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War and its impact on society
War and its impact on society
War and its impact on society
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Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" presents the viewer with a disturbing and violent vision of urban America in the aftermath of the Vietnam war. Travis Bickle the protagonist, is a Vietnam veteran who finds himself adrift in the urban wasteland of the 1970s. He suffers with many psychological problems such as depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and isolation in result of the vietnam war. Travis is a late night taxi driver who drives to any part of New York city (including the ghetto), which distracts him from his chronic insomnia. As a taxi driver, he sees many crimes all over the city such as robbery, seediness, destitution, corrupt government, and criminality. Like a soldier walking the streets of vietnam, he envisions himself as a cleanser of scum in his surroundings. A vigilante who needs to rid New York city of all the bad guys. Travis meets with a “traveling salesman” who sell his multiple guns including a smith and wesson. Along with the guns, he also buys a carrying case similar to what the cowboys use. Along with that, Travis also has a belt buckle that he always wears along with a pair of cowboy boots next to his bed at his house. His way of becoming a vigilante is based off a cowboy. A cowboy is someone who upholds the law illegally. In Travis’s mind cowboys are not criminals, they do …show more content…
She did not say much and then her pimp came in and threw a twenty dollar bill on his seat and they left. Eventually, Travis ran into Sport who is the pimp of the girl Travis had previously met. He buys some time and pays for a room. He now knows her name is Iris and she is only twelve years old and runs away from home. She should be at home hanging out with boys and going to school rather that being a prostitute. Iris preferred to be a prostitute and said that sport loved her even though he is way to old for her. In result, Travis inner vigilante comes
One day when Ricky is on his way to a village in Mexico that is near the Cartel mansion, he buys a burrito on the street and some boys see how much money he has. He runs away from them for awhile but ends up being cornered. They beat the living crap out of him and take all his money and his shoes. After Ricky wakes up from the beatings, there is a girl sitting across the alley from him. She tells him where the Cartel mansion is located, and she takes him to a restaurant and they eat food out of garbage cans.
History is consistently used in films as a technique to teach the values and morals of events that occurred. But what’s the point in teaching history through films when they are terribly fictional? In films, the director finds the best scheme to intrigue their audience only by changing the actual event to satisfy their interest. This is true for Stanley Kramer when he made the history of John Scopes and his “monkey trial” into a film called Inherit the Wind. Kramer knew the exact stereotypical “Hollywood history” his audience enjoyed. The trial itself had a series of conflicts, the main one being evolution vs. religion. Yet there was also a series of tensions throughout the movie, including the argument between individual vs. society. The same themes from Inherit the Wind can also be seen from the actual “monkey trial” event in Dayton, Tennessee. It is sometimes said that truth is stranger than fiction and according to this film, truth is also stronger than fiction. Inherit the Wind ignored the true dramatic moment, which is essential to the actual trial that happened in Dayton, Tennessee. Kramer even portrayed his own opinion of this trial in this film. The truth was so distorted in the film so now the argument is not individual vs. society or evolution vs. religion but history vs. fiction. Inherit the Wind is set in the little town of Hillsboro when Bertram Cates (played by), a biology teacher, was thrown into prison for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. Two famous lawyers were behind this case, Henry Drummond (played by) as the defender and Mathew Harrison Brady (played by), as the prosecutor. Mathew Harrison Brady who was “voted 3 times for a presidential candidate” was sent to Hillsboro is carry out the job as a prosecutor for this trial. As for Cates, a journalist from Baltimore Herald by the name of E.K. Horrbeck willingly provided a lawyer named Henry Drummond for him. Horrbeck was interested in the Cates, expecting to make big bucks from this big “media” case. The two opposing lawyers, Drummond and Brady, were Kramer’s two main characters, both with different opinions on how humans arrived on earth. Drummond supported the evolution theory, while Brady, the creation theory. In this film, Kramer distorted the facts of the actual trial to make this film more of a drama than a history documentary.
A couple days later, Buck is outraged. He goes to Tracy’s house again screaming for her to come out of the house. This time he doesn’t let up. Tracy then calls the police again and tells them that Buck is outside her house again and wants a patrol car to come by the house. The officer takes a detour back to the station. The officer takes forever to get to the house.
Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” is a 1950’s film about famous, but forgotten, Norma Desmond, a silent film star, who has been living in exile, in her gloomy rundown mansion. William Holden stars as Joe Gillis, a struggling Hollywood screenwriter looking for work with no success. During a car chase between Joe Gillis, and the repo men who are after his car, his tires blow out leaving him stranded in Desmond’s deserted mansion. Desmond spends her time watching her old films, dreaming of the day when she makes her grand comeback. Gillis agrees to help Desmond edit her script, that she’s been working on, soon their relationship goes through twist and turns. Swanson, who plays Norma Desmond, gives a great performance with stellar acting; her theatrical mannerisms were perfectly executed. Holden also does a great job counteracting Desmond’s delusional rants. His character is well balanced, and at times is the voice of reason. The film is not only a love story, but also a story about redemption. Overall, the film has beautiful cinematography, great dialogue, and amazing a...
It has always been a quest for individuals to achieve fame and success. In this day and age a community exists where many people have this intent to achieve this desire for attention and wealth. Hollywood can be interpreted as this mindset and life style. For those who succeed in this community of publicity seekers, include the usual benefits of success, wealth, power, influence and fame. But for the majority of people in Hollywood their quest for the luxuries of fame go awry. Hollywood to put plainly is a vulgar cut throat business, it is a dog eat dog world out there in Hollywood. For those who do not achieve their quest to be in the lime light, they often used, stabbed in the back and theoretically cast away in a dark rainy alley, like bag of garbage or a typical film-noire hero. Sunset Boulevard is a satisfyingly humorous film-noire film about the inner workings of the vicious “jungle”, that one would know of as Hollywood. It was perhaps the purposely over acted antics of antagonist Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), that makes Billy Wilder’s black comedy so memorable. Sunset Boulevard fits the definition of film-noire thanks to Wilder’s use of the typical film-noire style characters, the all too familiar storyline and Wilder’s visual style of the film itself.
The passion shown in Travis wasn’t at that time limited to only him; it was however also exemplified in the rebels that he commanded over. James Butler Bonham was one such soldier and his showed his passion to the Texan cause in his letter to Sam Houston when he explicitly states that he wants to volunteer his services but will not accept any aid from the Texan forces (“James Butler Bonham”). In spite of being against the odds of surviving, by finding light within God as well as with other’s spirit, the Texan rebels determination in their goal to defend the
lets her son play with Travis and he become hurt and confused. Walter has to
There are four crucial scenes of this film in which Hitchcock shows a change in perspective and identity through the mise-en-scène. Hitchcock’s signature motifs, style, and themes are conveyed through the mise-en-scène.
Film Noir is a fairly self-explanatory name. French for “Dark” or “Black Film”, this style (not genre) of film is pretty much summed up in those two words. These films started being made in a 1940’s, Post WWII paranoia, with the threat of nuclear missiles looming over the heads of all United States citizens, Hollywood included. This paranoia led to disillusioned attitudes and existential feelings, which in turn were reflected in Film Noirs through things such as characters, with the two most prominent types being hardened male protagonists and femme fatales. Also, the “Darkness” of Film Noirs was not just a metaphor for the content of the film, but also a fairly literal description of the visual style was like. Taking influence from German Expressionism, among other things, the visuals of film noirs were often of gritty city streets, dark alleys, or smoky, cramped-looking rooms. To add to the dark appearance, the lighting included heavy use of chiaroscuro, a style that is characterized by a dark environment with single-source, high contrast lighting on the subject. While many film noirs fall into the crime genre, as well as detective, there are some exceptions, such as the drama/black comedy Sunset Boulevard. Despite it’s setting and characters being a bit unconventional for the Film Noir style (the film was a fairly realistic account of what goes on behind the scenes in Hollywood), Sunset Boulevard is definitely a Film Noir, due to it’s use of an archetypal Film Noir hero, a femme fatale, and conventional film noir cinematography and storytelling.
Requiem for a Dream is a movie that was directed by Darren Aronofsky. It's a story about the decent in to the hell and torment of drug addiction; however, Aronofsky sets out to demonstrate both the seductive ecstasy of a high and the shattering anguish of addiction. Character development is the main focus of Requiem, which is shown through creative camera angles, precise editing, and brilliant acting.
