Forrest Gump the movie.
What a long, strange trip it's been" has been used to describe the 1950's through the 1970's, the period of time covered by Forrest Gump. It's an apt description of the movie, as well. Rambling and eccentric, it perhaps tries to cover too much ground. But Hanks' wonderful performance holds everything together and makes it into a rewarding entertainment. Forrest (Hanks) grows up in Alabama with an IQ of 75 (just below normal on the school chart) and a Mama (Sally Field) determined that he not consider himself "stupid." As the 20th century progresses and things get stranger and stranger, Forrest, more or less accidentally, becomes an All-American football player, a infantryman sent to Vietnam, and a world-class ping-pong player. Along the way, he meets several Presidents, Black Panthers, embittered veterans, etc., all the while keeping both his basically sunny outlook on life and his childhood attachment to Jenny (Wright). Some of the encounters are just plain silly (like young Forrest meeting a not-yet famous Elvis). But most of them are both technically amazing (as Kennedy, Nixon and others appear convincingly to speak to Forrest) and quite witty (he shows LBJ the scar from his war wound, for example). For most of the movie, Forrest is telling his story to skeptical, yet fascinated, fellow travelers waiting at a Savannah, Georgia, bus stop. His matter-of-fact way of
How does 'Notting Hill' conform to the typical conventions of the romantic comedy genre?
How does 'Notting Hill' conform to the typical conventions of the romantic comedy genre? Viewers approach the film 'Notting Hill' with many expectations. It stars Hugh Grant as a shy London bookseller called William Thacker who has never had much luck with women and Julia Roberts as Anna Scott, a major Hollywood star. Both Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts are well-known for their starring roles in romantic comedies and so viewers will have certain expectations after having seen their previous films and will measure 'Notting Hill' against other films of the romantic comedy genre, including those starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. 'Notting Hill' is written by Richard Curtis, whose fame is largely based on his successes in the romantic comedy genre. Other major films that he is renowned for include 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' (1994), 'Bridget Jones's Diary' (2001), 'Love Actually' (2003), and more recently, 'Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason' (2004). These films are all examples of successful romantic comedies, and interestingly, they all star Hugh Grant. 'Notting Hill' is not just a romantic comedy, but part of a group of films which portray British society to the rest of the world. These films are loved by viewers all over the world and so any film written by Richard Curtis, and starring Hugh Grant, will be compared to previous successes and will be met by many
The director I have chosen to look at is Quentin Tarantino. His films have achieved a cult ang global status and I dont think anyone is going to argue that he is not an auteur. I am more interested in examining his style
Presentation Script The director I have chosen to look at is Quentin Tarantino. His films have achieved a cult ang global status and I dont think anyone is going to argue that he is not an auteur. I am more interested in examining his style and seeing how this makes him an auteur and if it has changed when he was receiving a higher budget. Tarantino was born in Noxville Tennessee on 27th march 1963. Tony Tarantino, an actor and musician of Italian descent, and Connie McHugh of half-Irish and half-Cherokee, who shortly after his birth married musician Curt Zastoupil with whom Quentin would form a strong bond. He attended kindergarten in San Gabriel Valley from 1968. In 1971 the family moved to El Segundo, in the South Bay area of Los Angeles where Tarantino attended Hawthorne Christian School. At the age of 22, he wrote his first script, Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit. Dropping out of Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California at the age of sixteen, he went on to learn acting at the James Best Theatre Company. In 1984, Tarantino started working at the Hermosa Beach Video Archives in Manhattan where he struck up a friendship with fellow worker Roger Avary with whom he would later collabarate. He continued to study acting at Allen Garfield's Actors' Shelter in Beverly Hills but began to concentrate mainly on script writing.He loved westerns and his favourite was
Analysis of The Blair Witch.
