My first introduction to Rudy Ray Moore and his 1975 Blaxploitation classic, Dolemite, came in the form of the Xenon VHS release. My memory is a little fuzzy about the first time I watched Dolemite on my own, but I distinctly recall putting the film on one night when a group of friends were over at my place. The results were as expected: lots and lots of uncontrollable laughter. Of course, being in our early 20s, we were consuming beverages of the alcoholic variety, which did nothing but make us even more susceptible to the hilarity that was unfolding on screen. It was a true party movie experience, and if my memory serves correct, the first time I had been in a larger group of people all together laughing and enjoying a film for being unintentionally …show more content…
This include a handful of corrupt cops as well as Dolemite’s arch nemesis, Willie Greene (D’Urville Martin), all of whom will do whatever it takes to make sure Dolemite is sent back to prison, or worse yet, dead. While the basic plotline is simple, Dolemite is far from a simple film. In fact, Dolemite is so sporadic and wild that it’s almost impossible to comprehend what anyone could have been thinking while making it. Dolemite feels more like a series of over-the-top vignettes poised to position Dolemite and performer Rudy Ray Moore as a sort of renaissance man with street cred than it does an actual film. Much like the more well known Blaxploitation lead characters that came before him, Dolemite is a sort of ghetto superhero; a man who has risen above through sheer force of personality and presence, only to get what he wants, how he wants, when he wants, and all while sticking it to the man and anyone else who dares to cross his path. What you have here in Dolemite is a character who has nice cars, nice clothes, owns a nightclub, and even commands a small army of karate-trained prostitutes ready to do battle on his behalf. Dude has got it made, and he’s got it made because he made it for himself, by himself and shares it with those …show more content…
Moore, who attained minor recognition as a raunchy standup comedian, takes more than one opportunity to spew his creative and often hysterical rhymes. This is most significant during the third act of the film, where there is an uncomfortable amount of time dedicated to a stage show in Dolemite’s club. This includes everything from a musical performance, a tribal dance number and, naturally, a spoken word set via the man of the hour himself, Dolemite. All in all, the sequence is interesting because it’s a nice window into black culture of the time, and the performances are all genuinely great. However, it comes at the expense of pacing, as having an extended 15 minute stage show brings the film to a complete halt. Thankfully, this sequence leads to the film’s finale, which is a no holds barred action fest of silly inept karate moves and other various action
On the TV show, The Movie Show, David Stratton described the film as a “bold and timely film about the stolen generations.” The film is so highly rated for its amazing plot, the well-used mise en scene and the film techniques including the camera work and sound.
La Historia Oficial was directed in 1985 by Luis Puenzo. The movie was filmed in and takes place in Argentina. The movie begins with a crowd of people singing the Argentinian National Anthem and paying tribute to the country they love. Argentina is a country of freedom, equality and “broken chains” according to the anthem. The movie follows the life of an upper middle class couple who seem to be well off. Roberto (the husband) works as a wealthy business man, and Alicia (his wife) works at a boys prep school as a History teacher. Roberto and Alicia have a five year old daughter named Gabby whom they adopted from the hospital just after her birth (after years of failed attempts at trying to have their own baby). La Historia Oficial is significant if one is interested in understanding a part of Argentinian history which is often concealed by those who are unaware of the brutality inflicted by the Argentinian government in the 1970’s.
Describe some ways in which business values and artistic values in Hollywood contend with one another.
While there are many different ways to classify a Neo-noir film, Roman Polanski’s, Chinatown captures many. The 1974 movie consists of many of these elements, including both thematic and stylistic devices. One of the main themes of neo-noir film that is constant throughout the film is the deceptive plot that questions the viewers’ ideas and perceptions of what is actually happening in the film. Every scene of Chinatown leads to a twist or another turn that challenges the practicability of the film’s reality. All of the never-ending surprises and revelations lead up to the significant themes the movie is trying to convey in the conclusion of the film.
These lighthearted moments never feel like they are slowing the film’s momentum or bringing the thrills to a halt, but merely providing an interlude for moviegoers to catch their proverbial breath. Grant, especially, does a good job with this, adding wit to the proceedings without ever minimizing the severity situation.
Dope is a controversial film which addresses many issues with today’s youth living in crime-polluted, drug-infested neighborhoods in the city of Los Angeles. The movie, though a low budget film received relatively positive reviews from both Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic which have been known for destroying a film’s reputation in the public eye, causing ticket sales and movie goers to plummet all before the movie’s opening weekend, which is when movies earn the most profit. Dope is both comical and surreal bringing more of a lively and relatable experience to movie goers. Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic, although known for killing the movie buzz are websites in which movie critics and cinema
A Bronx tale is a story of a father who tries to win back the love and pride of his son from a showy neighborhood mob boss. In my opinion this film is the best portrayal of work ethic. Lorenzo, played by Robert DeNiro, plays a father who tries to teach his son that discipline and hard work pay off from working, in the long. His son Calogero, played by Lillo Brancato, is exposed to the life of a mob boss Sonny, played by Chazz Palmenteri,, and doesn’t understand why he should live a life of difficulty when he can have a life of luxury. He tries to explain to his son that the men in the community don’t look up to him, but rather they fear him He also tries to make clear that it’s easy to do what he does, but try waking up every morning and working everyday, that’s a real man.