Vietnam veteran Travis Bicklea finds that his life has been turned upside down after returning America from the battle-field. He suffers from the insomnia and sense of isolation, which leads him to take a job as taxi-driver at night; many of his customers represent the people from the lowest class of society: prostitutes, adulterous husbands and wenchers. Since Travis has promised the cab company that he will drive anywhere, at anytime, his likelihood of seeing the best of human nature is fairly slim. So, he tries to create an extra-occupational life for himself. He befriends Betsy, a beautiful girl working at a Senator's campaign office. Unluckily, with on possession of the slightest amount of social skills, Travis takes her to a porn movie on their first date, so Betsy rejects him and refuses to see him anymore. Then another girl bumps into Travis¡¯s life. One day, a prepubescent prostitute who is desperately trying to escape from her pimp named Sport (Keitel). Travis is touched by her plight and resolves to assist her, despite her later unwillingness to cooperate. Meanwhile, Betsy refuses to accept his repeated attempts to apologize, and he begins to go psychotic under the force of various pressures. Travis purchases several semi-automatic guns, takes up a rigorous physical training, shapes his hair into a bristly-looking Mohawk, and decides to assassinate the candidate for whom Betsy is working. After his attempt to assassinate the senator failed, Travis then goes after Sport, killing him and a Mafioso who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in a spray of bullets. After this massacre, Travis tries to kill himself in Iris's room, but has wasted so many bullets that he has none left with which to commit suicide. Nevertheless, his bloodbath turns him into a media hero, and Betsy suddenly discovers an interest in him. In turn, Travis rejects her, and he drives off into the night toward an uncertain future.
Life is an ongoing process of learning and growing through challenges and experiences. It is mentioned by Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American poet, that “unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” Emerson contributes to the idea that change is inevitable and it is key to one’s personal development (Lipovetsky, 2012). Well, such is an essence in the film “The Blind Side” when the protagonist, Michael Oher, changes and grow through adversities, which eventually shaped him into the man he is today. Oher, also known as Big Mike, is a 16 year old African American teenage boy. Oher was one of the twelve children living in a broken extremely impoverished home in the ghettos of Memphis surrounded by drugs.
... middle of paper ... ... Travis, in contrast, does act in order to pursue his ideal, but in such a contradictory and vile fashion that it almost denounces the title of saviour altogether. Ironically, he survives the order, despite attempting to commit suicide, and is lauded as the “taxi driver hero”. He keeps the newspaper clippings praising his heroic endeavor on his wall, perhaps insinuating that he has started to believe that what he has done was heroic, and ultimately justifying what he has done as for the best interest of humankind, and in accordance to the normal interests of “reason, honour, [and] peace” ().
The only person the narcissist will ever pity or feel sorry for is him/herself. If the narcissist believes he/she can get away with doing something (even if it's illegal, immoral, or will hurt someone), he/she will do it. At different times, many high profile individuals are classified as a narcissist in the media. The movie “The Wolf Of Wall Street” demonstrates how a rapid success leads to the narcissistic behavior. “Feel good” holiday movies, usually focus on traditional family values of heroism whereas Martin Scorsese in his film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” does the opposite. The movie focus on lavish life of Jordan but it was a true satire for an individual exploring quick fortune and shortcut of getting rich. Although many critics argue that “The Wolf of Wall Street” focuses mostly on the greed of Belfort, his extravagant luxurious lifestyle and portrayal of women as sex toys and leaves viewer with no moral message, I would disagree, as the film does delivers a moral message that rapid success can cause an individual to develop narcissistic behavior, which eventually leads to destruction and the financial message that will be helpful in investments business.
After Scorsese’s father asking him a question about a character, a young Martin raised his fingers to make an impression of him shooting a gun. This image is one of the most memorable images in Scorsese’s film Taxi Driver, where we see Robert De Niro repeating the same image pointing to his temples. This image is shown at the height of the film. When Scorsese got a television at home, no more did he have to leave his house to engross himself in the most recent movie best seller. Already we can see Scorsese’s love of filmmaking from an extremely young