They've All Gone Crazyyyy !

Well...I think my number one most favorite scene would HAVE to be where we see his Father running around the house in the middle of the evening with an apron on. WHAT on earth is going on? It's really kind of sad and...quite comical. We see this kid, James Dean, playing this huge hard ass who is only in high school and had to move because of his reputation supposedly. Switch blades, fights, games of chicken being played on the edge of a bank with a huge drop into the water. I don't know about anybody else but I never saw these things at my school, maybe it was just too small for it, or maybe the kids back in the 50's were just soooo badass.




The funny thing is if I were involved with such things I probably would not have gotten away with it in high school, for as awesome and laid back as my parents are, I'm pretty positive they would kick my ass or have the cops do it for them. Jim's parent's are the complete opposite, they keep moving every time Jim has a problem, instead of facing the problem and taking care of it. But what is Jim's problem? He has an awesome house, and doesn't lack a thing, really. Even though they are rather awkward, they both care for his well being.



Personally...I found the girl to be really weird. Having this.."thing" for Jim right off the bat, and how convenient for her, her boyfriend just DIED PLAYING CHICKEN OFF A CLIFF. What's with the weird role play of husband and with in the mansion..that was even more awkward...and then that other kid, Plato, pretending Jim was his Dad thinking he was going to do all these things, fishing and such...weird !

I liked the movie for the most part, but goodness, the characters were so crazy, so weird and kind of awkward. I mean...with this whole rebel thing we've got strange thing happening between the characters, like Plato for instance and how he treats Jim, and then the weird relationship Jim and Judy have imitating a newly wed couple; and the strange relation between Jim's mother and father and how their roles are a little different than those we usually see between a 1950's family where it's the father who has the control, or upper hand/word.. instead of the mother. The exaggeration was pretty overwhelming too, I don't know..something about the knife fights and then the whole game of chicken thing...but I it did make for an entertaining film..



P.S. I reallyyy enjoyed the little skit, Date With Your Family, with MST !!! Hilarious.

YEAH ! SONGS !...and...DANCE !

Sooo...I'm really not a huge musical fan...the closest thing to a musical I can get would be Mary Poppins...but wow...for some reason I liked Singing In the Rain...there was something about it that was really interesting. Although, I probably wouldn't watch it again unless I was sick in bed and had nothing better to do...

I've got to hand it to them, the dancing was pretty impressive, excluding the scene where Donald O'Connor does the "fall down" scene for just...too long.
I think it would have been better if there weren't so many song and dance numbers, it was as if every chance they got they were up and dancing and singing about their feelings, it just got a little repetitive after a while.

Something else...never seeing this movie before, except for the one single scene of Gene Kelly doing his little number in the rain and singing/dancing around, I had no idea that this movie WASN'T just about singing in the rain, really..it didn't have much of anything to do with singing in the rain. Funny, because all along I had this preconceived idea that the musical was all about singing in the rain.

It was really interesting to see the split between what we (the audience) sees and what the characters see. I loved and hated Jean Hagen's character, Lina. Hilarious. What a goof personalit, or...VOICE. I guess you could say that Debbie Reynolds, Kathy, plays the role of the most "real" character? Although part of me has to disagree a little, when we are first introduced to her character we see two different sides of her. Then we see Lina who is just nutty as hell. I guess she plays part of the "real" character because for a while before the talkies come out she didn't try to act different until they told her to...but then you get the scene from when she first met Gene Kelly and she didn't want anything to do with him until he was promoted.

The love scene, again , hilarious. Not able to see them as real people they have to use all the tech stuff for the movies. But...I guess it was a cute idea...I mean...what girl wouldn't want a boy to turn on a giant fan to blow fake wind in your hair while singing to you..right? Hah.


What's up with that whole scene with Rita Moreno playing the zip girl totally doing the whole, femme fetal thing ???
Did NOT see that coming, but I liked it.

"Dontcha worry Baby"

I must say that film noir is surely in my top five genre favorites. The femme fatale, hard-boiled detective, and the "big guy" behind it all...I can't get enough of it.


The first film considered film noir I remember watching as a kid was the Maltese Falcon, which...I guess you might find kind of random for a kid... but my parents were huge movie
watchers and they introduced me to a lot of the old black and whites...and because of them my slight obsession of film grew and grew. Something about film noir really did the job at grabbing my attention, especially the old black and whites, when a film is shot in black and white it just makes it that much more eerie and intense..and the use of dramatic shadows really adds to the thrill and disturbance you may feel during film noir.


Perfect example:




Another one of my favorite films...Bladerunner ! I think this is one of the most successful films (that I have seen so far) that really does a phenomenal job with the use of shadows for being a color film. There's something about this film that gets under your skin with lighting, shadows, costume, dialogue, landscape. Not to mention Bladerunner has an aweeeesome femme fatale, Sean Young..who played Rachael.