The Blair Witch Project Conventions and Semiotics Essay The Blair Witch Project just as any other film needs to follow a strict set of codes and conventions in order for it to evoke the genre effectively. The Blair Witch Project follows horror conventions; this makes the film easily recognisable to the viewer as a horror film. Tzvetan Todorov, Roland Barthes, Claude Levi Strauss and other theorist's theories can be easily located throughout. Conventions help the viewer to realise the genre of the text they are watching/reading, within a very short amount of time. According to Sigmund Freud we watch Horror films because the exposure to violence fulfils our primeval urges. Humans are naturally aggressive so we watch horror films to gratify our ID (inner desire, natural instinct to kill). Whether we watch them sub-consciously to satisfy our ID or consciously, the reason we watch them is to expose ourselves to violence legally and maybe even morally. Tzvetan Todorovs 'five stages of equilibrium' theory is a pre-made base to every film we see, it helps to give the film structure and organisation. The five stages of equilibrium in the Blair Witch Project are: . EQUILIBRIUM - When the group of students making the documentary are preparing for their trip, collecting everyone for the trip, introducing everyone, the journey there, asking locals about their knowledge of the legend
The movie watched was Danton, which was released in color in 1983 and was directed by Andrzej Wajda. Grard Depardieu plays Danton while Wojciech Pszoniak plays Robespierre, the two main characters.
Jassi Sikand Mr. Tustin AP European History - 3 3 October 2010 Danton Movie Review The movie watched was Danton, which was released in color in 1983 and was directed by Andrzej Wajda. Gérard Depardieu plays Danton while Wojciech Pszoniak plays Robespierre, the two main characters. Danton was watched in Mr. Tustin's room on Movie Night. It was based on L'Affaire Danton by Stanislawa Przybyszewska which was based on real historical events. In Paris, the Revolution's leaders, with the backing of the angry mobs, set policies that the rest of the country, left to their own devices, would probably have disowned, at least initially. The course of the Revolution was shaped by a small group of extraordinary men, all young, who started out as idealists, then became comrades and close friends, godfathers to one another's children. The movie starts in November of 1793, with Danton returning to Paris from his country retreat upon learning that the Committee for Public Safety, under Robespierre's incitement, has begun a series of massive executions, The Terror. Confident in the peoples' support, Danton clashes with his former ally, but calculating Robespierre soon rounds up Danton and his followers, tries them before a revolutionary tribunal and sends them to the guillotine. Not surprisingly, Robespierre is sent to the guillotine not three months after Danton. All of the major
How does the director deal with Maximus' call to adventure in Gladiator?
How does the director deal with Maximus' call to adventure in Gladiator? Maximus' call to adventure begins with a scene of himself walking through what is the roman army's camp in Germania on his way to meet with the emperor. The first impression we are given is visually the long line of tents spanning for acres with many rows. This immediately helps us assess the size and organization of the army from which we already have knowledge from the first battle just previous. The weather here plays a key point- it is cloudy, dark and there is a light snow falling giving very much the sensation of it being cold. Although the snow is light and not thick it appears to give a certain "clean feeling" almost of purity symbolizing the destruction of the heathen hordes in previous scenes. As soon as we see Maximus we initially regard his clothing as minimal as he is simply wearing a short sleeve shirt and a kind of skirt. Already the director has told us it is cold by effective use of weather and lighting therefore we recognize Maximus is very much unconcerned with the cold and already we are given a tough guy image to contemplate. Although this scene is short and last perhaps 30 seconds the director has crammed so many images and connotations for the viewer to pick up on about our hero. After we first see Maximus he then greets three men sitting together and as they stand to show
Chinatown - movie review
Chinatown When I began watching the film Chinatown, I failed to see why the title was relevant. Usually when I watch a film the first things I look for are well done, accurate cinematography, intricacy of plot, and the reason for the title. The last thing I was able to figure out about this movie, including where the plot was headed, was the reason for the title. The first mention of Chinatown was when Mr. Jake Giddes is asks the lieutenant how Chinatown is doing. The lieutenant quickly informs Jake that he is now a lieutenant and no longer works in Chinatown. This seems like an unimportant conversation. I realized that the title of the movie is where Mr. Jake began his career. Simply that Jake used to work in Chinatown with someone in the movie seemed too simple a reason to name the film such. The second mention of Chinatown was when Jake is speaking to Mr. Cross. Cross said, "you may think you know what you're dealing with here but believe me you don't." Jake laughs, and when asked why he laughed he replies, "It's what the district attorney used to tell me in Chinatown." Again, another seemingly unimportant reference to Chinatown and a very simplistic reason for naming the movie such. By this time a recurrent theme was becoming noticeable. The theme seemed to be insignificant mentioning of Chinatown. Another mention of Chinatown was in the Mulwray mansion during a
