In the film Midnight Cowboy, audiences are treated to the very different Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) and Joe Buck (John Voight) trying to survive in New York City with the hope of making it big. Despite their differing circumstances, both share tragic pasts and a hope for the future which is accessible to the audience throughout the film by various editing techniques, such as use of non-simultaneous and bridging dialogue, flashbacks, musical score, expository dialogue, and montage sequences. Joe and Rizzo have very different pasts which are revealed through these editing and sound techniques, yet despite their roles as foils for each other within the film, they both look to the same future and bright ideal of the American dream, symbolizing …show more content…
the universal struggle for a better life. One of the most startling uses of editing in the film is the overlay of images and sound used to create Joe Buck’s traumatic flashbacks. The first flashback strikes on Joe’s way out of his hometown. As he stares into a window the scene dissolves to the past and bridging dialogue is used to bring us to a moment in Joe’s past. This particular moment sees young Joe giving his grandmother a shoulder rub and she in turn gives him an affectionate kiss. In context, this scene follows one in which Joe lays out his plan to his old coworker to sell himself to rich older women for money, and reveals the beginnings of what will soon be realized is a full complex: Joe has a fascination and/or obsession with older women that stems from his relationship with his own grandmother and serves to help the audience understand why it is he’s chosen this particular path. The same techniques of non-simultaneous dialogue turned bridging as a scene slowly fades is used for multiple flashbacks throughout the film, each one revealing more and more of Joe’s disposition. On his bus trip to New York City, his grandmother can be heard telling him he’ll be “the best looking [cowboy] there,” revealing some of Joe’s attachment to his strange cowboy getup. We also hear his grandma distinctly say she’s leaving because she’s got a “new beau”. Finally, the technique is repeated on flashbacks of crazy Anne.
These flashbacks happen throughout the film, but the first happens in the beginning on the bus. Anne’s voice acts as a voiceover to a montage of shots which show her and Joe together, happy in a relationship, and the words “you’re the only one Joe,” are repeated. These few flashbacks, all within the first ten minutes of the movie, tell the viewer several things. Joe is very attached to his grandmother, she was inattentive, or at least less present, when she found a new lover, and he believes her when she says he is the best looking. This fuels Joe’s own self-image of a man attractive to older women, and is his reasoning behind chasing them in New York. Anne’s flashbacks are our real hints at the deep and scarring event which truly shaped Joe’s past and his obsession with sex. When Joe’s trauma is revealed, it’s already fifty minutes into the film. We’ve seen him struggle to get by and meet Rizzo, his future friend. The movie fades to black and takes us into an implied dream sequence. This sequence is intense and fast, and what starts as a good dream fades to black and white. The dream cuts between Joe’s grandmother and, what we finally learn, is Joe and his girlfriend Anne’s gang rape at the hands of a large group of men. This overlay of images is disturbing and emphasizes the twisted relationship Joe has with sex and
women. Rizzo’s past is revealed in a less intense manner than Joe’s. He may not be the main character, but Rizzo serves as an active foil and friend to Joe, and his own problems become equally motivating to the duo. After a series of shots that use elliptical editing to condense the time Rizzo and Joe spend bonding into a few minutes of swindling, the rhythm of the film slows as they come to a shoe shine. Dialogue, arguably the most important sound here, is emphasized with little ambient noise or music and by using long shots and close ups to focus on Rizzo as he speaks. Rizzo reveals his father shined shoes always hoping for a better life and never got it. It is obvious from his tone of voice Rizzo despises the idea. He believes his old man was stupid and never got anywhere, and the tragedy that was his father’s life fuels his own goals for a better life for himself. Both Rizzo and Joe are haunted by their pasts. Revealing these pasts through flashbacks and dialogue gives the audience sympathy, even if they cannot empathize. By showing how they came to be where they are the audience then feels invested in the outcome of the story. While their pasts and Joe’s flashbacks are certainly distinct in that they visually take the viewer back in time to understand the characters, the movie’s true focus is on how Joe and Rizzo will move forward. These two characters are, after all, very different. Rizzo is a New Yorker from the slums, Joe is a tortured young man from Texas. Rizzo’s story is one of poverty and labor, Joe’s one of neglect and rape, but just like everyone else, both of them want a better life. Dialogue plays a key role in the revelation of this goal for a better life. Rizzo discusses quite passionately the uses of a coconut, and how easily one could survive off of them. He tells Joe that in Florida there are coconuts everywhere, and that it’s warm. For Rizzo Florida, with its coconuts and warm weather, is the paradise they should be looking for, and are symbolic of his American dream. The idea of being able to live of the land, live cheaply, and be happy all rest in the idea of Florida for him. While at first these talks upset Joe (he smashes Rizzo’s coconut), he too dreams of a better future and as he and Rizzo bond, the dreams they have of this future become stronger. No other place is this more true than the Florida sequence. In an otherwise dark and grim movie, this whimsical scene encapsulates the contradiction of their dark pasts and the bright future they hope for. The Florida sequence itself is bright, cheerful, and