Here is a clip from Bladerunner...whooot !

We've even got some Cape Fear !! The orginal and the newer one, with Robert De Niro check them out. And lets not forget another really great one..Blue Velvet



Moving on...I had never seen Double Indemnity I had heard of the film but never watched it. I liked it, the sound/quality of the film was soooo much better and interesting then what we were watching in class...and way better at the whole attention grabbing.



Yeahhhh Barbara Stanwyck ! I'm not gonna lie...I think she did a pretty descent job at the whole Femme Fatale role. Beautiful, seductive, confined, destructive, exciting, and by all means, controlling. I couldn't get over Walter, waltzing into her house in the beginning with all of his sweet talk and baby this, baby that. I never really felt bad for him one bit throughout the film. I mean..really..come ooooon, he toootally did it to himself...although she really did do a good job sucking him in...coming to the balcony in her towel, and then coming downstairs still buttoning her dress, looking in the mirror working on her final touches allowing him to follow her every move.

One thing that I found myself being really curious about were the blinds shadows that were constantly shown throughout the rooms. Then after the reading up on some of the symbols, they represented jail bars. I've never taken a film class and so I've never had the opportunity to really analyze what really goes on in films. But after seeing little things like this and now recognizing what they symbolize I've been able to see and notice so much more when I sit down to watch a movie. The use of shadow was done really well too, the tension between the husband and Phyllis...and even the flashback and the way Walter told his story. I really like that and I felt the transitions were real smooth.

Something else I noticed was the tension or closeness with the characters...especially when they were in a room together, in the beginning again...Phyllis and Walter sitting on that snug small little couch, then when the husband was there speaking with Walter and the space that was between everyone in the living room....and even the office, no space to themselves, cramped in all together.

"I see...I see...I see death..."

For being recognized as the first zombie movie done in the early 1930's, I think it does a pretty good job, that is for not having some really awesome crazy flesh eating zombies running around. Personally if I had watched this film for my own pleasure I would not have dug deep enough to recognize the idea of U.S. imperialism throughout. It's interesting to see this film portray women as a very sensitive, helpless creature and a white man(Legendre) living in a grand castle controlling everyone, dead or alive.

Something from the reading that really struck me was the Haitian history. It talks about how Haitians experienced several problems, one being of color and class. Haitians ended up being divided into two main groups, the "well-educated" mulattos and the "impoverished blacks." This is still going on. It just reminded of me of when I was in Haiti I met a girl whose family was considered to be upper class/mulatto or, bourgeoisie, her younger brother was kidnapped by a group of lower class Haitians, they didn't hurt him or anything, they just held him for ransom and yes, got him back in the end. It's just crazy to think about how much that sort of thing really happened, and still to this day happens there. The idea of "Black zombie slavery" in the film probably wouldn't have caught my attention to the idea of the forced labor system the U.S. forced on the Haitian people.

The cinematography was sometimes hilarious. Fading in and out in strange cartoon-ish ways. The EYES of Legendre fading in and out randomly was kind of goofy especially during the part where Madeline looks in her glass at dinner. Overall the film did a pretty good job at making you feel you were in a nightmare of some twisted kind...sure, we weren't shaking in our boots but because we've watched numerous horror films that deal with much worse than this we're not affected by it. I thought it was neat to see the film based in Haiti. Some of the silly strange noises reminded me of when I was there. Haiti at night is sort of like a strange dream/nightmare, sometimes in the day time too. There's is no electricity there unless you steal it or have a generator, and so out in the middle of nowhere it really feels eerie, stray dogs following you around howling at everything, pigs rummaging around, chickens, you even get people following you around so it kinda adds to the whole nightmare thing.




Here are some pictures I took of parts of an old mango plantation that is interesting to walk through because its not everyday that people up here get to walk through old over grown plantations and it kinda goes along with the sense of a dream or a nightmare seeing strange building with overgrowth...Going back to the film I feel that lighting was portrayed very well throughout the film again, going along with the nightmare idea. Would the film be more successful if it had been done in color? I don't know...something that also kinda sat in the back of my mind...what if this movie was done into a remake?? I guess I will leave that question open to anyone... After thinking about it I think the most disturbing part of the film was the idea that Beaumont wants Madeline in the worst way, that he'll even take her when she's a lifeless zombie. Kind of disturbing...I really enjoyed this film..that damn vulture was wayyy unecessary but I guess it kind of added to the whole low budget 1930/horror thing.

"Godfrey loves me, he put me in the shower!"