Comparing Tim Blake Nelson's Version of Othello to That of Geoffrey Sax
Along with Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, Othello is one of Shakespeare's four greatest tragedies and consequently a pillar of what most critics take to be the pinnacle of Shakespeare's dramatic art. The Bard's controversial play has been remade for television and the silver screen quite a few times, with many different adaptations. In more recent years, many filmmakers have re-contextualized his works, into a number of more modern settings, in an attempt to make his work more accessible to contemporary audiences. Perhaps the most talked about adaptations are those by directors Tim Blake Nelson and Geoffrey Sax, who have each produced their own renditions of the play, which reflect their interpretations of the play's central themes, the driving force of the plot. Despite obvious drawbacks in both modernized versions, Tim Blake Nelson's adaptation seems to be more successful in depicting Shakespeare's tragedy. The following paper will analyze both films, comparing and contrasting the two productions, describe in detail the creative decisions made by both directors to modernize the play, and conclude with why Tim Blake Nelson's "O" triumphs as the better interpretation of the Bard's Othello, the Moor of Venice. Each of these contemporary versions, involve very different characters, plots and settings, yet maintain the central themes of the Bard's play. "O" is a retelling of
How Genre and Narrative are represented in the Opening sequence of the film Blade Runner.
Adam Goldsmith AS Film Studies Macro Study, How Genre and Narrative are represented in the Opening sequence of the film Blade Runner. For this essay question I am going to be viewing and exploring the themes of genre and narrative in the first 10minutes of the film Blade Runner. Blade Runner was first released in 1982, directed by Ridley Scott ('The Duellists' 1977 and 'Alien' 1979), Blade Runner was a film adaptation of Phillip K Dick's novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'. Originally a box office flop the film soon built itself a cult following. Its status as a significant science fiction film was further enhanced by the re-release of Blade Runner - The Director's cut in 1992 which omitted the voice-over and, more significantly, featured a substantial change to the original 'happy' ending. I will be analysing a section of approximately 10 minutes in length from the point where we first encounter Deckard (Harrison Ford) in the downtown area of Los Angeles to the end of the scene in the police station. Blade Runner falls into the category of Science Fiction as in terms of genre, genre is the French word which translates literally as 'type'. Films of a specific genre follow and utilise similar elements such as character types, settings, etc. These are known as conventions of the genre. Science fiction has been popular since the early days of cinema when George
Film Studies - the aim of my presentation today is to establish how women are represented in slasher films by studying A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and Psycho.
Katie Rattigan Small Scale Research Project Representations of women in the ‘slasher’ movie Presenter: Welcome, the aim of my presentation today is to establish how women are represented in ‘slasher’ films by studying A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and Psycho. Firstly, we must recognize the definition of a ‘slasher’ movie. A slasher film is a subgenre of horror film, and at times thriller, typically involving a mysterious psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims usually in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe. – Item 1 Presenter: Typically in ‘slasher’ films, women are often the victims, and are stereotyped as subordinate and often fearful. This stereotyping of women in ‘slasher’ films has ensured that audiences now expect women to be helpless and vulnerable, and of course the victims. This has been criticised by feminists and although most women are portrayed as the victims, in terms of Propp’s character types, women can sometimes be displayed as the hero. “Girls and female adolescents [in horror films] who are witnessed displaying fearfulness and protective need in the face of terror on the screen are more favorably evaluated by male and female peers and non-peers than their counterparts who are witnessed displaying no distress” – page 87 Item 2 Play “A Nightmare on
