already in conflict and America was in preparation to interfere.The Director does also use the horse as a message for death. You are going to see that frequently throughout the movie.

Scarlett and Rhett

Positive points

+ Many characters with detailed personalities
+ Impressive Effects for that time (1939)
+ Well-chosen director’s message
+ Usage of Symbols (horse)

Negative Points

-  Too long for today’s standards (224 minutes, a regular movie for today is about 90-120 minutes long)
- Very few action scenes

My opinion

In my opinion the movie Gone With the Wind is a revolution of the movie scene. If you are interested to discover the history of movies or just a fan of classics, you shouldn’t miss this movie. But if you just want an entertaining movie with some popcorn and friends, Gone With the Wind is probably nothing for you.

Movie-Rating:78/100

Fun-Rating: 55%