backed by an equally cheerful musical score. Parallel editing is used to show Rizzo and Joe at their current station (with Joe trying to earn money through sex and Rizzo standing by hoping it works) in contrast with where Rizzo hopes they will be soon. The contrast between the present day, Joe’s black and white flashbacks, and this bright dream are sharp and help make Florida seem more like an idea than a real place. The rhythm of the editing is faster, and more in time to the music in Florida to help aid the dreamlike state of it all. This editing and music really pushes home the idea of the American dream and the future somehow being better. As the audience, we get to see for the first time the hopes and dreams of our characters. But things quickly start to go wrong for Joe and the dream comes crashing down around Rizzo. The music turns frantic instead of cheerful, and the people become angry. As the dream of a better life literally crumbles on screen, viewers get a sense of the dire situation. Once again, the viewer is put in the position of feeling sorry for these two characters, whose pasts are so troubled, and who have once again failed to reach that dream. This film is character driven but the editing of their stories is critical to understanding those characters. Joe and Rizzo are at first, foils for each other, Joe being naïve, out of place cowboy, and Rizzo a world weary, poverty stricken New Yorker. However, over the course of the movie, through fades to flashbacks and montages, dialogue, and music, the audience comes to learn of their tragic pasts as well as their dreams for a better life, garnering sympathy and investment in their ultimate fate.
Napoleon Dynamite is one of the best movies portraying loneliness and nerds. It is the story of Napoleon in high school and his lonely adventures. All the main characters feel separated, misunderstood, and have nobody to relate to. Napoleon has no friends and lives in his own fantasy land. He is avoided by everybody. His brother seems to be mislead, wanting to be a cage fighter but staying home all the time hopelessly trying to find love and attention on the internet. Their grandmother is never there for them, though she lives her own life right beside them. They live next to a huge field, reinforcing their isolation. Practically every home in the film is
The beginning of Janie’s marriage to Joe shows promise and adventure, something that young Janie is quickly attracted to. She longs to get out of her loveless marriage to Logan Killicks and Joe’s big dreams captivate Janie. Once again she hopes to find the true love she’s always dreamed of. Joe and Janie’s life is first blissful. He gives her whatever she wants and after he becomes the mayor of a small African American town called Eatonville, they are the most respected couple in town. Joe uses his newfound power to control Janie. When she is asked to make a speech at a town event, she can’t even get out a word before Joe denies her the privilege. He starts making her work in the store he opens and punishes her for any mistakes she makes. He enjoys the power and respect her gets when o...
The next man that Janie confides in is Joe Starks. Joe in a sense is Janie's savior in her relationship with Logan Killicks. Joe was a well kept man who worked for "white-folks" all his life and had earned enough money to move himself to a town called Eatonville that was run completely by black people. Janie meets Joe while she is still married to Logan and she begins to lean on him ever so slightly. She has wanted to leave Logan, and she wouldn't have if Joe had not come along. Joe convinced Janie that he would be better off for her by telling her, "Janie, if you think Ah aims to tole you off and make a dog outa you, youse wrong.
The film Friday Night Lights, directed by Peter Berg explains a story about a small town in Odessa, Texas that is obsessed to their high school football team (Permian Panthers) to the point where it’s strange. Boobie Miles (Derek Luke) is an cocky, star tailback who tore his ACL in the first game of the season and everyone in the town just became hopeless cause their star isn’t playing for a long time. The townspeople have to now rely on the new coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton), to motivate the other team members to be able to respect, step up their game, and improve quickly. During this process, racism has made it harder to have a success and be happy and the team has to overcome them as a family.
Janie’s life with Joe fulfilled a need -- she had no financial worries and was more than set for life. She had a beautiful white home, a neat lawn and garden, a successful husband, and lots of cash. Everything was clean, almost too clean. A sense of restraint is present in this setting, and this relates to the work as a whole due to the fact that this is the epitome of unhappiness for Janie.
When a person's faith is also an alternative for their culture and morals, it proves challenging to take that sense of security in that faith away from them. In Night, Elie Wiesel, a Jewish student living in Sighet, Transylvania during the war of 1942, uses his studies in Talmud and the Kabbalah as not only a religious practice but a lifestyle. Elie and his fellow civilians are warned, however, by his Kabbalah teacher who says that during the war, German aggressors are aggregately imprisoning, deporting, and annihilating millions of Jews. When Elie and his family are victim of this aggression, Elie realizes how crucial his faith in God is if he is to survive the Holocaust. He vows after being separated from his mother and sisters that he will protect he and his father from death, even though as death nears, Elie gradually becomes closer to losing his faith. In the end, to Elie's devastation, Elie makes it out of the Holocaust alone after his father dies from the intense seclusion to malnutrition and deprivation. Elie survives the Holocaust through a battle of conscience--first by believing in God, then resisting his faith in God, and ultimately replacing his faith with obligation to his father.
