Rarely has a film impacted an audience and held the test of time as the film Gone with the Wind. I have always been curious if director, Victor Fleming and producer, David O. Selznick and screenplay writer, Sidney Howard knew what they were creating a masterpiece and how this film would have such an enormous impact on audiences for years to come. Interestingly enough there were some who thought the film should not be made, as Irving Thalberg said to Louis B. Meyer in 1936, “Forget it Louis, no Civil War picture ever made a nickel” (Ten Films that Shook the World). This romantic melodrama was released in January, 1940, yet it was at the 1939 Academy Awards that Gone with the Wind was nominated for thirteen awards, the eight awards that were won were Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, Color Cinematography, Art Direction, and Editing (Ten Films that Shook the World). ”If the total income for Gone with the Wind were to be adjusted for inflation, it would be considered the most successful of all time” (Ten Films that Shook the World). When you think of “Gone with the Wind” from a film criticism standpoint, it’s hard to judge it by the Auteur Theory, which states that the director is supreme overlord of a films artistic merit because in the case of Gone with the Wind, Fleming takes a back seat to Selznick. The film chronicles the grandeur and splendor of the Old South, how it crumbles during the Civil War and the New South during reconstruction. The characters are basically simple folk living a simple life until their world is shattered by the Civil War and this devastation creates a new world, one which will require courage and resilience to survive. Selznick genius in the aspects of cinematography lighting, sound, costumes and societal impact and genre…
“Besides making judgments about space, a viewer projects a stream of hypotheses about such factors as time, causality, character personality and motive, the efficacy of action, exposition, enigmas, plausibility, ethics, metaphors, rhythm, point of view, and much more. In general, a viewer comes to understand scenes by making detailed models of events. What might be termed the “classical” camera stands in for those procedures that have been successful in the past. When a viewer’s confidence in his or her predictions is high (i.e. the viewer’s constructed, mental models are well developed and reasonably supported by evidence), the film achieves a high degree of “reality...” (Branigan, 2013)…
The documentary, Bigger, Stronger, Faster was made in 2008 and directed by Christopher Bell. The documentary focuses on how Christopher and his brothers all idolized remarkable athletes and wanted to become just like them. As they got older they realized that all of their stars were on anabolic steroids. This caused his brothers to try steroids to better their performance. Christopher tried them at one point but realized it was wrong. Steroids are known as an illegal drug if not used for medical use. This documentary shows that steroids are an illegal performance enhancer for athletes. The documentary tries to persuade athletes and teenagers to not misuse steroids and not to use them as performance enhancers.…
In the film, North by Northwest, the director provides us with specific editing techniques that clearly display Roger Thornhill's character traits. By utilizing point of view editing, we are able to see things through Roger's eyes as they are happening and as he sees them. These shots clearly reveal him to be a strong, brave and intelligent man, who is able to demonstrate these traits in the face danger.…
In the first scene, medium close-up shot of a teenage girl as she talks about her disappointment in her father and that she pitys him; suggesting almost sarcastically that someone should 'put him out of his misery' ,another male out of shot suggests that maybe he could kill her father himself. This first establishing scene sets up the film and brings up the question why does she want her father dead, and does this male out of shot end up actually killing her father. The way the first scene is shot also brings up other information about the first two characters, implied to be filmed from a shaky handheld camera; the teenage girl speaks directly into the camera almost as if she where talking to the viewers, this almost brings us closer to her true feelings as if she where talking to a diary - but also implies she's comfortable with the male who's filming. The low-key, very artificial lighting suggests that they're in a living area and as she seems to be in a blanket or some kind of bedding, this could imply that the two characters are in a sort-of relationship where they're intimate with each other.…
2001 a space odyssey is a story about extraterrestrial life, space voyage, the future, homicidal sentient robots, and above all else a story about evolution. The monoliths are a tool created by an alien race to help assist in evolution; they are the cornerstone of evolution for humankind. It was there at the dawn of man and gave humanity an extra edge to help adapt and evolve from primates to intellectual humans that are capable of space travel. The mysterious black rectangles have been planted around our universe as mile marker for evolution and one has just been discovered on the moon. After further investigation of the strange object, it is revealed to have been buried under the moon's surface over 4 million years ago.…
One of the most important dialogues that can take place today is an honest exchange about race and ethnicity. A growing wave of racial hatred and violence in this country has made this discussion all the more necessary. The documentary "Skin Deep" has about 23 college students from different universities around the country who talk about their deeply held attitudes and feelings about race, interviews, documentary segments and participation in a three-day weekend retreat. In candid interviews, the students reveal the challenges that remain in creating a racially tolerant society and their willingness to examine their own attitudes. Films like "Skin Deep" are powerful because they hit the issue head-on. It helps identify the behaviors that make…
In today’s current society, it is prevalent of current change. In its day and age material and non-materialism is surrounded with ever lasting culture changes. Cambodia has many differences and stretches the materialistic culture while the U.S. is more prominent in the non-materialistic culture. Despite their differences the U.S. and Cambodia distinctly show some similarities throughout the film.…