The main character of the movie is Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans), a black TV writer and Harvard graduate who identifies with whites more than blacks. Attempting to expose the racist attitude of the entertainment industry, Delacroix comes up with the idea of creating a modern minstrel show (Mantan: the New Millennium Minstrel Show), intending to get fired for ridiculing his boss’s demands. Delacroix is the type of person who, apart from trying to succeed in ‘a white man’s world’, he also tries to actually become a white man. Through this character, Lee repres...
Film Noir was extremely trendy during the 1940’s. People were captivated by the way it expresses a mood of disillusionment and indistinctness between good and evil. Film Noir have key elements; crime, mystery, an anti-hero, femme fatale, and chiaroscuro lighting and camera angles. The Maltese Falcon is an example of film noir because of the usage of camera angles, lighting and ominous settings, as well as sinister characters as Samuel Spade, the anti-hero on a quest for meaning, who encounters the death of his partner but does not show any signs of remorse but instead for his greed for riches.
The Blaxploitation films were needed to reshape the past images of slavery. Blacks were exiting the Black Panther and Black Power movement, which the people had become profound to the use of drugs within urban communities. Therefore, the films were produced counter to the rise of drugs. So, the films were used as a framework to create new stereotypes of blacks being big bad drug dealers or pimps. The films were publicized in the media, which produced a greater outcome of people wanted to become the illustration within the films. The films in Blaxploitation often deal with finding solutions of trying to remove cocaine out of the hood, as there was an uproar within the communities. However, films that were produced declared African Americans being the villain, while the women were often degraded to being a sexual object.
American Film and Movies from the 1950’s to Present. Today, American film is among the most internationally supported commodities. Financially, its contributions are enormous: the industry is responsible for the circulation of billions of dollars each year. Since its explosion into the new media markets during the mid-twentieth century, film has produced consistently growing numbers of viewers and critics alike.
Aside from its acting, the other major influence which Mean Streets had upon American film-makers was through it's use of a rock n' roll soundtrack (almost perfectly integrated with the images), and in its depiction of a new kind of screen violence. Unexpected, volatile, explosive and wholly senseless, yet, for all that, undeniably cinematic violence. The way in which Scorsese blends these two - the rock and roll and the violence - shows that he understood instinctively, better than anyone else until then, that cinema (or at least this kind of cinema, the kinetic, visceral kind) and rock n' roll are both expressions of revolutionary instincts, and that they are as inherently destructive as they are creative. This simple device - brutal outbreaks of violence combined with an upbeat soundtrack - has been taken up by both the mainstream cinema at large and by many individual `auteurs', all of whom are in Scorsese's debt - Stone and Tarantino coming at once to mind.
It’s a dark and rainy night. Our hero is hiding behind a wall with a revolver in hand. A crack of light, illuminates half of his face. He’s shaking nervously because he only has one bullet left. He turns the corner, and a sudden gunshot hits our hero. Who shot him? None other than his partner, who’s secretly in love with the very same dame that our hero fell for. You can consider this an example of a classic film noir ending. Film noir is a term used in cinema to describe a visually styled crime drama. Where did it come from? What are the key elements in a film noir? Why did this kind of cinema emerge when it did? What affect did it have in the film world? And finally, where is film noir now?
With the turn of the century, society and technology evolved and so did the minstrel shows. The introduction of the television gave the shows a new platform to broadcast their content to more american audiences. While not as harsh as the shows in the 19th century’s shows, the modern minstrel shows were “vestiges of their racial stereotyping and performances aesthetics persisted for decades in various performance mediums. ” (7). The show 's popularity forged a strong foundation for careers in the entertainment industry for African Americans. African Americans often could find great success in pursuing musical, or comedic careers following the minstrel shows. And as the shows finally died out, this underlying principle stayed true as the United States progressed. The minstrel shows facilitated African Americans into many forms of the entertainment as various performers. The shows play a major role in developing the comedic basis for African American entertainers even today. As referred to in the modern day , “Black Comedy” is extremely favored by the populus. Famous black comedian Dave Chappelle, once played a role as a “racial pixie”. Chappelle performed as a oddly dressed pixie on the shoulders of African Americans and sang, danced, and encouraged the individual to given into the stereotypes of society (4). Perhaps what disturbed Chappelle the most was the
The release of Gordon Hollingshead and Alan Crosland’s The Jazz Singer in 1927 marked the new age of synchronised sound in cinema. The feature film was a huge success at the box office and it ushered in the era David Bordwell describes as ‘Classical Hollywood Cinema’; Bordwell and two other film theorists (Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson) conducted a formalist analysis of 100 randomly selected Hollywood films from the years 1917 to 1960 in order to fully define this movement. Their results yielded that most Hollywood made films during that era were centred on, or followed, specific blueprints that formed the finished product. Through this analysis of Hollywood films the theorists were able to establish stylised conventions and modes of production under which a classic Hollywood film was fashioned (Foster, 2008), the film Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) directed by Peter Jackson will be used as a case study to demonstrate these specific conventions.