The Boondock Saints movie exhibits and demonstrates many possible causes and reasons for social deviance. One example of this is shown in the Subjective view of deviance through a Constructionist Theory. The Subjectivist believes that a deviant person is a conscious, feeling, thinking subject and that one should understand the experience of that person. From a Constructionist perspective, deviants are actively seeking meanings in the deviant activities. The brothers in the movie are seeking meaning from their killing. They believe that they are on a mission from God, and that they will be protected and blessed for doing this.
... domestic violence. When she met and married Joe, she was barely 18 and only had one or two years of experience of how she should go about fulfilling her duties as a wife. When Joe began to hit her, she was only 23 and had never been hurt in a relationship, so it shocked her to be hit by someone she was supposed to love. When she met Tea Cake, she had been married for over 20 years and, by this time, was used to keeping to herself to deal with emotional pain. She was accustomed to being hit by men, but Tea Cake’s comforting behavior and his expression of regret for hurting her prevented Janie from harboring anger towards him. This was the difference between Janie’s two relationships that ruined the first one and made the second. These factors also were the cause of the change in Janie’s mental reaction towards domestic abuse from both of the men that had hurt her.
When Janie first met her second husband, Joe, he was very caring and reassuring - an ideal husband. Joe was an ambitious young man with many goals set out for him. And like Janie, he was raised around a white background. Joe strived to be and have the best at everything. However, once Joe got Janie as his wife, he became a jealous and demanding man, just as Logan had been. Joe saw himself as a god, his sentences began with " I god..." ...
After dealing with “double-consciousness” of being seen as having no voice, Janie’s choice to speak up against Joe Stark’s stereotypical view on women leads to feminist empowerment, where she breaks his gender identity by emasculating him and wounding his pride, as she gains self-determination and, most importantly, the freedom of
Oprah significantly changes Joe’s character in her production of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Throughout the movie, Joe’s character becomes continually weakened by his actions and the things he allows Janie to do. Joe controls every aspect of both Janie and the people of Eatonville’s lives in the book. “Jody depends on the exertion of power for his sense of himself; he is only happy and secure when he feels that he holds power over those around him...He needs to feel like a ‘big voice,’ a force of ‘irresistible maleness’ before whom the whole world bows” (Analysis). This puts him on a level above the rest of the townspeople and grants him his leadership. In the movie however, Joe does not control or assert himself over the people of Eatonville nearly as much. This lack of power over the people in his life consequently weakens his character. Through the weakening of his character Joe loses a key aspect of his personality in the movie.
Let’s get something out of the way right now: the filmmakers created Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 to make money. It is abundantly clear while watching this movie that the creators have no story to tell, no message to convey. They simply wanted to rake in some more dough (which they have, earning over $68 million domestically). Given that starting point, it should come as no surprise that Mall Cop 2 is not a good movie. But it is a good bad movie.
Donnie Darko is teen boy who comes from a good suburban family, he has with a history of violence, and anger issues. He differs from his family immensely and seems to be a bit of a rebel. In the movie Donnie Darko (2001) the writer and director of the story is Richard Kelly. He adds dark humor, time travel, and a six-foot-tall rabbit, who speaks to Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) through haunting visions. The film isn’t classified by one specific genre as it shows a likeness to a variety of themes, for example, the story follows the theme of time travel which would mean that it is stereotypically classed as sci-fi, however a love interest is introduced in the film which causes there to be a relationship into the mix of genres, also, the story has a strong relation to religion and the question comes up “is God real?”. This seems to weigh heavily on Donnie. The confusion
Mental health and its disorders are an intricate part of the individual and society. Mental health incorporates our emotional, psychological and social well-being. Understanding human behavior and the social environment in conjunction with biological, social and cultural factors helps in diagnosing and treating individuals accurately. Film can be used to understand and visualize how mental disorders may affect one’s life. This paper examines the film “Primal Fear” and explores the character Aaron Stampler and his mental illness, reviews literature on the diagnosis given and critically analyzes the film’s portrayal of the disorder.
As college professors, do you ever consider exploring the world? Christopher McCandless once stated, “The core of man's spirit comes from new experiences.” This quote resonates throughout the movie adaptation, Into the Wild. Based on a true story in the 1990’s, the film explores a man’s existence and the meaning of life. Although released in 2007, I discovered the movie three years ago through the internet. Instantly, it became my favorite movie. Into the Wild describes an eye-opening adventure, an influential message, and a story that I, and possibly others, can relate to.