Taken is a great thriller movie with many action scenes with great editing; it is educational, emotional and highly controversial. The movie is about Kim, a girl that is kidnapped by Albanian sex trade gang. When the movie starts the girl lives with her mother and step father in Los Angeles. Her real father, Brian is a retired CIA agent. The girl and her friend are planning to go on a vacation to spend the summer in France, which leads to a lot of drama later on in the movie. Since, Kim is 17 and needs parental permission to leave the country, her mom and her set up a lunch with Brian Mills her father, where they ask him for his approval. He as a war veteran, as well as smart and skilled CIA agent, which leads to his decision to disapprove because he knows that it is unwise for his underage daughter to go to a foreign country with her teenage friend. During this lunch conversation the camera man used a lot of reverse shots because the mother and daughter were sitting opposite to Brian. The quick shot of the mother and daughter looking at Brian when he said no, made him look as the bad guy as they had an unpleasant conversation, and Kim started crying because he would not let her go to France.…
Taken is an action, thriller film directed by Pierre Morel. The film is a typical action thriller, where the heroic protagonist beats the heck out of everyone who gets in the way of him attaining his goal, action film. Director Pierre Morel has used genre-typical techniques such as fight choreography to have a predictable effect on the audience. Throughout the film of Taken Bryan Mills played by Liam Neeson is a Former U.S Central Intelligence Agency operative becomes the Hero of this film. With his daughter Kim kidnapped on a European tour trip. Bryan is told from Sam his close friends from his Agency that an Albanian human trafficking business probably kidnaped her based on a recording phone call from Kim. Bryan then decides to track down these Albanian human trafficking thugs and as he does so, he is show with stereotypical brave characteristics, willing to be in danger to rescue his daughter. Kim. Being his daughter, she is is predictably useless in the situation that she is trapped in. With more exposure to the human trafficking business, he finds out that the Albanians abduct female tourist and addict them to drugs and turn them into prostitutes. As Bryan gets closer and closer to finding his daughter, the Albanian thugs try to prevent him from tracking down his daughter, and them. This creates the conflict/action tension that develops the narrative. I will be analyzing two interpretations that stood out to me in this film, Gender representation and…
Reynolds, J. R. (1997). Babyface & Co. whet appetites for LaFace `Soul Food ' soundtrack.…
The film Taken portrays the quest of Bryan Mills - a father and retired CIA agent - to rescue his daughter, Kim, who was kidnapped while on a trip to Paris, on the very first day! Bryan retired from kicking ass and taking names to try and build a real and not-as-exciting father-daughter relationship with Kim, who lives where any other spoiled rich girl would live, California. Due to the fact that Kim thinks she can become a singer, he buys her a ridiculously expensive karaoke machine. Of course, that goes south when her rich stepfather has an even more expensive gift for her that has absolutely nothing to do with pop or singing: a horse. Days later, Bryan finds out that Kim wants to go with her friend, Amanda, to Europe for “educational purposes” alone, and that his ex-wife, Lenore, like any other rich mother of a spoiled rich girl in California, supports them. Knowing how gullible his wife is and how the story is obvious b.s., Bryan takes a glimpse into his daughter’s bag at the airport and realizes that they’re actually planning on following the awesome Irish band U2 across Europe during their Vertigo Tour. Being a fan of U2 himself, Bryan lets them go with the simple request that Kim contacts him as soon as they arrive in Paris. They arrive in Paris and completely forget about contacting Bryan, instead riding around with a complete stranger and telling him everything about their stay because, what’s the worse that could happen? Later in the day, upset over the fact that Kim wasn’t able to follow simple instructions (and possibly that he wasn’t invited), Bryan calls her and during the conversation Kim and Amanda are taken by gangsters! Determined to upstage the stepfather’s horse gift, Bryan refreshes his skills as a former badass and sets out to save his daughter from losing her virginity to prostitution, and hopefully get to see at least one of U2’s performances.…
"Lights! Camera! Action!" the dramatic yet traditional prompt associated with Hollywood and the pictures. Hollywood appears to be this extraordinary glamorous world; however, in reality is it? Many people dream of being in the limelight of Hollywood; where there is an endless amount of money, power, and fame. Society fails to examine what's behind fame; the dark, twisted, and the ugly truths hiding within those exact words. Billy Wilder explores and divulges the dark yet unknown, harsh realities of fame, following Hollywood's transition from silent pictures to talkies; with his film Sunset Boulevard.…
The success of a person is based on a number of things. Dedication, determination, drive, focus and the necessary provisons. However, there are some of us who achieve success because of the people we know or simply by good luck. Being in the right place at the right time or genuinely striving for excellence, success is accessable to all. In the movie The Blind Side, success is portrayed to be accessible by simply knowing the right people. The Blind Side is a 2009 American semi-biographical drama film. It is written and directed by John Lee Hancock, and based on the 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis. The storyline features Michael Oher, an offensive lineman who plays for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL. The film…
The movie Taken written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen and directed by Pierre Morel, hit theaters across the country in January of 2009. This movie was a mix between an action, adventure and thrilling film. The story started with a man named Liam, his ex wife named Lenore and their seventeen year old daughter, Kim. The trouble started when Kim convinced her father to let her go to France with her friend Amanda. The girls traveled to Paris, and when they first arrived in the unknown country they were talking to a local man on the streets while waiting for a cab to arrive. Stupidly one of the girls agreed to share a cab with this man to split the cost of the expensive ride. The girls also then informed the man that they were alone in the country and had no prior knowledge of the area. The local man then used this information call a human trafficking gang and they then later on captured the two girls. Her father got to speak briefly to one of the kidnappers and he promised to kill the kidnappers if they do not let his daughter free. The kidnapper wishes him "good luck” and with the little information he had he knew he only had to 96 hours to travel to France and rescue his beloved daughter.…