“To me if there’s an achievement to lighting and photography in a film, it’s because nothing in the film stands out, it all works as a piece.” (Roger Deakins, cinematographer of True Grit) In the 2010 adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel, True Grit, the directors, Ethan and Joel Coen, and Roger Deakins display the beauty of cinematography within the movie. And although the film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, it did not win any! It most certainly deserves to win based on the film’s use of editing, camera movement and framing, and lighting and sound. Mattie, Cogburn, and LaBoeuf’s journey through the Choctaw Nation is a long, gruesome one. The scene features a couple of cinematographic techniques that make it very memorable. One of these is editing. The group’s journey takes approximately ten hours, but Deakins uses time lapse cinematography to make it much shorter. The images dissolve into one another with each new image bringing them farther into the Indian Territory. This technique shows the distance the Mattie, Cogburn, and LaBoeuf travel by compressing the time. Another ...
How many times do different people come together for one equal cause? In quest stories, such as True Grit by Charles Portis. All three main characters put their differences aside, and team up for one cause, which is to get Tom Chaney, dead or alive. Mattie Ross, the hero, Rooster Cogburn, the wise old man, and LeBoeuf, the helper guide, all make up the essential characters for any good quest story.
If you went off on a quest would you come back a changed person? “The Hero’s Journey isn’t just a pattern from myth. It’s the pattern of life, growth, and experience for all of us”(Harris and Thompson 49). Charles Portis is the author of True Grit, a western novel that takes place through the Indian Territory in Arkansas. In the novel True Grit, the character Mattie Ross, shows an interesting example of “The Hero’s Journey.” As we read we learn she is very outspoken and strong willed, she always wants things to be her way. Mattie shows us a great example of being very independent at the age of fourteen, but after her journey does she truly change as a person?
“The journey of the hero is about the courage to seek the depths; the image of creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us…The hero journey is a symbol that binds …. (Phil Cousineau).” Mattie Ross learns this in True Grit, by Charles Portis, when she experiences the death of her father. She says, ”…Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas and robbed him of his life and his horses and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band(11)”. Frank Ross, Matties’ father, who was shot to death, by a man named, Tom Chaney. Mattie Ross is just 14 years old in the 1870’s, she states, “Nothing is free in this world except the grace of god, you must pay for everything.(pg?)” Personal growth often comes at a great expense. She is in beginning of the separation stage in a hero’s journey, which consists of the call and threshold. Harris and Thompson define the call as, “…invites the initiate into the adventure, offers her the opportunity to face the unknown, an imbalance or injustice in her life”(50). Her father getting killed and Mattie getting vengeance, is her invite. This is followed by, the threshold, known as the jumping off point. She states, “We hit the river running…we came out some little ways down the river.”(107) She has now made it into the Choctaw Nation to assist in the pursuit, in the unknown world, “a different world full of dangers and challenges (Harris and Thompson 50)”. Next, is the initiation and transformation then, the return to the known world. You can see, Mattie encounters her call when her father was killed.
Throughout the film, the filmmaker follows the three victims around in their everyday lives by using somber music and backgrounds of depressing colors. The documentary starts off with colorful images of the scenery
exis Hanson Professor Dosch English 101 3 May 2016 title In “The Downside of ‘Grit’: What Really Happens When Kids Are Pushed to Be More Persistent?”, Alfie Kohn; an author and lecturer, claims that not everything is worthwhile especially when going at a task for an extensive amount of time. He asserts that ‘grit’ (the passion and determination when pursuing long term goals) is becoming less persuasive and credible. Kohn states that grit can cause serious issues that have real consequences.
The film Wendy and Lucy, directed by Kelly Reichardt, presents a sparse narrative. The film has been criticised for its lack of background story, and as a short film, much of the story is left to the viewer to infer from what is presented in the plot. However, Wendy and Lucy is able to depict the intimate relationship between Wendy and her dog as well as reflecting more broadly on the everyday, and commenting on the current economic state of the film’s setting in America. This essay will examine how film form contributes to the viewer’s awareness of the story in Wendy and Lucy and allows a deeper understanding of the themes presented. The aspects of mise-en-scene, shot and editing and sound in the film will be explored.
When thinking of “a rapid succession of images or scenes,” my first thought was that this was an awkward use of film. As the book, Film Theory and Criticism says, “Simply stringing separate photographic shots together will not produce intelligible works of visual art.” Yet the use of montage in The Night of the Hunter was very subtle so that at points I wasn’t aware that I was watching a montage. It also enhanced the film’s thematic qualities greatly and by doing so convinced me of the values of a montage when used well.
Jacquelyin Kilpatrick , Celluloid Indians. Native Americans and Film. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999
Charles Portis’s famous novel True grit published in 1968 was the basis of both the 1969 and the 2010 movie. The 2010 movie by the Coen Brothers covers a lot of stuff from the book, but I think they made the character Mattie a lot different then the book. In the book Mattie was a 14 teen year old girl who wasn't afraid of anything, and was not afraid to take revenge on her fathers killer Tom Chaney. Some of events in the movie made her look tough but the actor was too nice and cute to play Mattie. They also made her way more emotional than in the book. Even though they covered most of the events of the book I still don't like the way they made the movie.
The picture Crash, produced by Robert Haggis, features the several battles confronted with the current racial stereotypes, in to a collection of numerous connected, social predicaments fall upon by the picture's multi ethnic forged. Robert Haggis uses the dialogue and physical actions of his characters to illustrate the various racial stereotypes that are pre-assigned to each race by every individual. This movie is an enchanting bodily melodrama that reaches the feelings of spirits and its crowd's minds. Several of the components given by Haggis in this movie are impersonated in intense sets. This design of reversing is communicated opposed figures and by his character, the picture's possibly nighttime or daytime environment, and additionally in the hearth and snowfall moments. In this movie, the varied functions performed by the several contests of contemporary America are revealed to the globe by Haggis. Through coldly racial difficulties confronted by his figures, an intentionally affecting movie that drives his crowd to challenge their own ethical principles is created by Haggis. Each contest is signified through the picture and coldly exhibits ethnocentrism and racialism. Paul Haggis incorporates the use of identification, parallel plots, reaction shots, point-of-view shots, shot/reverse shots, diegetic music, and post-modern film in the film. Through his character development, editing and special effects we are drawn into.
... time line of events. Which also goes hand in hand with Jacks insomnia, which shatters the barriers between reality versus fantasy, and memory versus dream for the spectator. Lastly the vast and bizarre camera angles from which the film was shot in help maintain the uncertain feeling for the spectator.
Within the first 20 minutes of the film we as audience members are introduced to 19th century American racial ideology. It is only when Django rides into the town of Daughtrey in Texas on horseback that we realise how African Americans were seen in the 19th century. Inhabitants look on in horror at the image of Django riding the horse, pointing out “It’s a nigger on a horse”2. In this momen...
...successful collaboration of sound, colour, camera positioning and lighting are instrumental in portraying these themes. The techniques used heighten the suspense, drama and mood of each scene and enhance the film in order to convey to the spectator the intended messages.
Director Max Ophüls is known for his distinctive smooth camera movements (Liang, 2011, p. 2). Frame mobility keeps the audience focused on the subject (Bordwell and Thompson, 2008, p. 203), and this can be seen in this shot. Due to the camera tracking Lisa and Lieutenant Leopold after they enter the frame, the audience’s attention stays focused on Lisa and Lieutenant Leopold, even thoug...
Montage is from the beginning of the twenties characterized as a process of synthesis, building something new and in terms of the physical planes also something quite simple. Most montage’s films were created as a dialectical process, where initially from a two meanings of consecutive shots form a third meaning.