For a near-championship boxer to fall from the limelight after a defeat is fairly common, but to lose due to his own brother betting against him is unheard of. Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront portrays the role of this former fighter living his life as a bum under a local mob boss. This movie stands out from how movies are portrayed today. It didn’t have a lot of fast chase scenes, immense battles, or over-the-top special effects. This movie focused on its characters, by portraying their reactions to the cumbersome niche they play on the dockyard. It was driven by a series of intertwined conflicts, and a strong mix of character development and storytelling, and made for a phenomenal piece of art.
Conflict is what viewers watch movies for, and a well-developed series of conflicts all wrapped up into a single film is a recipe for success. Kazan’s portrayal of Terry Malone, the former boxer who lost his fame due to a betting operation, shows many sides of one’s life when controlled by oppressors. His primary conflicts include his inner turmoil over the death of a fellow dockworker, the constant hammering of grief in the form of Joey’s sister Edie, and the ever vigilant preaching of Father Berry. At the start of the film, Terry is asked to send Joey Doyle, a fellow dockworker, up to his rooftop to have a talk with some mobsters. Unbeknownst to Terry, Joey is killed and the blame for the crime goes to no one. Terry is burdened with the knowledge that he evoked the death of Joey Doyle, and throughout the film is plagued with reminders of his death. He is given Joey’s coat in memory of him, and helps the viewer sympathize with the downtrodden protagonist. Edie Doyle is simply a young woman hoping to find the man responsible for her brot...
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...ther’s death, was muffled completely by horns from ships and barges. I believe this took away from the scene, as dialogue helped fuel the story thus far, and such a critical scene being masked to show “pure emotion” overdramatized it to me.
In Conclusion, Elia Kazan’s portrayal of a young savior attempting to bring justice to those that oppress and give a better life to those around him was done superbly. From a series of complex conflicts that broadened to much more than a mere death, to the sheer feelings he evokes through the use of characters and plot; Kazan created a critically acclaimed piece of art that tells a dark tale of one rising against a monopoly for the sake of those around him. This film shows his artistic prowess, and helps inspire new film makers daily: creating storytellers that can spin tales that hypnotize audiences for generations to come.
Society is faced with various problems that hinder the development of its communities. These issues affect the society in a numerous of ways and has a major effect on the citizens of the community as well. Social adversities causes grief and is also the cause of crimes and other miscellaneous activities that occur in inequitable areas. In the film, Fruitvale Station, there are abundant amounts of these adversities and societal issues that are illustrated. Fruitvale Station is a great example of a film that shows accurate social issues that occur in today’s society. The movie demonstrates issues of inequality, racial prejudice, gang involvement and also unemployment. It also shows how the people who are forced to live with these issues, fight for survival to maintain to see another day.
The entire movie is bursting with counter narratives, when the audience believes they hold an accurate grasp on what is truly happening, there is a misguiding event, as the storyline is continually challenged. The viewer’s beginning formations about what is going on are learned to be always questionable because what is repeatedly steered to trust and is revealed not be the truth in the conclusion of the film. This neo-noir film had multiple scenarios that make the previous actions untrustworthy to the actual message. This proves that all the observations and thoughts the viewer possesses are only relevant to what they are exposed to and shown and not to what is, in fact, happening.
Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11 movie is produced with so much wit, brains, dazzle, and virtuosity that hit me like a bucket of ice-cold water. It made me wonder what was gonna happen next.
In Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat," the four men underwent an experience in which they endured the forces of the sea that caused them to change their perception of nature and ultimately brought them to see the conflict between humanity and the natural world. In the beginning, faced with the restless sea, the four men felt that outside help existed somewhere. The cook was the most certain that they would be rescued. In his argument with the correspondent, the cook told him, "There is a house of refuge...and as soon as they see us they'll come off in their boat and pick us up" (NA, 358). Soon after they saw the lighthouse, the four men were optimistic that their destiny was not to die, and that somehow another power, in the form of rescuers, would help them combat the forces of nature and bring them to safety. They viewed the sea as an obstacle that they could eventually overcome. The thought that luck was on their side uplifted the spirits of the men, and as they were heading towards the shore, "doubt and direful apprehension were leaving the minds of the men" (NA, 361).
Although there were many concepts that were present within the movie, I choose to focus on two that I thought to be most important. The first is the realistic conflict theory. Our textbook defines this as, “the view that prejudice...
In many ways Las Vegas can be an escape from stressful life. A vacation from all the worries and problems those plaques the people of America on a day to day life. Many people come to seek fame and fortune. Though when looking for this American dream comes at an expensive cost. Hunter S. Thompson paid this price the hard way and even then did not achieve the American dream he was searching for. In Thompson’s novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson explains that drugs will change people even turn your best friends against you and those drugs can make you happy, but will not allow you fully achieve happiness that the American dream promises through allusions and symbolism.