HAH ! What a goofy movie ! I've never heard of the term, Screwball comedy, but it really is the perfect name for this genre and this movie. I was really confused and in awe at the whole "scavenger hunt" in the beginning. I couldn't believe that something like that was really happening. A "forgotten man" aka homeless man was really on their list. The first impression of Godfrey really threw me off guard, I wasn't expecting Godfrey to be so intelligent with his words and the way he first presented himself, even if he did push Cornelia in the ash pit. All Godfrey needed to help out the family with the scavenger hunt was to be treated respectfully and that is what Irene did.
We see the rich as being portrayed as silly individuals out of the minds which I find to be interesting because I have known people who truly fit that role. The women especially are shown as being the craziest. During our discussion in class on Wednesday someone at pointed out the idea of how the women are being shown as these unbreakable creatures who can go around causing chaos and still get away with it. I thought it was funny how Cornelia is shown as this proper yet incredibly bitchy character but yet she was involved with breaking windows. I guess I wasn't expecting such a thing from her character. I am a little disappointed that they didn't show that scene.
The whole time I couldn't help but think throughout the film, "my gosh...the men are the only sane ones in this film," even Carlo, he was more sane then the women.
Something else that I found to be interesting was the idea of how rich the Bollock's were, yet we were never given any real information on how they became to rich or what the father did for a living, it was just...they were were rich, the end.

I think the biggest disappointment with the film was in the end, Irene and Godfrey ended up together. I was really hoping for some craaaaazy drama and have Godfrey and Cornelia hook up. I really wanted that to happen. But thinking about it, at the end when Irene barged in Godfreys place she had groceries and ideas to decorate which kind of almost gives me the idea/hope that maaaaybe, just maybe she is starting to get it together, that is, if she was the one who indeed did the grocery shopping.

"A gentleman doesn't smoke in the presence of a lady."

I can't say I have ever blogged for a class before. But honestly, I am pretty P.U.M.P.E.D !




Setting the stage for American Film, Dr. McRae starts out by showing STAGECOACH. Due to my great grandfather [who's generation idolized John Wayne] loving westerns I've seen the movie before when I was much younger. I distinctly remember watching another John Wayne film, The COWBOYS, Wayne (in his later years) plays a man who's cattle drivers leave him to find a place in the gold fields and he's required to take a group of young boys under his wing and teach them the ways of being men.

Here's a link to a video of one of my favorite scenes (Cowboys).


STAGECOACH opens up with horns playing triumphantly. I always got a kick out of the music and how dramatic it is with older films. You really get a sense of the drama just by the music that is being played throughout this film. Just take a look at this clip...and you'll know exactly what I mean...
When we watch movies I think we tend to find ourselves really...involved with the characters and their lives... I think the director did a great job portraying the characters. We get Doc Boone, Mrs. Mallory, Dallas, Peacock, Curly, Hatfield, Gatewood, Buck and Ringo. Boone is a drunkard who's off his rocker most of the time, Mallory who's a quiet soft spoken woman wanting nothing more than to be reunited with her husband, Dallas who is an attractive young woman who was a prostitute, Peacock who's tries to be sensible throughout the film, yet goofy in his own strange way, Curly who's trying to be the "hero" in a sense and has the duty of making sure the coach arrives safely to it's destination. We also have, Hatfield who is a down to earth gentleman looking out for Mrs. Mallory, Gatewood who's on the rather bitter side, Buck who's just goofy and cooky as hell, and then Ringo who's all in all a intriguing handsome "bad guy" having an eye on Dallas.
Having all these characters on one single stagecoach really makes out for a goofy as well as entertaining western film

Other ideas we have to take into consideration that we may not think about while watching films on our own time is how stereotyping, the environment/landscape, etc are portrayed. Take for instance, the stereotyping/bad vs. good between the passengers, and for example, Indians in the last clip I posted. It's hard not to get a kick out of that scene when watching it. We also get a sense of gender. For example the quote from Hatfield, "A gentleman doesn't smoke in the presence of a lady." We also see how Dallas is portrayed as being a prostitute, we are not told directly that she in indeed a prostitute but we are in fact told by the actions and emotions the other women show, for example, the women from the town in the very beginning and Mrs. Mallory. It is interesting to see just how much film has changed since the 1930's. Film's nowadays would have no problem pointing out to the audience that a character like Dallas was a prostitute. Somethig else I noticed throughout the film...EYE MOVEMENT ! There didn't have to be a lot of dialogue in most spots because you were able to know exactly what was going on just by the way the characters moved their bodies and the way the used eye contact. Kudos to Ford. I like watching movies with...unwordy characters, if that makes sense...

One other I noticed during the film was how beautiful they made the west...or...or attractive they made the west look in the film. Bright sunny skies, and each time they showed the west in a scene they had some sort of joyful tune playing as if it were an advertisement to "come out to the west," to "start a new life" and "be happy." I couldn't help but get that adverising feel when scenes such as these came up. I think if I was living during that time period it would look very appealing to me. Even the saloons, each and every saloon packed full of people drinking, singing, having a jolly good time, I mean, hell yeah I'd want to be there.