The film stays in line with classic noir in many ways. The usage of dark sets and high contrast lighting, which creates heavy shadows on the actors faces, makes the movie feel like it all happens at night and in dark alley ways. The story focuses on the inhumane parts of human nature. Each of the main characters experiences some kind of tragedy. For Vargas his tragedy was in dealing with Quinlin who has set out to frame him and his wife. For Quinlin his entire life represented a man consumed with darkness who lives his life with a “Touch of Evil.” Menzies was a hopeful man who looked up to Quinlin but was let down. For the viewer, film noir represents truth, even if it is not a truth that all people would like to hear.
"A Clockwork Orange", directed by the immeasurable Stanley Kubrick, starring Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Adirenne Corri, Aubrey Morris and James Marcus and produced by Stanley Kubrick in 1971, is, in my opinion, one of the greatest morality plays ever captured on film. It leads viewer in to many different pathways of thought about the time we live in, and about the validity of the concepts of law and morality, and the applications of the two in general society.
The Godfather is the “dark-side of the American dream story” (Turan, pp2). The film follows the practices of a fictional Italian mafia family, the Corleone’s. Though most Americans do not condone the practices of the Italian mafia, they cannot deny that Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is a cinematic masterpiece. This film gave insight to a mysterious way of life that the average person does not have knowledge of. As the audience is educated about the mafia they also are introduced to many stereotypes.
One of life’s many unanswered questions is life after the end of mortality. The only plausible way humans are able to conjure up an answer is through religion. Since the forbidden fruit was picked of the calamitous tree, millions of religions have brewed and been thrown into the everlasting pot of humanity. This quest for answers of the unknown and the unique struggle of finding oneself within faith is lucidly mirrored in Life of Pi. This inimitable and emotionally exhausting novel is set in the 1970’s, when the ghastlier side of Gandhi began to emerge, and religious freedom was limited. Although our world has changed quite a bit from those drastic times, people in our world today still struggle with the stereotypical notions that are etched onto all, if not most of our world’s pieties. In Life of Pi, a young boy with a mind of a magnet explores the meaning of life, and through out his saddening, valiant journey, he realizes that although different hands crafted our world’s religions, these hands were created by one universal force. Yann Martel expresses his personnel motif through symbolism, ideology, and characterization so boldly; it was as if Agni claimed he was our mortal savoir.
The Godfather is most notably one of the most prolific films of its time. This "gangster" film displayed many transformations of permeating color to give the viewer observable cues in its mise en scene that drew one right into the movie. The dramatic acting set the tone of the film with a score that lifted the viewer right out of their seat in many scenes. The directing and cinematography made The Godfather ahead of its time. The nostalgic feel of family importance and the danger of revenge lets us into the life of the Mafia. Even though no other techniques would have given the viewer a feeling of inside the mob like the mise en scene of the power the godfather held, the characters are reinforced literally and figuratively because the story views the Mafia from the inside out, and the cinematography of the film gives it a dangerous and nostalgic feel.
Gran Torino is a suspense film directed by Clint Eastwood, which portrays the relationship between a 78-year-old Koran war veteran and his neighbors who are from Laos. The main character, Walt is a racist who still has memories from the horrors of war and has a dislike for anyone, including his own family. After his young neighbor Thao is coerced by his cousin’s gang into stealing Walt’s prized Gran Torino, a unusual relationship forms between the pair. Walt starts to respect Thao and his culture while fulfilling a fatherly role that Thao is lacking. Eventually, Walt has to confront the gang knowing that the confrontation will end in his death. Apart from the stereotypical, get off my lawn quote, this film depicts the relationship of family concerning the care for older adults, the struggle with despair and meaning later in life, and the morality of a good death. This paper will address each of these themes.
The Old Man and the Sea was written by Ernest Hemingway and published in 1952. This is a captivating fiction story about a man named Santiago and his adventure when one day, he goes on a fishing journey to catch the big one. However, this adventure quickly becomes one of pain and suffering when things take a turn for the worse.
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
Some people will go far in order to get what they want, but how many individuals would be willing to die for the sake of creating their own fate? Deciding one’s meaning of life with sincerity and passion is the core of existentialism. This philosophy plays an integral part in Hemingway’s writing, as well as his personal life. Paradigms of existentialism appear often in Hemingway’s book, The Old Man and the Sea, especially when Santiago, the old man, is determined to fell the great marlin he pursues, wants to prove to Manolin how much of a strange old man he is, and contends against the brutal sharks when there is little chance of him succeeding.